Psychotherapy

Why begin counselling and psychotherapy?

In today’s fast-paced world, many of us face challenges that can impact our mental health and well-being. I understand how overwhelming it can sometimes feel, from everyday stressors to significant life changes. I offer counselling and psychotherapy—to provide a safe and supportive space for you to explore your thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

So, why should you consider counselling and psychotherapy? Here are a few compelling reasons:

Addressing Mental Health Concerns: If you’re experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues, therapy can provide you with the tools and support needed to manage these challenges effectively.
Navigating Life Transitions: Whether you’re going through a divorce, adjusting to parenthood, or facing career changes, therapy can help you navigate these transitions with greater ease and resilience.
Improving Relationships: Therapy isn’t just for individuals—it can also benefit couples and families. By addressing communication issues, resolving conflicts, and building stronger connections, therapy can help cultivate healthier and more fulfilling relationships.
Promoting Self-Discovery: Therapy offers a unique opportunity for self-reflection and personal growth. Through introspection and exploration, I can help you better understand yourself, your values, and your goals, leading to greater self-awareness and fulfilment.
Developing Coping Strategies: Life is full of ups and downs, and therapy can equip you with practical coping strategies to deal with stress, adversity, and uncertainty. From relaxation techniques to problem-solving skills, therapy provides a toolkit for managing life’s challenges more effectively.
Breaking Unhealthy Patterns: If you find yourself stuck in repetitive patterns of behaviour or thought holding you back, therapy can help you identify and challenge these patterns, paving the way for positive change and growth.

“Exploring the Depths: The Transformative Journey of Psychotherapy”

There may also be no specificity, but a general sense of sadness or unease, or of feeling confronted by daunting life questions such as who you are, what you want. Psychotherapy will not provide structured answers or prescriptive solutions to your difficulties. It can’t, since it takes individuals on a case-by-case basis, where each person’s predicament is considered to be relevant to their own history in unique and meaningful ways. It will instead provide a space to talk, to relate to another person who will listen, carefully and without judgement.

Through this process, it seeks to aid you to listen to yourself from new and productive angles. Developing a sense of curiosity about the problems that motivate you to seek therapy is therefore an important aspect of the work. What is really happening? Where does it come from? Can things change? Thinking through these questions can be challenging, but can ultimately open the door to long lasting change.

Initial steps

Step 1: Schedule an Initial Consultation

The initial consultation, the first step in your therapy journey, is of utmost importance. It’s a session designed to prioritise your comfort and understanding, ensuring you feel safe and heard in the therapeutic environment. If we decide to proceed, I will ask you to complete and return an intake form before our first session. This form is a valuable tool that will help me better understand your background and current concerns, allowing us to tailor the therapy to your unique needs.

Step 2: Undergo the Initial Assessment

The initial assessment is a comprehensive process that delves into your personal history, experiences, and current struggles. This thorough exploration, which may take one or two meetings to complete, is designed to provide a deep understanding of your inner world and the unconscious influences affecting your life. Through these sessions, we will not only identify key issues, emotional struggles, and areas where you seek change and growth, but also pave the way for transformative insights and personal growth, setting the stage for a truly transformative therapy journey.

Step 3: Agreeing on the Details

After the initial assessment, we will agree on a set time, day, and number of sessions and the date when we will begin our regular therapy meetings. This structured approach is not just about scheduling, but about ensuring that your therapy process is consistent and tailored to your unique needs and goals, fostering a sense of commitment and progress.

By following these steps, you can establish a solid foundation for your therapy journey. Choosing the right therapist, setting clear expectations such as regular attendance, open communication, commitment to the process, and undergoing a thorough initial assessment will help ensure the therapy is tailored to your unique needs and goals. This approach will make your path toward greater self-awareness and personal growth a positive and transformative experience.

What is Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy?

Psychodynamic Counselling and and psychotherapy is an evidence based form of treatment which can effectively treat emotional problems and a wide range of mental health conditions and can contribute significantly to a person’s mental and physical health, to their sense of well-being and to their ability to live a more fulfilling life.

I specialise in the psychodynamic approach to therapy. This approach explores the unconscious mind and its influence on behaviour, thoughts, and emotions. By delving into past experiences and relationships, we can uncover underlying patterns and gain insight into your current struggles. I work with you through a collaborative and empathetic process to promote healing, self-discovery, and personal growth.

Ultimately, counselling and psychotherapy offer a supportive and empowering space for you to explore, heal, and grow. Whether you’re struggling with mental health issues, facing life transitions, or simply seeking greater self-awareness, therapy can provide you with the guidance and support needed to thrive.

Take the first step towards a happier, healthier you – explore the benefits of counselling and psychotherapy today!

FAQS

Psychodynamic Counselling and psychotherapy find their origins in Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis started with the discoveries of Sigmund Freud a century ago, but its methods have changed and developed a great deal since then. It has the most developed theoretical base of all talking therapies and has significantly influenced other therapeutic modalities. Psychodynamic counselling and psychotherapy can effectively treat emotional problems and a wide range of mental health conditions, such as depression, eating disorders and anxiety.

This kind of therapy addresses underlying issues and causes, often from your past, which may be concerning you or affecting your relationships with others. In your sessions, you will be encouraged to talk freely and to look deeper into your problems and worries. It differs from many other talking therapies in that it aims to help people make deep-seated changes in personality and emotional development, alongside relieving troubling symptoms. It can help you discuss feelings about yourself and others, particularly your family and those close to you.

Some people seek help for specific reasons, such as eating disorders, psycho-somatic conditions, compulsive behaviour, or phobic anxieties. Some seek help for underlying feelings of depression or anxiety, difficulties concentrating, dissatisfaction in work or marriage, or an inability to form satisfactory relationships. It may benefit anyone.

Psychotherapy takes place in a safe, confidential space. The initial session will typically be the initial assessment session, where we will discuss whether and how your treatment will proceed. We will discuss the frequency of sessions and the time and day we potentially agree to meet once we decide to begin psychotherapy.

The initial assessment and all consecutive sessions will last 50 minutes; this includes all individual and couples sessions.It is difficult to predict or know the total length of treatment through psychodynamic Counselling and psychotherapy. Because it is a therapeutic process, and the time it takes depends on the individual circumstances, it can vary from many months to several years.

Psychodynamic counselling and psychotherapy are an in-depth therapy that typically lasts much longer than cognitive behaviour and other short-term treatments.

Psychodynamic counselling and psychotherapy have a strong and expanding evidence base. Many studies show that short- and long-term psychotherapy is very effective for specific conditions.

Some of the key findings from the research show that:

Psychodynamic forms of treatment give impressive results, which even improve at long-term follow-up. This suggests that patients who receive psychodynamic treatments continue to benefit long after therapy has ended. Longer-term psychotherapy (one year’s treatment or more) is more effective than shorter forms of therapy for treating complex mental disorders. Psychodynamic psychotherapy has particularly promising findings concerning helping people with personality disorders.

A growing body of evidence suggests that psychodynamic psychotherapy is effective for many common mental disorders, including depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance-related disorders.