Psychology – CBT/DBT/Schema Therapy
I am a chartered Counselling Psychologist with over 15 years of clinical experience in the NHS and third-sector providers. This includes working with clinical diagnoses such as anxiety- and panic-disorders, phobias, OCD, depression, addictions, eating disorders, ADHD and Autism. The treatment consists of government-recommended, evidence-based interventions based on Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and Schema Therapy, based on NICE Guidelines for clinical excellence. Treatment can include medication and collaboration with a psychiatrist (here).
This can be a good starting point if you suffer from something acutely and want an effective, behaviour-based intervention to improve coping and functioning. This can be a stand-alone intervention, or lead to longer-term work afterwards, below.
Psychotherapy – working into depth
I am also a qualified Integrative psychotherapist, registered with the UKCP. I am trained in humanistic and existential approaches but specialise in psychodynamic and -analytic work.
Psychotherapy takes a deeper, more comprehensive approach to understanding psychological problems. It examines how a person has been influenced by their early relationships and socio-cultural situation and how this contributes to presenting psychological distress. It draws on developmental psychology, attachment theory, family systems and intergenerational transmission of trauma and seeks to understand previously learned emotional and relational patterns, for example insecure attachment. The aim of therapy is to understand the complexity of how we function and work through past pain to then develop new and healthier ways of relating to ourselves and others.
This work is usually longer-term with weekly or twice-weekly sessions. It is suitable for a wide range of issues from anxiety and depression to relationship problems, processing separation or loss, low self-esteem, career problems or parenting difficulties and it can also helpfully contribute to the clinical presentations listed under psychology (eating disorders, addictions, etc).
More information here.
Some areas I frequently work with:
Eating Disorders
Related to work with addictions, I also have long-standing experience with eating disorders, including Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa, Binge-Eating and Over-Eating, as well as patients managing weight-loss organically or with medical help. Here also I adopt a practical, integrative approach, combining working on behavioural change with deeper, relational exploration. From a psychodynamic perspective, problems with food and eating can be an attempt to compensate for lack or conflict in the emotional/relational domain - as is illustrated in phrases like ‘comfort eating’, ‘biting off more that you can chew’ or being ‘spitting mad’. Psychodynamic therapy works to understand the meaning behind the eating problems and resolve them emotionally and relationally.
Resources: CBT-E for Eating Disorders; Jean Petrucelli - Hunger and Compulsions
Parenting
Psychodynamic therapy is based on research in developmental psychology and attachment theory, and a large body of research on what children need in their early years to develop well. When working with adults who are parents, our therapeutic work then frequently covers questions of parenting, and how they can use their insights about their own experience as children productively as parents.
Resources: Anna Freud Centre, Attachment theory video
Career Problems
These can be about a lack of vision or focus, conflicting motivation, feeling stuck, self-sabotaging one’s goals, lack of progression, ‘imposter syndrome’ and burnout. They can be related to the above relationship-themes such as insecurity, problems with boundaries, assertiveness or managing conflict, or to deeper, more unconscious patterns that therapy can help uncover and change.
Relationship Problems
Problems often centre around insecure attachment and anxiety in relationships, a lack of satisfying relationships, questions around identity and who to connect with, themes of separation or loss such as divorce or bereavement, relational conflicts, problems with setting boundaries (‘people pleasing’), assertiveness, low self-esteem, repeated relational patterns that are difficult to break, or the experience of destructive and traumatic relationships. Psychotherapy works to make these patterns conscious and then helps to actively change them so better, healthier relationships can be formed.
More information here.
Addictions
I have extensive experience working with addictions, both focusing on immediate behaviour change and longer-term, deeper emotional resolution. It includes motivation building, support with systematic behavioural change such as achieving and maintaining reduction or abstinence as well as examining the underlying problems and causes of addiction, such as insecure attachment.
More information here.
Women
Another area of long-standing interest for me is women’s work - everything from finding one’s identity to relationship satisfaction, family planning, motherhood, menopause, eating disorders, weight management, and the impact of hormones on our mental health and functioning. Working together with Rapid Access Gynaecology and specialist therapists on female hormones and mental health. Including psychodynamic and -analytic perspectives, the unconscious, intergenerational patterns and trauma in family systems, and socio-cultural issues.
More information here.