Whether you are experienced in counselling- psychotherapy or new to the process I like to provide you with as much information as possible about my practice. While there is uniformity on how psychologists are trained, especially at undergraduate level, clinicians will all have different ways of practicing their profession.
I believe that having knowledge about how the process of therapy works and why, can lead you to make a more informed decision as to the best approach for you, your time and financial investment.
Over the years I have found that people often prefer different approaches. The approach that best suits you is likely to depend on a range of factors. These include symptoms/diagnosis, personality and preferred way of learning amongst others. For this reason I have trained and gained experience in a wide variety of psychological approaches to assist individuals, couples, families achieve optimal mental health and well-being.
Some approaches, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, are more direct and structured. They are typically utilised with the most prevalent mental health concerns such depression, anxiety and panic attacks. These direct therapies focus first in the present moment and are likely to result in a quicker resolution of your symptoms. Progress is likely to be quicker when the experiences you are having are due to present circumstances, which may have exceeded the coping mechanisms that typically serve you well.
At other times when you have experienced trauma, neglect, or sustained adverse circumstances over many years, therapies with greater reconstructive depth and more sessions will be necessary. These include the learning of practices that bypass the programming of the rational mind leading to a greater integration of the mind, body and transpersonal aspects of the human being.
All sessions involve a mixture of assessment, the presentation of your concerns and my responses to your needs. These responses will include psycho-education and therapeutic interventions. Psycho-education is an important component. It involves the targeted communication of psychological knowledge that can assist you in gaining greater understanding of your emotional, thinking and behavioural experiences . Many therapeutic interventions aim to equip you with emotional, behavioural, cognitive and interpersonal skills to deal more effectively with life’s challenges.
Regardless of the therapeutic framework, my approach always has you at the centre of the process. As such, a non-judging client centred value provides the foundation for all other approaches.
If you need further information about my therapeutic practice, I will be pleased to explain further. Simply send me an email with your phone number and time availability and I will call you.
“Over the years I have found that people often prefer different approaches. The approach that best suits you is likely to depend on a range of factors.”
The proposition of CBT is that the way we think and behave will have a significant impact on our emotional and physical health. The way we think will either accentuate our suffering or increase our wellbeing. CBT is a very direct and practical form of psychotherapy. It begins by identifying maladaptive thoughts and behaviours.
Together we then implement a range of skills, tools and practices with the goal of correcting un-heplful thoughts, emotional reactions and behavioural patterns. Keeping the patterns that are efficient and changing those that cause you to feel anxious, depressed or generally miserable.
Through thinking and behavioural exercises both in the therapy room and as homework you will increase your psychological efficiency. The more effort you make to work the program, the quicker you gain psychologically skills and reduced your suffering.
I have been practicing and teaching meditation for the best part of 30 years. Mindfulness has been found to bring about various positive psychological effects, including increased subjective well-being, reduced psychological symptoms and emotional reactivity, and improved behavioural regulation. Developing mindfulness skills and establishing a mindfulness practice is arguably the best psychological gain a person can make.
Mindfulness meditation is the act of deliberately paying attention in a particular way. This particular way involves bringing your attention to the present moment without judging anything that you notice. Mindfulness can be understood as a way of being rather than a technique. Because of this attitude of not judging, and not responding to our observations the best way to describe mindfulness is as bare attention.
This process allows the senses to become freer to continue to observe with increasing curiosity and wonder. By bare attention we mean the clear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us, at the successive moments of perception. It is called “bare” because it attends to the unadorned, simple, raw facts of a perception without reacting to them in any way. Mindfulness training can be a part of a therapy program designed to fit your needs.
DBT is a skill based therapy that integrates cognitive behavioural interventions with mindfulness meditation and eastern philosophy.
It also blends components of Psychodynamic, client-centred, Gestalt, and strategic approaches. Ultimately a skills based therapy; DBT also uses skills training in distress tolerance aimed at acceptance and tolerance of psychological distress, rather than avoidance of negative experiences.
With an emphasis in reducing self-destructive and self-harming behaviours, DBT is unique in emphasising the fluid movement between acceptance and change. It assist with increasing your ability to accept and reduce your distress, develop mindfulness skills as well as learning interpersonal skills to improve the effectiveness of your communication.
DBT teaches us to recognise and reduce psychological conflicts found in opposite needs and wants. It does this by striking balance between seemingly opposites such as acceptance and change; self improvement and self acceptance; Independency and Dependency.
DBT was initially developed for the treatment of Borderine Personality Disorder. It has also showed to be effective with Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Substance Use disorders.
I have trained with Marsha Linehan, the creator of DBT, and have many years of experienced in training clients to achieve competency in all these skills.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is primarily a behavioural therapy in that assists clients to break free from rigid inflexible beliefs systems and behaviour patterns. I have found ACT to be a very effective therapy. I implemented ACT with many clients across al types of concerns. People find ACT to a respectful and hopeful way of working. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can assist you to embrace your thoughts and feelings rather than fighting or feeling guilty for them. The goal of ACT is not to reduce the frequency or severity of unpleasant internal experiences like upsetting negative automatic thoughts, emotions or urges. Rather, the goal is to reduce your struggle to control or eliminate these experiences while simultaneously increasing your involvement in meaningful life activities.
Schema-focused therapy emphasises identifying and changing maladaptive schemas and the associated ineffective coping strategies. Schemas include beliefs people have about themselves as well as emotional reactions and behaviours that they have in relationship to others. These that are the product of how their basic childhood needs were dealt with.
The therapy model is an integrative approach to treatment that combines the best aspects of cognitive-behavioral, experiential, interpersonal and psychoanalytic therapies into one unified therapeutic process.
Schema changes requires both cognitive and experiential work. Cognitive schema-change work employs experiential work including work with visual imagery, Gestalt techniques, creative work to symbolise positive experiences, limited re-parenting, and the healing experiences of a validating clinician.
The principle at the core of Short Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy is that the past has a strong influence on our psycho-emotional functioning in the present. This unique form of therapy treatment facilitates the rapid resolution of a broad spectrum of emotional disorders.
The therapy aims at resolving internal conflicts about feelings that were created in interactions with significant others during our developing years. These conflicts are at the centre of most psychologically-based disorders.
Short Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy focus on existing thoughts, feelings and memories and follow the thread which associates them to previous situations or relationships. A deeper understanding is gained through the analysis of the individual’s thoughts, feelings, dreams, images and memories. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy looks at and addresses how you are in your relationship with both yourself and others.
I have been helping clients afflicted by pain for many years. Chronic pain often has overwhelming effects on the sufferer and their family. Psychology can help increasing a person’s ability to cope better with the pain by managing their thoughts, feelings and behaviours more effectively. Understanding the biological basis of pain will help to deal with it better. Pain, depression, and anxiety travel through similar pathways along our nervous system and share many of the same biological mechanisms.
One of the areas in the brain that receives pain signals the limbic region shares many of the same messengers as the mood signals. My role includes the design, in collaboration with my clients, of comprehensive pain management programs based on biopsychosocial perspectives that address the biological basis of symptoms as well as the full range of social and psychological factors that are affecting the a client’s pain, distress, and disability. The aim of pain management is help clients deal better with the distress of the pain and assist clients to the point that the ability to embrace life again as full a life as possible, regardless of the limitations or restrictions imposed by pain and disability.
Here are some strategies included in my pain management programs: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): CBT can help you identify unhelpful, often irrational negative thoughts and beliefs and replace them with more accurate and helpful ones. This can be particularly useful for chronic pain sufferers, who may have developed ineffective negative thought patterns around their pain. Mindfulness exercises: Involves paying attention to pain in specific ways that results changing the way the brain reacts to pain sensations. This approach is particularly useful for people with chronic pain to manage their symptoms by learning how to accept and observe their pain without letting it control their lives. Relaxation Techniques: stress and tension often exacerbate pain by reducing stress using relaxation techniques such as diaphragm breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and guided imagery pain can be reduced. These techniques can also improve sleep and promote a sense of well-being. Hypnosis for pain management: works by inducing a state of deep relaxation, which reduce stress and anxiety, both of which can increase pain. Under hypnosis the I will provide suggestions to your subconscious mind that will help you better cope with pain. These are just a few of the many psychological strategies that I use to help people manage their pain.
Psychoeducation is an evidence-based psychotherapeutic intervention that combines psychotherapy and education. It is among the most effective of the evidence-based practices that have emerged in both clinical trials and clinical settings.
Psychoeducation involves assisting clients to understand various aspects of their psychological experience, including signs and symptoms, different outcomes, and prognosis.
It also helps to debunk misinformation or misconceptions about their condition and promote awareness regarding treatment. Psychoeducation incorporates both illness-specific information and tools for managing related circumstances.
