Individual therapy sessions are based on the psychological therapy approaches outlined below. At our initial assessment meeting, we will discuss together the main difficulties that you are seeking help with and agree a treatment plan that best suits your needs.
Individual therapy can be provided face-to-face or online via video chat.
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)
CBT is a treatment recommended for most psychological problems. It involves working together to understand the ways in which your thoughts, feelings, behaviour and physical body are related and interact with one another and with your environment. When we feel low or anxious, this often affects our physical body (e.g tension in the muscles, reduced concentration, poor sleep), our behaviour (e.g avoiding activities, procrastinating, overcompensating) and our thoughts (e.g. imagining the worst case scenario, ruminating on perceived failings).
By exploring the connection between these four areas and your environment, we can begin to better understand the symptoms you are experiencing. This provides us with options for making changes and applying practical techniques that aim to reduce the distress or difficulty that you are experiencing.
CBT is a practical therapy in which you will be invited to try out ideas. These practical steps aim to give you more insight into your experience and to experiment with new approaches to managing your problem.
Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)
CFT is particularly helpful in working with self-criticism, shame and feelings of low self-esteem. The therapy draws on an understanding of human evolution and biology to make sense of how our ‘tricky’ mind has evolved to experience worry, self-criticism, anxiety and depression.
A key component of the therapy is to develop and practice compassionate responses towards ourselves. Very often, we are able to feel and express compassion towards others, whilst being extremely harsh or critical towards ourselves, even for minor mishaps. CFT therapy explores how to practice compassion towards ourselves as a way of managing our inner critic.
Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT)
DIT is a brief psychodynamic intervention that aims to help us understand the connection between your symptoms and what is happening in your relationships. By exploring your relationships, we will work to identify a core pattern of relating that can often be traced back to your early experiences of relationships in childhood.
The therapy aims to bring awareness to this core pattern and to understand its operation in your life now. Illuminating this pattern provides opportunity for us to think together about changes you can make that would serve you better.