Psychological Therapy
I always strive to bring compassion and curiosity to any work I do, whoever I work with.
My collaborative approach means that I work openly and creatively with you to achieve your goals.
My approach is friendly and down to earth and I hope to put you at ease quickly to ensure you feel able to be yourself and share your feelings and thoughts openly.
What would the sessions look like?
Typically we would have sessions weekly, to build a consistent space that can foster change.
Sessions typically last for 50 minutes each. This can be reviewed and adapted to suit individual needs in relation to physical comfort and individual preferences if you require a shorter session.
Standard 50 minute sessions are charged at £110.
Initially, it may be helpful to book a free 20 minute consultation call with me, to speak about what psychological therapy is and isn't, and what it may be able to offer you. We will briefly discuss your needs and whether I may be the right fit for what you are looking for. If I do not feel I am able to offer what you need, then I may be able to redirect you to alternative support which we can discuss together.
If you decide you would like to go ahead with psychological therapy with me, then we will book in a session for a day and time slot that works for you and I will send you a link to join online.
How does psychological therapy work?
We would usually spend the first couple of sessions talking through what has brought you to therapy.
I will ask you questions about your difficulties, your life and potentially we will explore your early experiences and your relationships if this feels relevant and helpful.
We will think together about your hopes and expectations for therapy and what we will focus upon in our sessions together.
We may only need to work together for a short period of sessions for you to gain a deeper understanding of your experiences and how they are impacting on your life. However, it may be useful to work together for a longer period of time to work through sensitive experiences, gain greater awareness and introduce alternative perspectives and strategies to navigate your past, present and future.
We will review how you are finding the sessions on an ongoing basis. It is important to be open and honest about how you are finding your sessions in order to try and best tailor treatment to you and ensure they are feeling helpful.
Psychological Interventions
Through my extensive experience of working as a Clinical Psychologist for the NHS, I am able to work in an integrative way, bringing aspects of different therapies into our work, depending on what you feel you need and what helps you make sense of your difficulties.
I can work using elements from the therapies below, depending on which combination is the most helpful for you:
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
CBT explores how your thoughts, feelings and behaviour connect together and can become caught up in unhelpful and negative cycles.
We can build awareness of these cycles together and look at how you might want to make changes to break unhelpful cycles and create positive cycles.
Compassion Focused Therapy
CFT can be used to introduce ways of bringing and allowing more compassion into your life and understand what barriers may be blocking this for you.
This approach can be a really helpful, gentle approach for individuals who have experienced high levels of criticism, low self esteem and trauma.
Cognitive Analytic Therapy
A CAT informed approach looks at how your early relationships may have led you to develop different survival strategies, that may have served a necessary purpose, but could also be leaving you feeling stuck or unhappy within yourself or in relationships with others in the present.
Together, we can build your awareness of how these early strategies developed, what kind of patterns you may get caught up in and work towards an understanding of how they affect your day-to-day life. We can look to create other ways of coping and being, that support you to thrive.
Solution Focused Therapy
SFT focuses on recognising and utilising your strengths that have successfully taken you this far through life. I will support you in actively noticing the ways you already solve your own difficulties. I will encourage you to embrace an outlook that brings what you are hoping for back into your view point.
An intergrative, person centred approach
I often use aspects of these different therapies together within sessions as I really believe the most helpful work comes from building a strong connection and a shared safe space that you feel comfortable in, whatever approaches or therapy styles we decide to work with.
What happens if I need immediate help?
Unfortunately I am not able to provide any out-of-hours or emergency cover.
If you find yourself in an urgent situation, please do not wait for a return call from your therapist if you feel you may need urgent support from another service.
If you find yourself starting to feel hopeless, find that you are taking risks or harming yourself (such as drinking excessively, taking too many prescribed medications, taking illegal substances, cutting yourself, behaving recklessly etc) or start to think about ending your life then please seek help from your GP or specialist practitioner as soon as possible.
If it is outside normal working hours and you need urgent medical help and advice and it is not a life threatening situation you can consider dialing 111.
If you or someone with you requires immediate medical attention you can attend your local Accident and Emergency department or dial 112 or 999.
If you need support, you may also find the Samaritans (116 123, 24hours) or SANELine (0300 304 7000, 6pm-11pm) helpful.
If you live in Kent or Medway and find yourself in urgent need of help, the KMMH website 'where do I go in a crisis' page and the KCC website 'get mental health help now' page provide a summary of available free of charge services, who they may be appropriate for and how to get in touch.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, the Staying Safe website is designed to offer hope, compassion and practical ideas to help including making a safety plan Home | Staying Safe