Therapy is a collaborative effort between you and a therapist to understand your suffering, whatever it is, and find skillful ways of managing it so that you can feel more freed up. The space of therapy is open to all aspects of our experience as human beings and therapy can help you make sense of these experiences and put in place workable solutions. Having the understanding of why and how we behave can enable us to make decisions and modify our behaviour so that we act in our best interest rather than habitually.
Why Therapy?
Psychotherapy, with a therapist that is right for you, can guide you to feel authentically engaged in your life and enhance creativity, aliveness and connections with other people. Individual and group therapy or skills groups can each provide the space to think about yourself and your life in new ways, gain fresh perspectives on old and more recent difficulties and learn new skills and more effective ways of approaching and coping with them. Each of our therapists will be committed to working with you to help you become aware of what holds you back from living your life to the fullest and to manage obstacles more effectively.
How it Starts
When you walk into the counselling room for the first time we are aware of how anxious you may feel and what a huge step it may be for you. You will receive a warm and friendly welcome and we will do our best to help you feel comfortable and heard. Therapy will begin with an initial meeting, which lasts 50 minutes, to explore your needs and expectations. The purpose of the initial assessment is to formulate your difficulties and recommend a therapy plan. It’s an opportunity for you to see if you relate to the therapeutic models we offer. We will ask you specific questions about various aspects of your personality and functioning to determine whether our service can meet your needs. To start this process please contact us and indicate which therapist you would like to see.
Areas of Expertise
We work with people who want to cope better with difficulties such as abuse, anxiety, childhood experiences, depression and low mood, dissociation, eating difficulties, impulsivity, panic attacks, personality “disorders”, relationship and family difficulties, self-harm, stress, substance abuse and trauma. These are just some of the areas in which we work, or have worked with, but is not an exhaustive list. We have specialist skills in delivering evidence-based psychological therapies recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for individuals whose difficulties get described as “borderline personality disorder”, also known as “emotionally unstable or emotion regulation disorder” in the medical world, and Post-Traumatic Stress and in delivering Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) to clients with a history of repeated bouts of depression.
Our Philosophy
We believe in treating our clients as individuals rather than just their condition, diagnosis or difficulty. Our primary aim is to provide a trusting relationship through which you will be able to develop new perspectives on difficult or problematic personal issues. We will be committed to working with you and supporting you whichever diverse background you are from and will respect your individuality at all times. This includes respect for your race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, culture, spiritual beliefs and lifestyle choices. We have worked effectively with clients from the UK, Europe and all other continents and are committed to continually increasing our anti-racist competencies.