FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is psychotherapy?
There are many hotly contested replies to this question but for me the heart of psychotherapy is this: helping individuals to understand what is making them unhappy and working with them to support them in making helpful changes in their lives. Psychotherapy is especially valuable when you can't quite work out what it is that keeps going wrong, or when you feel at the end of your tether and as if no-one can help you.
What kind of psychotherapy do you offer?
My background and training is eclectic and extensive so I like to think I can offer many different models of psychotherapy. If you are interested in a particular approach, please ask me. In general, the core of my work sits in the relationship we will have - which is a transformative and healing therapeutic relationship - alongside a huge array of strategies, techniques, knowledge and experience that I have built up over the years.
Do I need psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy is primarily about helping us to feel better and more effective in our lives. It might suit you if you feel unsure about what you need to do; or if you have tried many, many times to make changes but have failed; or if you feel 'stuck'; or if you see yourself repeating patterns over and over again. Psychotherapy can also help if you have been diagnosed with a mental illness and what to do more than take medication. When you come for your first consultation we will talk about how psychotherapy can help you in detail and I will not offer to work with you unless I think I can help.
How will I know if therapy is working?
The aim is to help you feel better about yourself and your life. Sometimes therapy can be painful - we might need to think about difficult experiences, say, in order to understand how we are thinking and feeling and acting in the here and now; but we do this reflective work in order to bring about change. If the process stops feeling helpful then something is wrong. I believe passionately that psychotherapy should never be unhelpful and I monitor this with you on an ongoing basis.
How is working with children different?
Children, and many adolescents, are not as verbal/language-based as adults and will struggle to get benefits from sitting quietly for 50 minutes talking about things. I hold a specialist child and adolescent qualification and work in a number of different ways to engage with your child and develop strategies for helping them.