MY APPROACH
By training I am an Integrative Psychotherapist, I do not sit in silence nodding and giving “mmm-hmmm” responses.
To be integrative means throughout my years of training, I studied multiple modalities of therapy such as Psychodynamic, Existential, Person Centred, Relational, CBT and Gestalt. I have adopted the core aspects of each of these approaches that speak most to me and to who I am as a clinician. Combined they make up my integrated working approach.
My core element of my integrated approach is to allow for existential phenomenological exploration of how you as the client truly experience life and the emotional and internal/bodily responses you have; to be phenomenological means to dig down into rout cores and beliefs. By understanding who you are based on past and present life events and why you might experience the anxiety you do for example, we hope to allow for a greater understanding of self so you can make positive changes in line with who you are as a person.
Another core element of my approach is psychodynamic. Together we try to unpick any internal conflicts you might have internalised over life so to reduce any uncertainty you may unknowingly hold. Quite often we block out our true feelings due to feeling conflicted. Together we hope to bring the unconscious into the conscious.
Often, having explored and now better understanding our past self, we look to there every day here and now. Using a person centred approach, I will look to validate how you experience life and your feelings. This is not to say that we might also challenge how we are also. We will try to be kind to ourselves during times we can often be hard and critical to ourselves. Reflecting a CBT approach, we highlight existing coping strategies, be it whether they are constructive or unconstructive to us. During times of feeling stuck and lost, we look to think about what we can control and what we can change in order to shift our life towards a more desired direction.
To be relational means that I offer a human element within my integrated approach. Typically people see therapists as a silent figure who nods and “hmmms” every so often. In contrary to this, where needed, I am in the room with you. I facilitate exploration. I am open to reflecting to you how I reacted or am responding to what is being said. I do not self-disclose personal information, however where felt necessary and carefully executed, I can share personal experience.
QUALIFICATIONS
UKCP Registered: 2011174008 | MA-PGDIP
UK Council for Psychotherapy is the leading body for psychotherapist training. In order to achieve this registration I completed 4 post graduate years of training alongside stringent competences in clinical work and supervision.
BACP Registered Member: 394869
British Associate of Counselling and Psychotherapy is a leading body for all of psychotherapy as a whole.
For further info about the UKCP and BACP, please see the “About Psychotherapy” page.