Individuals and couples contact me with a wide variety of issues they’d like to explore - either personal difficulties or regarding a relationship with a partner, a member of the family, friends or work colleagues. I’ve grouped the four main categories of problems people tend to focus on below:
Relationships: Issues with partners, children, parents siblings, friends, work colleagues; being a carer; blended families; adoption; gaining independence; children leaving home; ethnic/religious demands and bereavement are just some of the common topics that clients struggle with. Together, we’ll look for better ways to navigate these complex issues, and to connect and communicate better in your relationships.
Personal: Difficulties with anxiety, ADHD, addiction, eating disorders, self-harm, suicidal ideation, OCD, Autism, trauma and PTSD, Boarding School trauma, physical difficulties, depression, abuse, bullying, body image, phobias and much more can make life intolerable. We will look at how your past may have shaped these present feelings, thoughts and behaviours, and use practical skills like mindfulness and CBT to help you cope better and adapt to a healthier lifestyle.
Work: Struggling with a lack of self-confidence, motivation or purpose; imposter syndrome; difficulties negotiating for what you want or feel you deserve; feeling overlooked or under-appreciated; creative block; being bullied, abused or discriminated against and impending redundancy. These and a host of other issues can have a massive impact not only at work but in all other parts of your life and relationships. By getting to the route problem of your work issues, you will probably find other parts of your life improve too.
Men's issues. These are not exclusively ‘men’s problems’, but I find men tend to experience and respond to these sorts of difficulties differently to women. Anger and assertiveness, competitiveness, conflict, power and control, fatherhood, being a son/brother, caring for parents, sex, divorce, infertility and gender reassignment. Some men feel they can talk more openly and honestly to another man about these sorts of topics.
The above is not an exhaustive list, and you may not be able to define the issues you are struggling with. However, you probably have a sense that your life could be better, and you’d like some help achieving that.
I'll offer you a space to feel heard, understood and accepted. I'll help you become more aware of how your past experiences could be influencing the way you feel, think and behave in the present, as an individual or in your relationships, so you can decide what you'd like to change and how you'd like to approach your future. As we talk, I'll draw on a range of therapeutic approaches to help you find your way.
I'll invite you to put into words your most sensitive, vulnerable thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. This can be difficult, but we'll work together, so you can start to process, understand and find some meaning in your suffering. Then, as we explore, you'll begin to experience changes in the way you relate to yourself and to others.
There's a lot of jargon in all businesses and therapy is no exception, so if you have any questions about my theoretical approach or anything else, please feel FREE to ask me using the button at the bottom of this page. My approach is Relational, exploring how you relate to yourself and to others. I use a blend of traditional Psychodynamic and Humanistic techniques. Each session lasts 50 minutes and the number of sessions you attend can depend on many factors. Therapy can be long or short-term, face-to-face or online. I ocassionally offer 'walk and talk' therapy in the summer too.
You can waste a lot of time and money shopping around to find the right therapist for you. So I offer a FREE 20-minute phone consultation, for you to discover how I can help you and if I'm the right therapist for you. This can be followed by a 'non-committal' introductory session to experience what it's like working with me. This session gives us the chance to get to know each other a bit better. We can talk in more detail about your issues, what you'ld like from therapy, your concerns about it, the commitment you can give to it, possible regular weekly session times, location etc. and anything else that would help you decide your next step.
This ‘one-off’ introductory session would be charged at my usual rate and is without any further obligation on your part.
Ask for your FREE consultation by clicking the button below.