My Approach
I use an integrated humanistic approach to my psychotherapeutic work
This incorporates Rogerian client-centred therapy with Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) which is a third-wave CBT approach. I am also trained in Motivational Interviewing, which is particularly helpful for clients who want or need to make behavioural changes.
I have considerable experience of working with trauma, whether this results from a major life event, a long-term condition such as Acquired Brain Injury and stroke or from more complex childhood traumas. My trauma work combines EMDR with ACT and draws extensively on embodied mindfulness as a way of processing traumatic memories. It is informed by the writings of Babette Rothschild and Bessel Van Der Kolk.
Yoga has always played a key role in my life and being aware of the mind-body relationship is embedded in all my psychotherapeutic work.
As a musician I like to be creative and approach my work with openness and curiosity. At the same time, I believe that structure is vital, but I also feel that it’s important that the client and I are working together with a clear idea of the aim(s) of the therapeutic work. I offer time-limited counselling and longer-term psychotherapy.
Person-Centred Therapy
Person-Centred therapy is a humanistic approach developed by Carl Rogers in the 1950s. One of the foundational ideas of Rogers’ approach is that all human beings have an innate and organic capacity for growth.
In the same way that plants grow towards sunlight, or an acorn becomes an oak tree, it is in the nature of human beings to grow towards our highest potential. However, just as plants need certain physical conditions (sunlight, water, soil, etc) to grow, Rogers argued that human beings need certain psychological conditions to develop fully.
Person-centred psychotherapy is built on the belief that providing the right relationship is critical to helping people make changes in their lives. In other words, it is not the therapist that changes the person, nor the person that changes themselves, it is the relationship between the two individuals that allows change to occur.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a safe and effective way of healing past issues causing problems in the present. You don’t necessarily have to disclose what happened and you stay in control of the process at all times. I have completed specialist training in using EMDR to heal relational trauma and I have found it to be profoundly moving and effective.
EMDR is a NICE-recommended treatment that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. But if a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing can resume. EMDR therapy works in a similar way; The brain’s information processing system naturally moves towards mental health, but if the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing can resume.
EMDR involves using side-to-side eye movements or alternate pulsars or hand taps, combined with talking therapy in a specific and structured format. It helps you process the negative images, emotions, beliefs and body sensations associated with traumatic memories that seem to be stuck and helps you to see things from a different perspective.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies, together with commitment and behaviour change, to increase psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility means contacting the present moment fully as a conscious human being, and based on what the situation affords, changing or continuing with behaviour that fits with your chosen values.
ACT is an action-oriented approach which stems from traditional behaviour therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy. You can learn how to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with your inner emotions and, instead, accept that many of these deeper feelings and habits of thought are appropriate responses to certain situations – and that this should not prevent you from moving forward in your life.
Motivational Interviewing (MI)
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication with particular attention to the language of change. It is designed to strengthen personal motivation for and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the person’s own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion.
(Miller & Rollnick, 2013)
- MI is a guiding style of communication, that sits between following (good listening) and directing (giving information and advice).
- MI is designed to empower people to change by drawing out their own meaning, importance and capacity for change.
- Motivational Interviewing is based on a respectful and curious way of being with people that facilitates the natural process of change and honours client autonomy, in which the clinician and client are equal partners.