Individual Therapy
Specialties
Anxiety
Depression
Grief & Loss
Relationships
Intimacy
Self-esteem
Trauma & PTSD
Parenting issues
Personal growth / greater emotional awareness
Life transitions & change
Occupational burnout & stress
What brings people to psychotherapy?
People seek counselling and psychotherapy for many reasons.
It may be a relationship or emotional crisis that prompts someone to seek professional help. On the other hand, it may be that for some time a person has had a sense of something not being quite right within themselves or their life situation. Sometimes, we don’t even know what’s bothering us – we just know we don’t feel right. What they have in common is that they are experiencing psychological and emotional pain. Quite often, pain or suffering is an indication that we have strayed away from what is most precious to us.
How can psychotherapy help?
While psychotherapy certainly concerns itself with the present, it is also based on the concept that current perceptions, feelings and interpersonal relations are affected by past experience and relationships in our early life.
The more we understand about the driving forces, that is, the wishes and conflicts behind our thoughts, feelings and behaviours, the more comfortable we are with ourselves and others and the more control we have over our lives. Since many of our motivations are not in our conscious awareness – learning about them requires the help of a trained, objective observer.
Psychotherapy is not only a therapeutic treatment aimed at alleviation of personal suffering and emotional distress, it can help improve your confidence and your self-awareness, also promoting the development of a new network of meanings and perspectives in life. It also offers people a unique opportunity to get to know who they are in the world, where everything can seem uncertain.
It is a space to explore those aspects of ourselves and the mind which we usually push aside and filter out in our everyday lives, but which, if given a central focus, can be seen to influence our moods and thinking, our stance in the world and our relationships with others.
The therapeutic experience may also include helping people to feel more alive and connected in one’s mind and body.
What to expect in the initial consultation?
The first step is to make an initial consultation, which happens over 2 to 4 sessions. This is so together we have enough time to explore in detail your difficulties and what they might be related to. In these first sessions I will ask you some questions to clarify and get a better sense of what you are bringing, as well as share some of my thoughts with you.
In sum, the initial consultation stage is an opportunity for us to meet and have time to think about the issues you want help with and your expectations, also looking into ways in which psychotherapy can help you.
If we both feel we can work together, a regular time will be arranged to meet, usually on a weekly basis. As we carry on with the sessions you will gradually be more able to understand the roots of your difficulties and to rethink the issues that may be holding you back so you can better accept yourself and move on in the different areas of your life.
Every aspect of the work is strictly confidential.