Expertise
Here are some of the areas which we can work on and how I can support you as your therapist. Of course, there may be other reasons why you are seeking help, and I will be happy to discuss your specific situation and needs and how we can work together on helping you move forward in life.
Stress & Burnout
In modern society, stress is no longer an occasional response to immediate threats as it was for our predecessors. It has morphed into an ever-present condition that many people are all too familiar with.
The relentless demands of modern life with its fast-paced work environments, multiple family and social obligations and round-the-clock connectivity have transformed stress into our constant companion rather than a short-term response to a threatening situation.
Professionally, excessive workload, high levels of responsibility and a constant sense of urgency can contribute to chronic stress, which when prolonged, may lead to burnout. Unhealthy work-life balance, unrealistic expectations, and multiple family and carer demands amplify stress, making it difficult for people to keep up and leading to feelings of overwhelmingness and inability to cope.
For many people stress has become such an integral part of their life, that they do not often stop to think about reducing its levels and what to put in place to be able to make it through high stress periods.
Psychotherapy can be a valuable resource in times of high stress as it provides a supportive environment to slow down, understand the roots of stress and learn how to manage it.
Together we will be identifying and reframing stress-inducing thoughts, learning how to reduce overwhelming emotions, and developing effective coping strategies. I will support you in learning how to set healthy boundaries, prioritise self-care and build stress resilience.
Anxiety & Depression
If you often feel anxious or depressed (or both), you are certainly not alone – anxiety and depression are amongst the most common mental health challenges that people experience.
There can be lots of potential causes of anxiety and depression. People may be genetically predisposed, suffer from unresolved traumas, or live with ingrained negative thought patterns and low self-esteem. Externally, difficult life events and circumstances, financial challenges and interpersonal conflicts can all send a person down the route of suffering from anxiety and depression.
As your therapist, I will work with you on understanding and, wherever possible, addressing these causes of your emotional distress. I will offer you a supportive therapeutic environment where you will be able to express and process your feelings and gain insight into your emotions.
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I practice EMDR therapy which has been found to be effective in helping people manage anxiety, especially when it is linked to traumatic or difficult experiences.
Together we will work on enhancing your ability to manage your emotions and making changes to the thought and behavioural patterns which no longer serve you.
By addressing the roots of anxiety and depression, psychotherapy can not only bring relief from immediate concerns but also help to build resilience for any future challenges.
Key Relationships
Humans are inherently social creatures, relationships with others play a crucial role in our lives and contribute significantly to our emotional, psychological, and even physical well-being. Interpersonal connections create a sense of belonging, provide emotional support and allow us to feel seen, heard and understood. However, relationships can also present us with challenges, this could be due to differences in values and beliefs, complex dynamics, communication breakdowns and unmet expectations. Additionally, unresolved issues and traumatic experiences from childhood and the past may resurface and impact current connections.
Psychotherapy can be as a valuable resource for individuals grappling with relationship problems, offering a supportive space to explore and address interpersonal challenges. As your therapist, I will work with you to facilitate open communication, deepen understanding, and resolve conflicts within your important relationships. We will do this by working to gain insights into your communication patterns, attachment styles, and emotional dynamics, as well as on developing effective communication skills, learning to navigate differences, and establishing healthy boundaries.
I will aim to provide a neutral and safe environment where you can express your thoughts and feelings, and work on being as good of a partner, parent, friend, sibling or child as you can and want to be. Ultimately, the ability to maintain healthy relationships requires on-going self-awareness, empathy, effective communication skills, and a commitment to address challenges when they arise. Therapy can be the space where you can work on developing and practicing those skills.
Self Esteem
What we think of ourselves, other people and the world is shaped in our childhood by our families and environments we grew up in. However, something that was true for us in our early life, becomes obsolete and no longer serves us as adults. Together we will work on recognising your negative beliefs and gaining an understanding of where they came from and what keeps them alive.
As your therapist I will provide support and encouragement to help you develop important qualities of self-acceptance and self-compassion and build a more positive self-image worthy of who you are as a person. I will guide you to replace negative beliefs with new ones acknowledging your strengths, uniqueness and achievements. We will work to uncover what behaviour patterns result from your limiting self-beliefs and learn to experiment with new, more liberating behaviours.
If your negative self-beliefs are rooted in the challenges that you experienced when growing up (and they often are), I will use EMDR therapy method to help you process difficult memories, thus diminishing the power of your past over your present.
Work & Career Challenges
Work is so much more than just a way of earning a living so that our basic needs for food and shelter can be met. The work we do shapes our personal identity, gives us a sense of pride in the contributions we make, helps us develop and grow, and provides us with valuable social connections.
However, work can also be challenging when we work in pressurised environments, have very high demands placed on us, and have to navigate office politics. All of this can cause stress, anxiety and burnout. Professionally competent people can still be impacted by internal issues such as low confidence, difficulty forming relationships or lack of clarity about personal goals – all of which can become significant barriers. Balancing work with personal life, overcoming setbacks and adapting to change can also prove problematic to some people.
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In addition to my psychotherapy training and experience, I have 25 years of corporate experience, most of it spent in the Human Resources function, so I am well placed to help you with work related challenges and career goals.
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We will work together on addressing interpersonal dynamics at work and developing effective coping strategies for workplace stress. I will assist you gain insights into your values, strengths, and aspirations which will help you make informed career decisions. We will work on your self-reflection, goal setting, overcoming obstacles and building resilience, equipping you with tools to navigate career challenges, make strategic choices, and ultimately find fulfilment and realise your potential in your professional live.
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I also offer Interview Preparation Sessions during which we will prepare and role play the answers to questions that you are likely to be asked in the job interviews.
Trauma
EMDR is widely used by therapists around the world and continues to evolve as a leading approach in trauma therapy, helping people heal from trauma, build resilience, and start living balanced and fulfilling lives. Whist people may never be okay with what happened to them, with courage, commitment, and the right support, one can move from hurt to healing, adapt, even thrive, and continue growing as a person.
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I am training to become an accredited EMDR Practitioner and am currently taking reduced fee EMDR clients. Please book a call if you'd like to discuss this.
It is important to understand that trauma is not exclusively an event. Of course, some events like terrorist attacks, combat, serious accidents, unexpected losses or natural disasters will leave anyone deeply affected. However, in a broader sense, trauma can refer to any experience or a series of experiences, when an individual feels overwhelmed, extremely frightened and powerless. This can include being raised by abusive or neglectful parents, bullied at school, harassed at work, put down by a partner, or any other experiences involving humiliation, abandonment, rejection, or failures. Trauma may be experienced after a relationship break-up, divorce, illness, or a job loss. Pain and loss come with being human, so most, if not all, people would have had some traumatic experiences during their lifetime.
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Whilst some people can navigate through adversity due to their natural resilience, social support, and ability to find meaning in their experiences, many others continue to live with symptoms of trauma without recognising them to be linked to their difficult past.
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Common symptoms of trauma include feelings of shame, guilt, anger or sadness, mood swings, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, difficulties with trust and maintaining relationships, substance abuse, as well as physical symptoms, like headaches, fatigue and compromised immune system.
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