When we meet for the first time I will ask you about your current difficulties, various aspects of your current life and also about your past. I will then share my understanding of your difficulties to see whether that makes sense to you and whether you would be interested in pursuing that line of inquiry with me. This will help me to ascertain whether a short term intervention using more cognitive or solution focused techniques would be best, or whether a longer term psychoanalytic psychotherapy with an emphasis on interpersonal relationships and trauma work would be more beneficial. I will try to make my rationale as transparent as possible so that we can make a decision about it together. Roughly half of my clients come for time limited consultation type work focusing on a specific problem and attend 12-24 sessions. Another half find longer term exploration of the patterns underlying their difficulties more beneficial and stay in therapy on an open ended contract.

In my work with you I will be drawing on the following psychological approaches:

• Psychoanalytic theory (my main theoretical approach)

• Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)

• Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

• Person Cantered Therapy

• Existential Therapy

PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY

My preferred approach to understanding human mind is rooted in psychoanalytic theory. In this type of therapy the emphasis will be on exploring the ways that unconscious aspects and conflicts of the personality may be hindering development and informing conscious choices in an unhelpful way. The central technique of this approach is called ‘free’ association. It involves you talking about whatever comes into your mind without censoring or editing the flow of memories or ideas and it helps you become aware of hidden meanings or patterns in what you do or say that may contribute to your problems.

Psychotherapy allows for a sustained and meaningful therapeutic relationship to develop. This helps us to explore and understand your difficulties and conflicts in your inner world in the safe and contained setting of the consulting room. Treatment aims to reach beyond the initial symptoms which may have initiated the desire for therapy, to the underlying causes which reside in deeper layers of the personality. Working in this way can provide profound and lasting change for you, and a deeply rewarding and creative experience to both of us.

Through the therapeutic dialogue you will be learning to utilise your mind, your capacity to think, in a slightly different way, discovering new perspectives and ways of looking at your self. You will learn how certain behaviours may be determined in a more or less unconscious way through connections with you earlier stages of life; for example how some infantile experiences may condition adult choices and how certain affective states in your current reality are no more than representations of previously lived emotional experiences. Fundamentally, in this dialogue you will be gradually learning to observe you own mind in operation; and learning to discover something new about yourself or something that turns out to be richer and slightly different from what you have expected.

Most often psychotherapy sessions occur between one and three times weekly. The length of treatment may vary from a few sessions to a number of years. You will be seen on your own at the same time and in the same room, as this consistency helps people get the most out of their treatment.