We experience the world through the lens of our own experience. We can easily make the mistake of believing things just are the way hey are, accepting our lives and our feelings at face value. Perhaps you're feeling overwhelmed or are engaging in patterns of behaviour which are negatively affecting your life. Perhaps you're feeling angry, anxious, empty, depressed or feel that you have never reached your potential in life or work. Perhaps you don't really know who you are or even how you feel. Inner strength comes from feeling whole, understanding and accepting the good and the bad: our past trauma does not need to define us, but it is also an important part of understanding who we are. 

Anxiety, depression and emotional disruption can arise when we do not fully understand or process our experiences and relationships, we often protect ourselves by hiding our true feelings towards individuals, events and even ourselves. Ignoring our emotions does not mean they go away, unwanted emotions are like lightning: they will ground themselves somewhere, often expressing themselves in undesirable ways. The better we understand our emotions, and what they are truly a reaction to, the better we can become at regulating and challenging them. Through therapy we aim to gain an honest understanding of our lives and our genuine feelings towards our past and present, when we become aware of our hidden feelings we can process them and release ourselves from their impact.

Our relationship with ourselves directly impacts the way we relate to others. Our understanding of who we are and the lives we have led effects how we engage with the world the the people around us. As humans we always like to predict what will happen next, to do this we use our past experiences to build a picture of the future, if we have a view of ourselves and our past which is skewed negatively then this is how we will see our future. Having a skewed view of ourselves and the world can lead us to feel anxious, sad, unlovable, abandoned, lonely, empty and angry, and sometimes those feelings can be taken out on ourselves or the ones we love. When we fully understand our past we are able to rework the view we have of ourselves and our relationships, building strength and lessening our insecurities and unhelpful behaviours.

Psychodynamic therapy is one of the oldest forms talking therapies and is supported by decades of theoretical and clinical research. Recent research has observed the restructuring and strengthening or neural pathways of those engaged in psychodynamic therapy, meaning we not only know it is working because people feel better and live better lives after therapy but we can also see the changes at a biological level.

I work by having an initial session, which is an opportunity for us to meet and discuss you, your past, your present and what has brought you into therapy. Within this session we will discuss fees, the therapeutic frame and the practicalities of our work. We will then have further sessions at an agreed fee, time and place. I tailor my work to the individual so these sessions have no set agenda, they form an opportunity for me to hear from you about your life and you can get a feel for how I work.

I offer long term, open ended therapy on a weekly basis. This means that we do not agree an end date for the therapy, we will continue until a point when you feel you wish to bring our work to a close. I also offer short term therapy over 12 weekly sessions which will have a set and agreed end date. Short term therapy is normally most helpful for a particular issue which you wish to address and tends to be focussed on or around the issue for the duration of the 12 sessions. If you're unsure which type of therapy is going to be most helpful then this is something which we can discuss and agree in our initial sessions.

Normally our sessions will be at the same time on the same day each week, they will last 50 minutes and I charge £55 for an initial session.  I only work with my clients on a weekly basis, I do not offer fortnightly or monthly sessions, this is because when the space between the sessions becomes too large then the effect of our work is dramatically reduced. Our sessions will be confidential and will be held in a private space, if we are working remotely via video call you will need to ensure you have access to a private space where you will be undisturbed. 

The content of our sessions is within your control, what we speak about will be decided by you, I am there to explore, reflect and be with your emotions.

Should you wish to arrange an initial session with me please see my Contact page or click the Email to enquire button below.