How I work?

Psychodynamic Therapy

This is the broad area that describes how I am trained and how I work. People often come to therapy not knowing what is wrong, but they know that something is not right. I start by trying to get an idea of what brings you to therapy at this point in time. Having a better understanding of what is causing you distress or even breakdown can take time. This is where I can help.

Together we can uncover what is at the root of feelings or behaviours that cause problems for you or others in your life. In the process it can be helpful to think about how parents, caregivers, siblings and significant others have shaped you and continue to influence you to this day. As a therapist, I would encourage you to be interested in what is inside and what is outside of you. On the inside are your thoughts and feelings about yourself and others, that can cause distress. On the outside are the interactions between you and others, and situations you find yourself in. Where do your challenges lie?

Couple Therapy

I am a trained couple therapist, specialising in psychodynamic couples’ therapy, mentalisation-based therapy for couples, and couple therapy for depression. In couple work, we can address a number of different issues such as:

  • Loss of connection
  • Repeating unhelpful patterns
  • Parenting challenges
  • Managing conflict
  • sexual difficulties
  • gender and sexuality issues
  • neurodivergence and neurodiversity
  • emotional literacy
  • improving communication
  • aging
  • death and dying

…and other issues that affect a couple.

Whatever a couple brings, my role as therapist is to create an environment where these issues can be thought about and talked through.

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy

This is a well-known model of therapy which is designed to help you understand what happens when your feelings overwhelm you.

DBT offers every one of us some very helpful techniques to notice when feelings start building up and to find other ways to manage them which go beyond exploding or suppressing feelings.

Mindfulness plays an important part in this type of therapy. To have some control over our feelings is empowering.

Mentalization-Based Therapy

When we jump to conclusions too quickly or make quick assumptions about other people, including a partner, so many problems can arise. This type of therapy aims to help you to read your own and your partner’s intentions and feelings better. It can help you to slow things down, to try and tune into that person in order to improve your relationship and to feel better understood. Techniques include:

  • Becoming aware of how feelings arise and how they can escalate and
  • Practicing ways to create a pause and bring down feelings to a manageable temperature.

This is a structured therapy with a set number of sessions for couples, but many of the techniques can be integrated into longer more in-depth therapy work too.

Together we can uncover what is at the root of feelings or behaviours that cause problems for you or others in your life. In the process it can be helpful to think about how parents, caregivers, siblings and significant others have shaped you and continue to influence you to this day.

As a therapist, I would encourage you to be interested in what is inside and what is outside of you. On the inside are your thoughts and feelings about yourself and others, that can cause distress. On the outside are the interactions between you and others, and situations you find yourself in.

Where do your challenges lie?

WHAT TO EXPECT?