Areas of specialist expertise
I have worked with adults over the age of 18 since qualifying as a Clinical Psychologist in 2004. I have predominantly worked in primary care psychological therapies services where people have been referred by their GPs or self-referred for difficulties with anxiety or low mood.
My doctoral thesis was on treating clinical perfectionism with Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and have published in this area. I have worked extensively with all of the difficulties listed here.
Difficulties treated:
Depression and low mood
Low self-worth
Panic attacks
Worry
Work-related stress
Social anxiety
OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder
PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder)
Childhood trauma
Perfectionism
Therapeutic approach
The main approaches I use in my clinical practices are Cognitive Behavoural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).
I completed my postgraduate diploma in CBT in 2009 and am fully accredited with the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapists (BABCP). I like helping clients to make links between their feelings, thoughts and behaviour in the here-and-now, to reflect on the early experiences that may be relevant to this, and to experiment with alternative behaviours and ways of thinking.
In recent years I have trained in ACT, and increasingly brought this into my clinical practice in conjunction with more traditional CBT approaches. I have found the concepts of values and distancing from thoughts particularly helping with working with people experiencing low mood.
I completed EMDR training with EMDR Works in 2014 and have been mainly using this model when working with PTSD cases since that time. I have tended to use it particularly in my work with people who have experienced childhood trauma.
I have also attended training in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Compassion Focused Therapy and integrate ideas and methods from those therapies into my clinical work where appropriate.
What is CBT?
Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a structured, short-term therapy, which is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for people experiencing depression and anxiety, including panic, agoraphobia, generalised anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder . It works by identifying and changing patterns of thinking and behaving that contribute to your difficulties. At the start of therapy, we will spend time identifying specific goals you would like to achieve. You will begin to understand your difficulties and start to practice skills that can help.
What is ACT?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has its roots in CBT and is also a structured, goal-focused short-term therapy. One of the main differences between CBT and ACT is that in ACT the client learns ways to detach or distance from thoughts rather than challenging them. ACT also brings in skills from mindfulness to increase clients’ willingness to allow difficult thoughts and emotions to be present without struggling with them.
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapy technique designed for working with distressing or traumatic memories. It is based on the understanding that psychological difficulties are the result of distressing life experiences which have not been properly stored in the memory and are therefore ‘unprocessed’ or ‘blocked’ which makes them easily triggered, leading them to replay and cause repeated distress. EMDR helps these traumatic memories to become processed. EMDR is most suited for patients experiencing PTSD symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance of reminders of the trauma and increased arousal. EMDR is a NICE-recommended treatment for PTSD.