Our main focus is providing psychological assessment and individual therapy for adults and young people (age 16 years plus).   We help support our clients with a wide range of difficulties, from mild through to severe and longstanding.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

CBT is one of the most popular forms of therapy we offer. The basic principle of CBT is that our thoughts (cognitions), our behaviour and our feelings are all interconnected. So, when we experience difficulties it can help to look at each of the individual elements to see how they contribute to our distress.

The term CBT is now considered an ‘umbrella’ term, which means that this approach includes traditional CBT, schema therapy (which looks at longstanding ‘core beliefs’ or ‘schemas’) as well as mindfulness-based approaches, which often borrow ideas from more Eastern healing philosophies that combine elements of meditation and compassion into therapy.

Extensive research trials have focused on whether CBT is an effective therapy. The results show it can indeed deliver very positive outcomes for people with a range of issues.

Integrative Therapy

The term ‘integrative’ means that a therapist can draw on different psychological models and theories and ideas to better understand their clients and help them cope with their difficulties. The models will often include:

Attachment theory and psychodynamic ideas

These models explore how a person’s history and early relationships have shaped the way they view themselves, other people and the world more broadly. Our early relationships shape the ‘relationship templates’ we carry through into our adult lives, and sometimes these can cause us problems.

‘Systemic’ ideas

These look at how the ‘system’ affects an individual. This could mean a family system, work system, or cultural and social system. Whatever the particular situation, these systems may all function to keep someone ‘stuck’, struggling with their distress.

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy

This model’s main focus is on helping clients disengage from the internal obstacles that can prove difficult to get past. The aim is to start to working on accepting our difficulties in a helpful way, rather than battling against them, and to help clients commit to a more positive direction in life.

Compassion-Focused Therapy

This draws on theories of evolutionary psychology to identify the three main drive systems that influence behaviour to focus on cultivating a stronger ‘caring and soothing’ system by becoming more ‘self-compassionate’.  These ideas can be especially helpful for people that are self-critical.