Counsellor & Psychotherapist
What is Counselling Psychology/ psychotherapy?
Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy are terms used to describe working at depth with a therapist to understand your difficulties and who you are in a holistic way i.e. your past experiences including familial and wider context and culture. I can support you to reflect on these experiences and how they affect the way you view yourself, the world and others. This is a process of exploration, helping you to understand yourself better and make long lasting changes in your life. Psychotherapy can be hard work but ultimately leads to growth and a more fulfilled way of living.
What is CBT?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) looks at how our unconscious ‘core beliefs’ can affect our day to day thinking, emotions, bodily sensations and behaviours which may result in becoming stuck in unhelpful patterns or cycles. CBT can be very helpful in developing skills to manage worry & anxiety, low mood, addressing phobias and panic attacks. It can be less helpful in addressing relational/ interpersonal difficulties in life and those problems may be more suited to an explorative approach such as counselling or psychotherapy. I find some ideas from CBT are useful to integrate at times but do not work purely from this approach.