About

I primarily use the approaches outlined below, but also draw from other therapies (when it will benefit the person I am working with), This includes motivational interviewing, emotion focussed therapy, solution focused therapy and dialectical behaviour therapy.

EMDR draws on innate human capacities to process memories and expectations of events. This processing can become blocked after stressful events leading to unresolved distress. You might like to think of this as being like an infection blocking your body from healing a cut. Fortunately, processing capacities can be facilitated, and blockages overcome during EMDR with a series of therapeutic steps that include bilateral stimulation (sometimes a series of eye movements that the therapy was named after).

Research strongly supports EMDR in trauma recovery, with the World Health Organisation recommending it as one of the two top level methods for healing the impacts of trauma. Research has expanded onto other areas and is showing benefits for other difficulties such as panic, anxiety, depression and attachment difficulties.

Once of the benefits of EMDR is that it involves less time discussing distressing topics than is needed in other approached, and generally less time overall to achieve outcomes. This may be because it is directly tapping into a person’s own healing process rather than the practitioner providing what they think the person needs.

Schema Therapy

Schema Therapy is an approach that focuses on understanding and addressing developmental origins of problems, especially where core emotional needs have been unmet. A range of techniques are used, including imagery, recognising internal conflict between different parts of yourself and attending to the emotional and physical impacts of events. Research shows that Schema Therapy is especially helpful for long-term and pervasive difficulties that have not been resolved with other types of therapy.

The ACT approach recognises that unpleasant thoughts and feelings are an inescapable part of life. ACT involves accepting and detaching from these thoughts and feelings instead of fighting against them and being run by them. Another key aspect of ACT is exploring what is important and meaningful to you. This promotes life choices and actions to build a fulfilling life for yourself. A considerable amount of research has shown that ACT helps with many problems including low mood, anxiety and trauma recovery.

The aim of CBT is to collaboratively identify and evaluate the accuracy of thoughts that lead to distress. Other ways of thinking about situations are then considered and practiced in everyday situations. Actions that reinforce distressing situations are also identified and new ways of behaving are trialled. CBT has a very strong evidence-base, with a large amount of research showing its effectiveness for addressing a wide range of difficulties.

I tend to encorperate CBT when it is clear that thought processes and behaviour patterns are the key contributor to distress. Othewise the experience of CBT can sometimes be invalitating and other approaches are more helpful.