Psychological Therapies Service

How We Can Help

We can all have difficulties in day-to-day life and encounter problems that we simply find difficult to cope with alone. You may feel worried, anxious, low, confused or isolated. These feelings and thoughts may persist and become overwhelming.

In these circumstances it is difficult to know which way to turn and you may not want to burden your family or friends. It might be uncomfortable for you to share intimate problems with the people that are closest to you as you may fear upsetting them, or they may be involved in the difficulties that you are encountering.

It is at times like these that it can be helpful to talk things over in confidence with an experienced counsellor, psychotherapist or psychologist who will enable you to explore your concerns in a safe contained environment. The aim will be to help you develop appropriate strategies and techniques to cope with your life difficulties in a more effective way.

Treatments We Offer

Psychotherapy and counselling can be conducted in several different ways for example individual, group, couple and family work. They are all ways of helping you to overcome stress, emotional problems, relationship problems or troublesome habits.

There are many different approaches in psychotherapy, each are beneficial depending on your needs and personality. It is important that the orientation and style of the therapy and therapist appeal to you.

At ‘The Therapy Rooms’ we offer treatment from the foremost schools of psychotherapy and counselling. All of which are effective therapies and evidence based treatments for a wide range of psychological difficulties.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy. It can help you, with a wide range of psychological and emotional difficulties.

It helps you to focus on the connections between how you think, how you feel and how you behave. CBT targets problems in the here and now with much less therapeutic time devoted to experiences in early life. It is a form of therapy that addresses problems in a direct and targeted way.

The cognitive behavioural therapist looks at patterns of thinking and behaviour and how these patterns are reinforced and maintained by you within your environment. A functional analysis of thinking and behaviour is performed, often using log sheets and graphs to better understand your thought and behaviour patterns in the context of daily routines.

Treatment is generally short term and lasts between 6 to 20 sessions.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

This form of therapy encourages the exploration of your conscious and unconscious mind. If you find yourself caught up in repeated patterns of relating to others, when these patterns cause emotional turmoil, psychodynamic therapy can help you make significant changes in how you see and interact with the world.

Often the difficulties that you encounter in your adult life can originate from your childhood. As children we do not possess the maturity for making effective choices nor the independence to do so. As such the methods of adapting that one develops in childhood may no longer be effective for adapting to the world as an adult.

Through guidance from your therapist, you become aware of your present ways of coping that are ineffective in the here and now. You can learn that you now have a range of new options for solving problems, and for your life in general that are based on your maturity and independence.

Humanistic - Existential Counselling/Psychotherapy

Both of these approaches to therapy are considered ‘client centered’. This essentially means that the therapist does not impose techniques of analysing your past by making interpretations, or by attempting to change your thought patterns or behaviours.

The therapist demonstrates acceptance toward you, which allows you to make your own choices toward improvement. She will stress your worth, uniqueness and dignity while helping you to work toward taking responsibility for your own life and work towards a higher ideal.

Existential therapy is more focused on your search for meaning in your life and looking toward your potential rather than what has occurred in your past.

Family Therapy For Couples, Individuals and Families

Family therapy is based on systems theory, and explores the relationships between people in the context of their family, rather than the internal world of the individual.

Exploration is made of the patterns and belief systems held around a particular problem or dilemma, in search of solutions.

When someone in your family has a difficulty this is usually interwoven into the whole family life. Family therapists help family members find constructive ways to help each other and explore possible ways forward.

We are interested in supporting change, not only for you, but also for all of those who are important to you.

Difficulties We Encounter

Our experience has shown us that people come into therapy for a variety of reasons and for a wide range of difficulties, including the following:

Addictions
Grief and loss
Low self-esteem and lack of assertion
Forming and maintaining relationships
Trauma and post traumatic stress
Extreme fears, phobias and habits including OCD
Body dysmorphic disorder
Problems with managing moods such as anger and aggressiveness
Chronic pain and chronic fatigue
Sense of emptiness and unfulfilment
Stress, anxiety, panic attacks and phobias
Low mood, depression and suicidal feelings
Work related issues
Eating disorders, obesity and body image
Personality disorders
Emotional, sexual or physical abuse

For difficulties specifically relating to children, adolescents and families please see additional pages ‘ Family Therapy for Couples, Individuals and Families’ and ‘For Children and Adolescents’.