Beginnings

First appointment

If you do decide to contact me and we arrange an initial appointment, I will aim to meet you where you are as you embark on this therapy journey. Although I stand within particular therapy traditions, my aim at first meeting is to have a completely open mind as to what it is you are looking for. I seek to remain open, attentive and engaged. As the session goes along, I will aim to reach a shared understanding with you as to what it is you are looking for at this particular time.

It is natural to have questions and to feel anxious at the start of a therapy journey. A first appointment is also a setting for asking questions about what therapy involves.

Therapists and clients have expectations of therapy and curiosity about those expectations can cultivate responses that support kindness and self-care.

Once you have met me, I hope we will form a sense together of the next step to take, whether to meet regularly or to seek further help somewhere else.  

Therapy

There are many pressures on people today. Making time for yourself through personal therapy can be a way of looking after yourself, valuing your experiences and making sense of your thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions. Personal therapy supports learning, emotional growth, and self-development. It can make practical sense as part of a course or to support professional development. Therapy can enhance performance in the workplace. It can also greatly assist the management of change or life transition.  

Personal therapy will support you to gain increased resources for addressing problems and challenges. It provides a space where you can think through issues and difficulties and so can assist you to make vital decisions for living life well.

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

I also offer psychoanalytic psychotherapy. It is a relational approach where a considerable investment is made in the therapeutic relationship. Over time, the space of therapy provides a supportive and nurturing environment where strong therapeutic bonds are formed. These bonds are a vital part of the therapeutic process.  

The relationship which is built provides a potential resource for working through relational difficulties that occur in other areas of life. The extremely demanding training to become a psychoanalytic psychotherapist provides me with a thorough grounding for working with difficult emotional dynamics.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy recognizes that as well as conscious motivations, we are also driven by unconscious motivations. These are drivers which are not entirely available to consciousness, such as unmet needs from childhood that continue to get played out in our choices and actions as adults.

Working with the unconscious can be a very rewarding and illuminating process. The therapy provides scope to work with dreams as a valuable communication from the unconscious.

It is usually helpful to have some external ‘containers’ in place before embarking on psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Regular work, for example, can provide structure and routine. Informal networks provided by friends, colleagues or family can be valuable sources of support. When these structures and support are not in place, I strike a balance between addressing issues from the inner-life and supporting growth towards improved everyday circumstances.