I have a great deal of experience in particular areas of psychotherapy and counselling, including chronic pain and illness, depression, anxiety and complex trauma. In a twenty year NHS career, I was psychology lead in Mid- & South Essex NHS pain services for seven years.
My work integrates both psychoanalytic and contemporary cognitive & behavioural strategies for helping people live their lives to the full, sometimes with the uncertainties that ongoing health problems can bring. Living with a chronic condition such as fibromyalgia can be frightening; we can feel very dependent and vulnerable at times. Certainly, pain can involve increased rumination, feelings lost and at times defeated. What psychological therapy can do is, in effect, to help you manage you mind, not from a position of ‘fighting’ or struggling against yourself, but in a way that enables you to stay in touch with – and to feel sustained by – the things that can and do matter to you in your life.
My approach to depression is that whilst it can often seem to be a retreat from life, it is better understood as a kind of ‘flag’ in life’s map; it tells us that something is there that needs attention. This may be a troubling personal history, feelings associated with a lack of attainment, a loss of personal value or, possibly, a blocked creative urge. Depression is never simply a medical problem; we are all individual as well as being in many ways the same. Therapy and counselling is about helping you to tell your story whilst attending to the direction you want your life to take.
Anxiety is perhaps one of the most misunderstood of personal experiences. Too much is of course a problem. But, actually, anxiety can shine a light on something important to us – after all, we don’t tend to get anxious about things that aren’t of value to us.
However, for some people, anxiety can become an almost permanent physical and emotional state. This may be because of past or ongoing traumatic events, it may be because of feeling unsafe or unsupported. What may be the most shocking thing about this – and often very isolating – is that this can be a question of bad luck. Bad things can happen to any one of us, not just to bad people. My role in supporting you with these kinds of problems is to believe in your experiences and, crucially, to help to lift their weight from you so that your life can be lived meaningfully and creatively.
Psychotherapist & Trainer 