How does this therapy work?
I provide an open, non-judgemental space for you to explore and make sense of your issues, to help you move forward in life to the place you want to be. This process roughly follows these three stages:
Stage 1: Explore the problem in an empathetic, non-judgemental environment.
Stage 2: Clarify the key patterns and themes and make sense of some of the contradictions; put it all into context and gain insight into yourself and your life, and how and why the same problems keep coming up.
Stage 3: Use this insight to start moving towards a richer, more pleasurable life.
Session location, lengths and fees
- My practice is located in Hendon, London NW4 (more details on the contact page).
- You would start with a free 45 minute initial consultation where you get a sense of how therapy can help you. If it sounds like it could, then this leads to….
- An initial six-session module. Towards the end of the module you can choose a further module, or ‘open-ended therapy’, depending on what we feel would work best.
- Each therapy session is 50 minutes long, once a week, and I charge £60 for each session.
My training, qualifications & experience
- Currently I have a private psychotherapy practice in Hendon NW4 and also work as a psychotherapist in an IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) service in North London.
- I have previously worked as an integrative counsellor for the NHS at Edgware Community Hospital and as a psychotherapist at Raphael charity.
- I have worked with anxiety, depression, relationship issues, abuse, low self-confidence, obsessive compulsive disorder, weight issues, career issues, bereavement, self-harm, stress, work-related stress, suicidal thoughts and a range of other issues.
- I have worked with adults, older adults and trainees.
- I am an accredited member of BACP - The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
- I have a Post Graduate Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy from Regents University, a Certificate in Counselling and Psychotherapy from Regents College, APT Accreditation level 1 in CBT and an MA from Cambridge University.
Existential-integrative therapy
My way of working is known as 'Existential/Integrative'.
Existential therapy is a tried and tested model of therapy, developed in the UK, US and Europe and used successfully for 1000s of clients for almost 70 years. Famous practitioners include Viktor Frankl and Irvin Yalom.
The basis of this approach is that people can often get stuck in some type of pain and feel trapped in it and by it, and that the point is to help them get unstuck, to give them the ability to have much more freedom in their life.
If I can help you to see the patterns and contradictions that run through the different levels of your life – from the small things to the big things, from your past to your present – this will allow you to see your life, and yourself, in a whole new light.
You will start to feel better, more 'whole'. You will start to feel that you actually have many more choices and much more freedom in the very places where you felt trapped. You will be able to start to live your life according to the values that really count to you and not feel like a slave to the 'rules' that you or others have imposed upon you. You will start to gain a much larger, richer sense of yourself and your capabilities, and a much deeper enjoyment of life, work and relationships.
This newfound, developing sense of freedom - which includes the freedom to embrace difficult thoughts and emotions - helps you to start making changes in your life and to gain more pleasure from life. But, at the same time, it can be daunting to make changes, and part of my role is to support you through this process and to help you to become better able to deal with the challenges ahead, to be able to start leading a richer, more balanced and more fulfilling life.
The 'integrative' element of 'Existential/Integrative' means that I also incorporate some key insights from other core therapeutic models into my work, in particular from psychodynamic and humanistic psychotherapy, two of the three major schools of psychotherapy since the birth of psychotherapy itself.