Counselling/Psychotherapy

Life is not always easy and it can sometimes be a challenge; despite our best intentions things can go wrong and we can find ourselves struggling with day to day life. Perhaps you have run out of strategies for how to deal with life’s challenges, perhaps you don’t even know what the stresses are.

Deciding to get some support can be a first step in understanding what is going on for you. My hope is to help you understand the difficulties you are facing and help you work towards feeling better about yourself and living your fullest life.

I work with clients experiencing a variety of emotional issues and this can be done by talking about your issues in a warm encouraging space to help you decide your next steps of how you want your life to be.

Through my different trainings I have a number of ways to work and this will be guided by what resonates with you.

Here are some things that bring people to therapy:

• Anxiety and Depression
• Bereavement
• Affairs and betrayals
• Childhood abuse
• Health issues and concerns
• Chronic conditions
• Domestic abuse
• LGBTQ+ counselling
• Low confidence and Low self-esteem
• Infertility and miscarriage
• Pregnancy and birth trauma
• Postnatal depression
• Sex problems
• Relationship problems
• Separation and divorce
• Loneliness and feeling sad
• Suicidal thoughts
• Life stress and work related stress

Polyvagal Informed Practice

One of the ways I work is with Polyvagal Theory. This theory looks at how our nervous system responds in different situations.

Our nervous system automatically goes between safe and social, fight/flight and shutdown several times a day. Polyvagal Theory is a way of tuning in to the changes in your body, thoughts, and emotions.

These states are natural physical responses that we all have. Your body will always try to pick the best course of action to help you survive with the resources you have based on your past and current experiences. For example, this is why anxiety can often feel as though you are not in control. Your body acts to help you survive automatically and it really is not all ‘in your head’.

Some automatic responses may no longer fit your current situation, such as reacting extremely, withdrawing or shutting down from situations or relationships. Having more awareness of your bodies natural stress responses you can then build on the resources you already have so that you feel more empowered when faced with difficult situations.

Sex and Relationship Therapy

People are often very anxious about seeking help for problems around sex and intimacy. This is understandable as sharing your most private thoughts and feelings with a stranger can be daunting. I find people very quickly get used to talking, even at their first appointment. Clients tell me they feel a great relief in giving a voice to their difficulties. By speaking about them out loud the difficulty often loses some of its power and the process of change can begin.

Some Reasons people come for Sex Therapy

• Loss of Sexual Desire (for men and woman)
• Differences in levels of sexual desire
• Difficulty getting aroused
• Pain During Intercourse/Penetration
• Difficulty getting and maintain an erection (Erectile dysfunction)
• Delayed Ejaculation or Premature Ejaculation
• Difficulties with orgasm (Anorgasmia)
• Lack of communication around sex in your relationship
• Sexual performance anxiety
• Difficulty and fear of penetration (Vaginismus-a tightening of vaginal muscles)
• Sexual Trauma

These are just some reasons people come for support, there are many more.

Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing – EMDR

Most of the time your body routinely manages new information and experiences without you being aware of it. However, when something out of the ordinary occurs and you are traumatised by an overwhelming event or by being repeatedly subjected to distress your natural coping mechanism can become overloaded.

This overloading can result in disturbing experiences remaining frozen in your brain or being “unprocessed”. EMDR helps create the connections between your brain’s memory networks, enabling your brain to process the traumatic memory in a very natural way.

EMDR is a recommended therapy by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) for PTSD it can also be a helpful treatment for a number of other difficulties such as:

• Trauma
• Anxiety and panic attacks
• Depression
• Stress
• Complicated grief
• Self-esteem and performance anxiety