Integrative counselling, therapy and hypno-birthing

Alcohol Counselling and Eating Disorder Clinics

Alcohol Counselling and Eating Disorder Clinics are available with resources on how to help people with alcohol mis-use and different eating disorders.

Anger Management Counselling

Many of us get cross, or angry with situations and with other people. It is a normal emotion and one that we use to express frustration. But when anger gets out of control and the cause and effect not dealt with, it can become a serious problem. This may include uncontrollable anger, verbal aggression, physical aggression or self-harm. Anger may be a sign of strength or weakness or a sign of addictive behaviour.

Anger affects adults and children. Symptoms can be visible or invisible where some people express their anger privately through self-harm.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)

CBT is by far the most practical of the talking therapies. It can help you change how you think (cognitive) about yourself, the world and other people, and shows you how what you do (behaviour) affects your thoughts and feelings — to help you feel better. Unlike some of the other talking treatments, instead of focusing on causes in the past, it looks for ways to improve your state of mind now. Clients learn ways to change thoughts and expectations, including by using relaxation techniques. CBT can be effective for stress-related conditions, phobias, obsessions, eating disorders and (with drug treatment) major depression.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for anxiety and panic attacks

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment to help with anxiety and panic attacks. Feelings such as worry, anxiousness, fear or panic can be mild, moderate or severe. The emotions of panic and anxiety can be constant, long term and can affect people’s daily life.

Counselling

There is no clear distinction between counselling and psychotherapy; both are talking therapies that allow people to explore feelings and emotions and the effect they have on their lives. In private practice, counselling might be best for clients with everyday problems while psychotherapy might be more appropriate for clients with severe symptoms. In reality, however, many clients are likely to receive a blend.

Depression Counselling

Counselling for depression helps and supports people who are suffering from feelings of unhappiness, sadness and distress. These negative feelings may come and go, they may be constant and they may become serious.

Eating disorders

Food and our relationship with food forms a daily part of our lives. We live in a society where international cuisine is available to us day and night. Food is intrinsically linked to body image and to exercise - by ourselves and by the media. We may use food for comfort or we may not recognise that we have an unhealthy relationship with food or with exercise that is affecting our health and well-being.

Emotional freedom technique (EFT)

EFT is a needle-free version of acupuncture that taps into the connections between your emotions, health and energies. It involves tapping with fingertips on specific places on the head and chest while you think about your specific problem and voice positive statements. This clears the emotional block, restoring the balance between your mind and body. It is one of the fastest psychotherapeutic procedures and is most often used to treat problems that do not have a deep, underlying cause.

Existential counselling

Existentialists believe that life has no essential (given) meaning: any meaning has to be found or created. Existential counselling involves making sense of life through a personal world view and includes a willingness to face one's life and life problems. (Source: BACP)

Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy

Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy was originally developed to treat post-traumatic stress disorders, including experiences of war. EMDR is used by counsellors and psychotherapists to help people with trauma that has occurred in personal lives or in professional lives.

Gestalt therapy

The name is derived from the German word for ‘organised whole'. Developed by Fritz Perls, it is based on his belief that the human response to experiences is summed up in a person's thoughts, feelings and actions. The client gains self-awareness by analysing behaviour and body language and giving expression to repressed feelings. Treatment often includes acting out scenarios and dream recall. (Source: BACP)

Humanistic psychotherapy

This embraces techniques coming from the ‘personal growth movement' and encourages people to explore their feelings and take responsibility for their thoughts and actions. Emphasis is on self-development and achieving highest potential rather than dysfunctional behaviour. ‘Client-centred' or ‘non-directive' approach is often used and the therapy can be described as ‘holistic'. The client's creative instincts may be used to explore and resolve personal issues. (Source: BACP)

Hypno-birthing

A well-established method for reducing the fear, anxiety, tension and pain associated with childbirth. Clients learn how to use self-hypnosis and relaxation techniques to make their childbirth experience easier. Common side-effects are a shorter labour and a reduced need for pain killers.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy aims to re-programme the mind and therefore change behaviour and beliefs. It involves entering a trance-like state at a point where your conscious mind becomes suppressed and your unconscious mind is released. You are in a heightened state of awareness throughout but concentrating on the therapist’s voice, not engaged in the inner dialogue we all have with ourselves. You will be open to suggestion so that new thoughts can be introduced and behaviour changed. Hypnotherapy can be a particularly effective treatment for fears and phobias, addictions, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive behaviour, stress-related problems such as insomnia, and pain management including during surgery and childbirth.

Integrative counselling

This is more of an approach than a specific form of therapy. Several forms of counselling and psychotherapy are used together, rather than separately, depending on the client’s needs. Our approach generally is integrative though there will be occasions when clients will receive one distinct therapeutic treatment.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)

NLP combines cognitive behavioural and humanistic therapies with hypnotherapy. It works on the theory that life experiences, from birth onwards, programme the way a person sees the world. The practitioner helps the client to discover how he/she has learnt to think or feel so that they can take control of their actions. The client is taught how to change speech and body language in order to communicate better and bring about personal change. (Source: BACP)

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Treatment

Many of us have certain habits, but when a habit turns into an act that you can’t control and affects your life, it can be a problem. Habits might include nail-biting, hair-pulling, thumb-sucking or scratching. Habits can be controlled, but they can also become addictions or obsessive compulsive disorders.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) affects adults and children. Symptoms can be visible or invisible through thoughts. Behaviour can be conscious and unconscious, obsessive and compulsive with continuous repetition. It is upsetting for the individual and often people are not sure where to turn for help or even that a counsellor or a psychotherapist can help.

OCD sufferers have a range of problems depending on the individual and the disorder or disorders. The disorder may be linked to other problems too.

Pain Management

We all suffer pain during different parts of our lives and for different reasons. For some pain may be temporary and bearable, or for others it may be long term and chronic.

Pain affects adults and children which in turn can affect the quality of life and doing activities that are considered normal for others. Pain can cause distress and can affect psychological well-being.

There are many pain management guidelines and solutions that can be put in place to help people with managing pain. It is not often known that counsellors and psychotherapists deal with pain management guidelines and solutions.

Person-centred counselling

Devised by Carl Rogers and also called ‘client-centred' or ‘Rogerian' counselling, this is based on the assumption that an individual (client), seeking help in the resolution of a problem he/she is experiencing, can enter into a relationship with another individual (counsellor) who is sufficiently accepting and permissive to allow the client to express emotions and feelings freely. This will enable the client to come to terms with negative feelings, which may have caused emotional problems, and develop inner resources. The objective is for the client to become able to perceive themselves as a person, with the power and freedom to change, rather than as an object. (Source: BACP)

Psychoanalytical therapy

This is based on the work of Sigmund Freud who believed that the unacceptable thoughts of early childhood are banished to the unconscious mind but continue to influence thoughts, emotions and behaviour. ‘Repressed' feelings can surface later as conflicts, depression, etc, or through dreams or creative activities. The analyst seeks to interpret, and make acceptable to the client's conscious mind, troublesome feelings and relationships from the past. ‘Transference' onto the analyst, of feelings about figures in the client's life, is encouraged. This type of therapy is often used with clients suffering high levels of stress and can be a lengthy and intensive process. (Source: BACP)

Psychodynamic therapy

This approach stresses the importance of the unconscious and past experience in determining current behaviour. The client is encouraged to talk about childhood relationships with parents and other significant people and the therapist focuses on the client/therapist relationship (the dynamics) and in particular on the transference. Transference is when the client projects onto the therapist feelings experienced in previous significant relationships. The psychodynamic approach is derived from psychoanalysis but usually provides a quicker solution to emotional problems. (Source: BACP)

Psychotherapy

There is no clear distinction between psychotherapy and counselling; both are talking therapies that allow people to explore feelings and emotions and the effect they have on their lives. In private practice, psychotherapy might be best for clients with more severe symptoms while counselling might be more appropriate for clients with everyday problems. In reality, however, many clients are likely to receive a blend.

Sensorimotor psychotherapy

Sensorimotor psychotherapy is a body-centred form of therapy. It draws together three aspects of a client’s experiences: thoughts (cognitive), feelings (emotional) and body (sensorimotor) so the client can learn about and overcome habitual attitudes and behaviour patterns. It can be particularly useful for treating people who have experienced trauma or abuse.

Our approach

We take an holistic approach – often blending therapies together – so that each client receives what works best for them. This is called integrative counselling. When clients come to us with an idea of what they need, we always recommend that we discuss the options first so we can reach a joint decision about what would be most effective.

Some issues are more deep-rooted than others. And some are more complex than they seem at first. We are flexible and will recommend changes to any agreed programme if we think that would be better for you.

Whatever we agree, our service is confidential and discreet. We never disclose the names of our clients or talk about them to third parties. Although we have included on this website comments from clients, none of them includes the client’s full name or exact location.

We help individuals, couples and groups of any age, including children and young adults. Many of our clients are in their 30s and 40s, when life can be especially difficult to cope with, but our emotions can be challenging at any age and stage of life and our mental health and well-being can be affected by experiences and events that happen at any age.

If you would like to find out if we could help you, we invite you to contact us.

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Therapy rooms in London and Twickenham