About Therapy
Feeling isolated with your experience?
Reached a point where you realise you could use some outside support?
Therapy could help.
Reached a point where you realise you could use some outside support?
Therapy could help.
I qualified as a therapist in 2012. In addition to my private therapy practice, I have had the following experience:
- Providing therapy in an NHS clinic (SLAM: South London and Maudsley) for people who have been given a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder.
- Providing psychodynamic feedback to a consultant child/adolescent psychiatrist in his efforts at de-pathologizing problems and distress.
- One year shadowing three consultant psychiatrists in acute inpatient wards and various outpatient clinics.
- Providing therapy to NHS staff during the pandemic.
- Providing grief counselling at Cruse, a bereavement charity (prior to training as a therapist).
Your pace, your journey. Judgement-free support awaits.
Elisabeth
Therapy with me
Therapy provides a space where thoughtful attention is given to the often painful, challenging and confusing experiences of our lives. It helps you gain a broader understanding of what you have been experiencing and supports you so that healing and growth is able to take place.
I am available to see anyone aged 18+ as long as the way I work is suitable for them. This would be discussed at a consultation where we will have a chance to talk more about your concerns and what you would like to gain from therapy.
People come to therapy for a variety of reasons ranging from the effects of various life events to mental health issues. It can be useful in many ways, whether:
- facing a painful situation or challenging phase in life
- improving emotional and overall mental health
- changing recurring and/or persistent patterns of thought and behaviour
- facing relationship challenges (with oneself and/or others)
- a need to talk to someone independent of your daily life
The process of therapy is unique to each person depending on their reasons for coming to therapy and what their needs are. Each individual has their own history, psychology, relational patterns, life experiences and circumstances, and whilst there are shared experiences of many situations in our lives – such as grief, early life neglect, betrayal, depression and anxiety, as some examples – what is in an individual’s interest for personal therapy can vary depending on a number of factors.
My style of working rests against a psychodynamic background, which provides the therapy with a certain breadth as well as depth. I take into account your life today and anything else you choose to share with me, in relation to your emotional, developmental and relational characteristics both past and current, whilst not forgetting about your future. I work in an exploratory and collaborative way during which clients can reach different ways of thinking and feeling about themselves as shifts begin to take place within them. This can lead to changes in your relationships, increased self-awareness, reduced need for control, improved emotional and overall mental health, being less hard on yourself, reduction in unexplained symptoms, changes in unhelpful habits, having a broader perspective on life and changes in the way we respond to life’s problems.
In addition to a psychodynamic psychotherapy qualification, I have taken part in trainings for sensorimotor psychotherapy (a trauma therapy), MBT (mentalization-based treatment) and grief and loss, which altogether, contribute to my therapeutic thinking as to how to support someone through their therapy. Whilst the theoretical approach is important to me as a therapist, the human and relational element in therapy matters equally. I use the theory as an overarching framework, and my experience, compassion and commitment to working with my clients as the cornerstone of each session.
Qualifications & Experience
My clinical training is accredited by BACP, BPC and UKCP and I am registered with BACP and BPC, having qualified in 2012. Related studies include a master’s degree in Psychoanalytic Studies, post-graduate diploma in Psychodynamic Studies and a foundation certificate in Psychotherapy and Counselling.
As well as a Psychodynamic psychotherapy qualification, I have taken part in trainings for Sensorimotor psychotherapy (a trauma therapy), MBT (mentalization-based treatment) and Grief and Loss. Please see FAQs for more information about these.
In addition to my private practice, I have experience in the following areas:
- Honorary therapist in a specialist NHS mental health clinic
- Providing psychodynamic reflections to a consultant psychiatrist in their efforts to
de-pathologize problems and distress in their patients - One year shadowing three consultant psychiatrists in acute inpatient wards and various outpatient clinics
- Providing therapy to NHS workers during the pandemic
- Providing grief support at Cruse, a bereavement charity
I attend trainings, workshops and conferences regularly to follow developments in my area of work and continue learning. In addition, I take consultation with a senior colleague to maintain quality of practice.
Why People See Me
People have therapy for a variety of concerns ranging from painful or confusing life events to mental health issues. Most of my clients are individuals who are looking for a deeper therapy having tried solution-focused approaches and have realised they need a slightly different type of therapeutic attention. I provide a supportive and collaborative environment where anything can be shared in confidence and without judgement for either short or long-term therapy.
Therapy can be useful in many ways, whether:
- facing a painful situation or challenging phase in life
- improving emotional and overall mental health
- changing recurring and/or persistent patterns of thought and behaviour
- facing relationship challenges (with oneself and/or others)
- understanding and working with complex family dynamics
- a need to talk to someone independent of your daily life
Some of the most common reasons people come to therapy are:
Grief
when we lose someone through death, grief often feels overwhelming, frightening, isolating and confusing. Grief causes us to feel completely out of our depth, as if we will never return to a place that feels more settled and joyful again. Having support gives you the time, space and permission to grieve and helps you process the more difficult parts of your grief. It also helps you find ways of living well with your new reality going forwards. Therapy helps you to understand the nature of your grief in relation to the unique circumstances and context of the death, thereby normalizing your experience, and can help you avoid mental health issues, for example depression and anxiety, caused through unattended grief.
In Life-Losses
Losses-in-Life can be isolating as they are often not recognised in the same way that a death is, yet often result in deep experiences of grief. Any hoped-for element in life (children, a relationship, health, career, family, specific goals) as well as compromises of one’s identity and integrity, need to be recognised and processed. Recognising your in-life losses with a therapist ensures you can move forward freely and with dignity and do not slip into mental health issues such as depression and anxiety as a result of unacknowledged grief.
Overwhelming Emotions
Emotions that are experienced as ‘too much’ are often expressed through types of actions. The emotions find an outlet in often unhelpful and unhealthy ways or ways that mean you avoid life altogether. Therapy can help you to understand what and why you are experiencing what you are and support you in making sense of your emotional world so that it becomes helpful to you rather than something that needs to be avoided. This gives you a greater sense of agency in how you both experience yourself and respond to challenges.
Repetitive thoughts and behaviours
Repetitive thoughts have a tortuous quality as your mind goes round in circles without any choice in creating change. Repetitive behaviours seem to be beyond your control and have a quality as if they are driven by something stronger than your will. There is a persistent nature to both that is difficult to change. With thoughtful attention and curiosity, therapy helps you to interrupt the persistent cycle. It addresses the anxiety that is causing the repetitions and it also helps by supporting you to engage with yourself in a more supportive way when you feel the tendencies gaining momentum so that you feel less dominated by the thoughts or behaviours.
Relationship Challenges
Relationship challenges may manifest as you avoiding others or having difficulty being alone, or experiencing repeated complications with social, intimate, family or work relations. This can also apply to the relationship you have with yourself and the way you attend to your own feelings and needs.
In therapy, relationship challenges can be explored without judgement or shame. Often our relational patterns begin to take shape in a therapeutic relationship and this is a safe place where they can be respectfully understood and processed so that you can have a healthier relationship to yourself and others going forward.
Early Life Neglect
Individuals living with the consequences of early life neglect often feel understandably unsure of others or a great need for someone to care for them, or sometimes a confusing conflict between the two. There is a need within that has never been met; these basic human needs do not disappear but can often get confused as they drift into adulthood without any attention.
Therapy can be helpful to provide a place where your experiences can be heard and understood but also a place where you can explore who you are today. Therapy supports you both to grieve the parts of your childhood that were likely lost, recognise the parts that you had, and also embrace your resilience and who you can become today going forward.
FAQs
As a general idea, psychotherapy is a form of mindful exploration of ourselves and our lives (or a particular aspect of our lives) with the support of a therapist in a confidential and non-judgemental environment. It provides a unique space where thoughtful attention is given to our experience and it supports shifts within us allowing for different ways of feeling and thinking about ourselves.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a type of talking therapy. It encourages thoughtful attention to ourselves and our lives so that a person can gain a broader understanding of themselves in the present. It is a therapy that engages an individual in a deeper way that supports someone in processing long-standing issues and digesting experiences that are hard to manage on our own, allowing for healing and growth to take place.
A psychodynamic style of therapy takes into consideration our emotional, relational and developmental characteristics both past and current as valuable sources of information for a therapy. It also allows space for those parts of ourselves that might be beyond our immediate awareness yet which often influence our lives and relationships. It is a relational therapy in the way that it considers the relational quality between a client and their therapist an important part of the therapeutic effect in therapy. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is informed by different schools of psychoanalytic research that focus on human-development, psychological and emotional health and processes, and therapeutic ways of working. It offers a space where anything can be shared without judgement as it acknowledges the complexities, challenges and contradictions common in human experience.
Sensorimotor psychotherapy is a trauma therapy with a body-oriented focus. The nature of trauma means that it tends to remain actively present in the body and speaks through the body. Individuals living with traumatic memory will know from experience that they can have challenges remaining present and tend to become either hyper-activated or may start to zone out or become distant when they try to talk about their experience or find themselves triggered. Sensorimotor psychotherapy pays attention to these responses through our body and works with them to both help stabilize the level of activation as well as process the traumatic memory, using a trauma-informed approach. Clients are guided via their body’s experience using sensorimotor techniques combined with talking-therapy. This way of working is informed by trauma theory, neuroscience and attachment theory. The reason for the focus of the body in this type of therapy is that whilst the effects of unprocessed trauma are present in the body, the body is at the same time the primary resource for the stabilization and processing of the traumatic activation it holds.
MBT is an approach that helps us to make sense of our thoughts, beliefs, desires, needs and feelings and to link these to our actions and behaviours. It also supports us in being able to consider ourselves and others in a more integrated way. Mentalizing is a capacity that we all use in everyday life but this ability can be under-developed as well as over-used for some, or is very likely to be compromised under situations of stress, distress and trauma for everyone. Mentalizing is informed by attachment research, neuroscience, psychoanalytic research and social cognition theory. Supporting a person’s mentalizing will foster their emotional growth as well as help them to feel more grounded, especially when in stressful circumstances.
Some of the benefits of therapy could be a feeling of greater ease in yourself, reduced restlessness, improved emotional and overall mental health, healthier relationships, increased self-awareness, a better engagement with yourself and life in general, a decrease in unexplained symptoms and unhelpful habits, and changes in the way we respond to life’s problems. In a helpful therapy, the effects tend to be quite subtle yet effective.
It depends on what you are hoping to gain from therapy and what your initial concerns are. This would be discussed at a consultation and can also change through the therapy according to your needs. There are options for time-limited (from 1-12 sessions), short-term (up to six months) or open-ended therapy.
I usually see clients on a weekly basis but therapeutic requirements are discussed at consultations and may change through the therapy.
This is a very natural concern for clients starting with a new therapist or starting therapy for the first time. You will get an idea from the initial consultation whether you feel comfortable enough with me to begin therapy, which may lessen this feeling. However, if this concern is more than a passing one, I would encourage you to share it with me as it could be of therapeutic value to you.
There are hundreds of different types of therapies that exist for emotional wellbeing. It is therefore not easy to know with certainty which will be better suited to you at any particular time in your life. One of the purposes of the initial consultation is for you to explore your reasons for coming to therapy in combination with the style of working that I have, to see whether you think it might be a good fit for you. I will also let you know if I do not think that my way of working would be suitable for you and we can discuss alternative options if you like.
It is hard to know this before meeting me. The initial consultation gives us the opportunity to meet each other and for you to see how you feel in my company. If you then decide to continue in therapy, you will get a sense in the first few sessions whether you think we are a suitable therapeutic fit. The therapeutic effect of therapy tends to be influenced by the relational quality between an individual and their therapist and that is difficult to know before experiencing it.
I would recommend that you have a consultation to talk through your concerns and explore further what it is you might be looking for. You are then likely to have a clearer idea of whether having therapy could be useful to you. You could also consider meeting a few therapists from different orientations to get a broader viewpoint.