Philosophy
- I practice from an integrated psychotherapeutic approach that draws on elements from client-centererd, cognitive behavioural and psychodynamic techniques depending on the unique needs and goals of the client.
- l have worked with a host of mental health issues, but my particular passion lies with helping clients with anxiety and depressive disorders, stress management, panic attacks, relationship issues and helping clients cope with grief and anger management.
- Most of my direct contact with clients has dealt with challenging cognitive distortions, uncovering unhelpful core belief systems, creating strategies to regulate emotions and building resilience to foster hope and equip clients with tools to use in their everyday life.
- Counselling is a journey of self-discovery. In my experience, the therapist and client work together to explore the client's inner world. The goal is to increase self awareness and facilitate positive change in the client's life.
Client-Centered
Carl Rogers describes this approach well:
βIt is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried. It began to occur to me that unless I had a need to demonstrate my own cleverness and learning, I would do better to rely upon the client for the direction of movement in the process.β
Cognitive Behavioural
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapeutic treatment that helps clients understand the thoughts and feelings that influence their behaviour. CBT is commonly used to treat a wide range of disorders, including phobias, addictions, depression, and anxiety.
Psychodynamic
Psychodynamic therapy focuses on unconscious processes as they are manifested in a person's present behaviour. The goals of psychodynamic therapy are a client's self-awareness and understanding of the influence of the past on their present behaviour. An exploration of one's childhood and upbringing are common.