Psychological Services
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT is based on the concept that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and actions are interconnected, and that negative thoughts and feelings can trap you in a vicious cycle and make you feel worse.
CBT aims to help you deal with difficulties in a more positive way by breaking them down into smaller parts. Therapy enables you to identify unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviours to improve the way you feel. It looks for practical ways to improve your state of mind on a daily basis.
CBT is focused on addressing current problems, however it may include understanding how the past impacts upon the present in order to understand some patterns of thoughts and behaviours.
CBT is a collaborative therapy between client and therapist working towards mutually agreed goals. CBT is recognised as the treatment of choice by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) for most depression and anxiety related problems.
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR was originally developed by Francine Shapiro in 1987, to successfully treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The mind can often heal itself naturally, in the same way as the body does. Much of this natural coping mechanism occurs during sleep, particularly during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
Usually our mind and body manages new experiences and processes them naturally, however sometimes we are faced with an overwhelming experience that can lead to our mind becoming overloaded. This can be a traumatic event such as a car accident or being repeatedly subject to distressing situations such as abuse or neglect. When the mind has become overloaded and processing of the event is inhibited, the memory remains stuck and similar events or sensations can trigger distressing feelings associated with the traumatic memory.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) helps you process the negative images, emotions, beliefs, and body sensations associated with traumatic memories that seem to be stuck. It involves using bilateral stimulation in the form of either eye movements, tapping with touch or holding on to vibrating pads.
EMDR helps you to see things from a different perspective and relieves the symptoms that you were suffering.
Mindfulness
Whenever you bring awareness to what you’re directly experiencing via your senses, or to your state of mind via your thoughts and emotions, you’re being mindful. There is growing research showing that when you practice mindfulness regularly that you you’re actually remodeling the physical structure of your brain.
Mindfulness meditation asks us to suspend judgment and unleash our natural curiosity about the workings of the mind, approaching our experience with warmth and kindness, to ourselves and others.
When we choose to focus our attention mindfully we are able to take some control of how we feel, rather than passively allowing our attention to be dominated by thoughts and feelings that distress us.