Feel to Heal

Psychotherapy involves the individual talking about his or her feelings, thoughts and actions. The responsibility of the psychologist is to listen to the client and help them to gain a better understanding of themselves so as to initiate the necessary changes they desire in their life.

In the practice an eclectic approach to therapy is used where the therapeutic intervention will be tailored to meet the needs of the client.

Some of the therapeutic modalities used include the following:

• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
  This is a short term therapy where the focus is on identifying and changing maladaptive emotions and cognitions, using a behavioural and cognitive model. DBT is also available as a group therapy. Please enquire for more information.

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
  The aim of the therapy is to help the client generate solutions to current and future problems in a limited number of sessions. The focus of this form of therapy is to gain an understanding of the client’s beliefs and underlying assumptions about herself or himself, others and the world. Maladaptive assumptions are seen as the root cause of problems. Therapy allows for these maladaptive assumptions to be identified and changed by means of the cognitive model.

• Psychodynamic Therapy
  The focus of this therapy is to allow the individual to gain insight into their thoughts, actions and behaviours. The aim is to reveal unconscious processes of a client’s psyche to alleviate inner tension.

At the first session the client will be given brief information regarding psychotherapy and is requested to complete a form. The first 1-2 sessions often take the form of an interview. This allows the psychologist to attain a better understanding of the client. During this time the client and psychologist decide if they are happy to move forward together. Goals for therapy are discussed along with the duration of therapy.

Therapy is confidential and all therapeutic notes will be kept securely to ensure such confidentiality. Records will only be released by consent of the client. However, there are restrictions and limitations to such confidentially and these will be discussed in the first session.