In our experience, many people considering therapy will be able to relate to one or more elements in the following areas. Our expertise lies in providing the support you need.
[expand title=”Depression/Anxiety”]These are our default mechanisms when we are overwhelmed by life. Our approach is a two-pronged one: we educate and stabilise in the present while helping to process the frozen trauma of the past.
If, after assessment, we feel that inpatient treatment is appropriate we have centres here and abroad to which we can refer. We keep contact with the centre during inpatient work and upon discharge we ask for a detailed report of what the client has done in order to provide a seamless follow-up.
We can often deal with problems on an outpatient basis, offering a variety of approaches and methods. When appropriate we refer to 12-step programmes or bodywork to support what we do with the individual.[/expand]
[expand title=”Codependence”]Difficulty in relationships is one of the main reasons people seek therapy. Often individuals can be very high functioning, successful in careers, but unable to form healthy personal relationships. Maybe they are terrified of emotional intimacy, or seek to bond with people who are abusive to them, or frighten partners away with insatiable needs.
This results from childhood experiences, usually within the family of origin, that leave the person feeling flawed, inadequate, “less than”, inauthentic, an outsider, and often lonely in a way that no amount of contact with others can fix. Attempts to medicate these intolerable feelings can lead to self-destructive behaviours.
The baby is born as a blank canvas and experiences after birth create a filter through which they see the world. The results are learned behaviour and we help the individual to relearn, so that they rediscover the precious person inside and become empowered to love, respect, and protect themselves with healthy boundaries. Happy relationships then become possible.[/expand]
[expand title=”Addictions”]One of the drawbacks of traditional drug and alcohol treatment is that the underlying traumatic experiences are not dealt with and the person continues to relapse. One of Pia Mellody’s major contributions to modern treatment has been her insistence that codependence, which grows out of traumatic experience, underlies addictive and compulsive behaviour and must be addressed as a priority when the client is not acting on their addiction. With this in mind, we work with treatment centres, offer aftercare and an outpatient service, have access to detox facilities and good psychiatric support to help the addict address the addiction and the underlying issues which drive it.[/expand]
[expand title=”Sexuality identity and orientation issues”]Issues around sexuality and sexual orientations can create conflict, both within the individual and in the individual’s relationships and society. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered individuals may face feelings that are overwhelming whilst they are discovering, accepting, and creating a healthy personal identity. Confusion, issues with spirituality and beliefs, bias and prejudice can all challenge the individual’s acceptance and integration of sexual identity into his/her broader self. Ways of relating to others, safer sexual behaviours, acceptance, forming and sustaining functional, healthy relationships are concerns that most individuals welcome help with.[/expand]
[expand title=”Issues in adolescence”]Adolescence is a period fraught with challenges and changes. Problems with school, peer interactions, interactions with parents and other family members, depression, acting out anxieties and traumas, and adjustments to new situations and feelings sometimes characterise these years. Adolescent therapy, whether individual- or group-based, targets these issues. The focus is one of supporting the adolescent to meet these challenges effectively, to resolve behavioural concerns, and to improve her/his functioning in the family and with peers in ways that the individual finds healthy satisfaction.[/expand]
[expand title=”Cross addiction”]Cross-addictions (developing compulsive behaviours or addictions to different things or replacing one addiction or type of behaviour with others) may develop in order to medicate feelings that arise when one addiction is addressed. Part of all addictive processes include medicating against uncomfortable feelings, so when one form of “medication” is removed, others may be developed to replace it. Our practice recognises and treats these compulsions and cross addictions at their source, including addressing childhood and adult traumas in which their origins are often found.[/expand]
[expand title=”Compulsive behaviours”]Often compulsive, repetitive behaviour is a response to intrusive thoughts. Fear or excitement can spark this reaction and the individual reacts via the chemical laboratory within the body. Once again accessing the experiences that drive this behaviour is primary.
Effects of these disorders include the ability to numb feelings by rapid elevation of adrenalin levels (risk taking behaviours) or blood sugar levels (food, drugs, alcohol), or fatigue (work), hormone release (exercise in excess or sex), or to distract: people who self-harm speak of the relief of being able to transform distress into physical pain.
Part of our treatment is to teach the individual about self-regulation and about how to function at lower levels of intensity once the trauma behind the behaviour is processed. Many of these issues – whether about sex (compulsive acting-out behaviour, obsessive thinking about sex, endless internet activity around pornography, chat rooms, contact and escort sites), overeating, compulsive spending/debting – are loaded with shame and guilt. We are mindful that facilitating changes in thoughts/behaviour must involve addressing the issues directly, and reducing shame to decrease the risk of relapse back into self-damaging, compulsive patterns. Our feedback and teaching is directed towards these goals.[/expand]
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