Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy aims at inner change and growth through self-understanding, and relief from such painful repeated experiences as stem more from within than from currently painful circumstances.

The psychotherapy patient’s job is to take courage in telling truthfully of their troubles and preoccupations, including their concerns about the therapeutic process itself.

Part of my job is then to help my patient attend to, face, and own, rather than deflect from, their anxieties – so that they can move beyond, rather than remain curtailed by, them. Another part is to share what I notice about patterns they tend to unwittingly repeat – so they can make conscious life choices rather than being driven by unconscious habits.

My approach is broadly ‘psychodynamic’ – which is to say that I’ll sometimes focus on the ways in which my patient unconsciously tends to get in their own way in their relationships with themself, with me, and with the other people in their life. At other times the work will be more exploratory, allowing for the retrieval and growth of parts of the self that got left behind during development.

My psychological practice draws primarily on psychodynamic, and to some degree on existential and cognitive-behavioural approaches. However each psychotherapy relationship is different; its key features will be developed together by patient and therapist. Along the way each will make ongoing attempts at truthfulness, apt trust, straightforwardness, accountability, understanding, vulnerability, care-taking, assertiveness, respect, self-knowledge, courage, dignity, acceptance, challenge, honesty and forgiveness.

I currently see psychotherapy patients on Tuesday mornings, Wednesday afternoon and early evening, and all day Thursday and Friday.

Before (and perhaps instead of) embarking on psychotherapy, it’s important to first have an assessment session. In this the patient can share something of the difficulties that lead them to seek therapy, and perhaps something too of their life circumstance and background. The primary function of this session is for both parties to consider whether working together could be helpful to the prospective patient.

Assessment and therapy sessions are £120 for a 50 minute session (payable monthly in arrears; fees revised annually in May). There is no concessionary rate. Further details about billing, missed sessions, etc., on application.

Resources

For more information on the nature of psychotherapy, how to choose a good therapist, making good use of your therapy sessions, and psychotherapy’s evidence base:

Jonathan Shedler:

How to choose a psychotherapist: A guide to recognizing competence

Getting started in psychotherapy: A guide for patients (and their therapists)

That was then, this is now: An introduction to contemporary psychodynamic psychotherapy

The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy

Deborah Luepnitz:

Schopenhauer’s Porcupines: Intimacy And Its Dilemmas: Five Stories Of Psychotherapy