About the Counselling Sessions

How I work with clients

I use a framework of Transactional Analysis in my work with clients and integrate concepts and practices from the approaches of Mindfulness and EMDR (Eye-Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing) where appropriate and only with the clients agreement. I have found that my clients can easily relate and apply the key concepts and practices of these models and they help us to work together to answer the questions ‘Why do I feel like this?’ and ‘How can I change or accept this?’

Transactional Analysis provides a way of getting to know your personality; understanding your relationships and communication with others and your automatic reactions to emotional problems and stressful situations. It has been described as offering a Theory of Personality based on the concept of  ‘Parent’, ‘Adult’ and ‘Child’ ego-states; a Theory of Communication and a Theory of Personal Development which provides an insight into how we develop psychologically from a child to an adult.

Mindfulness is best described as:

‘paying attention on purpose moment by moment without judging, (J Kabat-Zinn).’

I will often introduce Mindfulness concepts and exercises into our sessions as a way of helping clients to learn how to manage impulsivity; emotionally regulate and reduce the impact of learnt reactions and inner-critics. Through mindfulness, you can learn how to be more compassionate to yourself and experience the present moment, non-judgementally. It has been clinically proven that by adopting a mindful approach to life you can better manage stress and stop the struggle of  constantly worrying about the future; self -destructively linking past experience to present and criticizing or suppressing what you think, feel or do. Hence it is being widely used in the NHS for issues such as anxiety and depression with very successful results.

Eye-Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy is best described as a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.

‘EMDR practitioners integrate patterned eye movements or other Bi-Lateral simulations with talk therapy techniques to clear emotional, cognitive and physical blockages. In theory traumas leave unprocessed memories, feelings and thoughts that can be reprocessed. Similar to the way rapid eye movement (REM) or dream sleep works, the eye movements help to process this blocked information, allowing the body-mind to release it.’ (L Parnell)

‘There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defence and is used in the NHS to treat trauma.’ (EMDR Institute)

I will introduce the option of using EMDR and therapy at certain points in my work with clients if we identify that there is a traumatic memory that is impacting life in the present; a phobia that is restricting a clients lifestyle or a self-limiting or negative belief about self that is holding them back in life.

In essence, my aim is to work with clients to offer another perspective on what you feel, think and do and offer a range of tools to help you to learn new ways to feel, think and be and support you in integrating those tools into your life.