I specialise in cognitive and behavioural approaches to help my clients. There are different therapies within CBT, and the approach I take with any specific person will be based on an individual formulation or plan that we build together. The therapies include mindfulness, Schema Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and EMDR. Research studies have found that cognitive and behavioural approaches do help people make changes.

Cognitive and behavioural approaches aim to help you live a more confident and rewarding life by learning to:

• be less distracted by negative and unhelpful thinking, feelings and memories
• have a clearer, calmer and more purposeful mind
• develop life skills, like problem solving and assertive communication
• take actions based on what you value rather than what you are trying to avoid or suppress

Building a virtuous cycle

Together, we will build and consolidate your virtuous cycle based on three key areas – Intention, Awareness and Skilful Action.

• Intention reflects those aspects of our life we hold to be important and want to cultivate. So, intention gives our behaviours direction.
• Awareness is key to ensuring that our intention is well placed and well paced. We rely on a non judgemental and present moment awareness to simply see what is happening in the here and now, regardless of how we expected or wanted it to be. Through awareness we make sure our efforts fit the changing situations we find ourselves in.
• Skilful Action is how we bring our intention, and awareness together. Some actions, like assertive communication can require training and practice to be most effective. The more we practise, the more skilful our actions become, the more we benefit as our intentions come to fruition.

Overcoming the vicious cycles

We aim to reduce and disable any vicious cycles that work against you, by recognising our own Distractions and Reactions.

• Distraction, in this sense, is not something “external” like loud music or a TV set, it describes our inner experiences”, our thoughts, feelings, memories and sensations that we become preoccupied with, perhaps cling to if they are desirable or try to escape or avoid if we dislike them.
• Reactions are the different was we try to fix the distractions, but instead simply make the distractions become more intense, powerful or dominant and habitual. We drink alcohol, over eat food, get into fights and arguments, avoid people, places and situations just to keep our distractions at bay.

We start by getting to know how our own vicious cycles show up in our day to day lives, and how they consume the time and energy we would rather spend on our positive intentions. Through the different cbt approaches, we can step away from the vicious cycles that have been limiting us.