Attachment-Based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Supervision in Walthamstow
Attachment-based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Welcome to my website. Life can be tough sometimes. We may have feelings we struggle to cope with or understand or we might have a decision or life change we struggle to navigate. In any instance therapy and counselling might be helpful. There may be a specific situation, relationship dynamic or feeling past or present you wish to explore or make sense of, particularly if this is creating unease or struggle in your life right now.
Attachment-Based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
I am a UKCP-registered attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist, counsellor, supervisor and teacher. I have twenty years experience working with adults in individual one-to-one therapy both in person and online and supervising and teaching prospective future clinicians in training. Here are some of the ways I can help you:
Open ended Psychotherapy and Counselling
Open ended therapy offers an opportunity for you to build a therapeutic alliance and explore your struggles in as little or as long a time as you wish. This can be a very enriching and fulfilling experience and may involve focussing on a particular issue in your life or exploring more general themes that are bothering you. People come to therapy for many reasons and you can find out more about this in the 'About Psychotherapy' page on this website. Do also read on and see 'Wisdom from the Consulting Room' below for guidance on what to think about when seeking a suitable therapist.
Supervision
I also offer one-to-one supervision for those psychotherapists and counsellors interested in an attachment-based framework and clinicans-in-training. If you are a psychotherapist, counsellor or trainee and are interested in an attachment framework please do not hesitate to drop me a line.
The Initial Consultation
Depending on my availability, the next step is for us to talk on the phone when we will discuss your needs, expectations and interests from therapy or supervision in more detail. The purpose of the second meeting is to see how you feel being in the room with me and ask any questions that may have about the way I work. Then we just take it one step at a time and see how we go with the issues you wish to explore or make sense of.
If you are interested in any of these approaches and wish to find out more, you can visit the 'About Psychotherapy', 'About Nicky' and 'What to Expect' pages or drop me an email.
Wisdom from the Consulting Room.
Here is a wee place I will share a few thoughts and musings along various themes from my time spent with all those couragerous souls I meet everyday in my consulting room. I hope you too may find some of these thoughts and reflections helpful and if you wish to think about these ideas further please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Questions We Might Ask Ourselves When We Seek Therapy
As an attachment based therapist, I see every day the courage people have in stepping forward and talking about some of the most painful and vulnerable struggles in their lives. Being heard, understood and truly seen are some of the most important requisites for therapeutic growth but what does this really mean to you? What would someone have to do or say to help you feel truly understood and met in order that you could feel therapy is working? In addition to important practical considerations such as accreditations, training, credentials, years of experience, age, gender, modality etc. here are a few questions you might wish to ask yourself whilst seeking a new therapist.
Do you have a specific issue you wish to address or is it a more general feeling of malaise? Would you prefer the therapy be very structured and goal-orientated in its format with exercises to follow or would it be very open and exploratory? Would you wish 'homework' in between sessions? Would you prefer moments of silence to digest what is being explored or would you prefer a more dynamic conversational to-and-fro? Is warmth and kindness most important to you or might you feel that to be a little too ‘cosy’, preferring a more challenging or direct approach? Would you want the therapist to be quite challenging albeit with kindness and empathy or would you want a gentler holding space to share your feelings and have them simply heard and understood? Would you want the room to be in clinical setting or in the therapist’s home? Or would you prefer the therapy to be from your own home either on the telephone or on Zoom?
Therapists can vary greatly in their style and approach and so these are important questions to think about when looking for a potential therapist. When you make an initial enquiry you can ask them about their approach and assess whether it fits the type of therapeutic relationship you are looking for. Now of course we cannot always know what it is we are looking for and we have to sometimes just give as few sessions a go to see how we feel. Does the initial encounter feel ‘right’ and do I feel comfortable sharing what it is I need to share with this person? I offer two initial no obligation meetings in order to allow you to intuit and assess what kind of therapy you might need and want.
If you are interested in counselling and psychotherapy contact me on 0208 509 2849.