This page describes how over 35 yrs I have used a combination of Counselling, Psychotherapy & Ericksonian Hypnotherapy in Clapham, South West London. I have wide experience and am competent with most sorts of difficulty.
WHAT IS COUNSELLING -
HOW IS COUNSELLING THERAPY USED ?
With many difficulties Counselling provides sympathetic support. It offers a regular visit to a quiet place - the security of a sympathetic hearing, objective comment and constructive encouragement. For day-to-day problems counselling is all that is needed to enable people to work things through for themselves.
WHAT IS RELATIONSHIP COUNSELLING -
HOW IS COUPLES COUNSELLING USED ?
Relationship or couples counselling is more complicated territory. People in a relationship can interact in complex ways that are often far from obvious & may take a lot of skill to disentangle - particularly where the issues are highly charged emotionally. Often this includes elements of couple therapy and couple psychotherapy. In my practice I also may in some brief separate psychotherapy for each member of a couple where really intense or elusive personal patterns are disrupting the couple process.
Psychotherapy becomes necessary where there are more intense individual difficulties & relationship has become a means to play these out.
WHAT ARE HYPNOSIS AND HYPNOTHERAPY -
HOW IS ERICKSONIAN HYPNOTHERAPY USED ?
Hypnosis uses techniques effective with many physical problems - like allergic skin conditions, asthma, insomnia and sexual conditions. Some speedy treatment may be achieved through ‘band-aid’ solutions or short-lasting quick fixes which take no account of individual variability. Whatever the label - Ericksonian work regards the way a condition presents as specific to each individual. Only through proper diagnosis and correct patterns of suggestion - respecting individual uniqueness - achieve effective and long-lasting and solutions.
Flexibility of approach and imaginative mental constructions characterised by Ericksonian hypnotherapy are particularly useful where problems are psychologically complex or cause extreme emotional distress. Skilfully used these procedures derail problem processes and guide the mind into more peaceful and productive spaces open to new solutions.
WHAT IS PSYCHOTHERAPY -
HOW IS PSYCHOTHERAPY USED ?
Individual Psychotherapy is likely to be necessary where problems generate difficult emotional responses which threaten to destabilise a person’s identity or sense of themselves or disrupt individual’s functioning significantly. Present experience may be highly confused and distorted through past perceptions, feelings and experiences. A defective, unstable or negative sense of ourselves is the core realm of psychotherapy. Here we deal with deeper processes and possibly shaky foundations laid down by early experience. Often these patterns are hard for the sufferer to analyse or describe.
This can cause unhelpful thought patterns and out-of-control behaviours - like addictions & compulsive behaviour. These may damage ourselves or others in social or emotional ways. More extreme forms lead to obsessive or destructive impulses - violence or self self-harm.
Techniques developed in Cognitive Behavioural Analysis are useful in identifying detailed limiting thought and behaviour patterns to be modified through structured exercises.
In recent years there has been a productive linking of non-routine and high-level Cognitive Behavioural work ( Schema Therapy ) with inner process techniques like Ericksonian psychotherapy combined with hypnotherapy ( which we call hypno-psychotherapy ). These combined methods used in an appropriately modified way - with active input from the client - over a period - can address and transform very difficult problems. Well-documented work already demonstrates effectiveness with some personality disorders.
One also encounters processes associated with life crises and trauma. These require particularly careful analysis to ensure that no destabilising material is accidentally triggered and that change is effected in a safe and deliberate way. This requires high levels of competence in the application of hypnosis and possibly also EMDR.
( Too often clients tell me of insufficiently trained hypnotherapists who consider the problem pretty well solved once the disturbing material from which the mind has been shielding itself has been uncovered. This is incompetent and irresponsible. It risks re-traumatising the sufferer and can also make the problem far more difficult to treat later. One needs to be sure that one is in safe and competent hands. This is particularly important in hypnotherapy with children - especially for conditions like anxiety, phobias and nightmares )
Ericksonian work uses indirect methods which do not provoke internal defences and resistances. Often the process is extremely relaxed and even amusing. Acute perception is required to spot where the problem is accessible, how it may be de-constructed - seamlessly and ‘on the hoof’. Originality and creative thought enable this to be achieved in the flow of normal conversation. I often combine what I regard as essential elements of body work into the change process through awareness changing appropriate exercises.
Whether one is addressing Physical & Behaviour Problems - Problem Feelings & Thought Patterns or Social, Emotional & Relationship Difficulties, problems differ mainly in emphasis.
I have access to an experienced professional colleague network for wider consultation and support with complex challenges where needed.
Ericksonians often receive clients who have tried many other therapies with little or no benefit. We are well used to succeeding with really tricky cases.
The next page summarises many types of physical and psychological problems which are amenable to treatment.
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Counselling ...
Psychotherapy ...
Hypnotherapy...
South West London
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Benefit from 30 yrs Behavioural Science & TherapyExperience
