Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a short-term evidence-backed therapy with a high success rate in supporting clients to move through difficulties in their relationship. This includes one or both partners who have experienced early trauma. It is shown to to be an extremely effective way of … [Read more...]
Existential Therapies
“A rich tapestry of intersecting therapeutic practices, all of which orientate themselves around shard concern: human lived experience” (1)What is existential therapy? I’m asked this a lot. I even ask myself from time to time. In some ways it could be described as an attitude held by the … [Read more...]
Paying attention to stress
We are evolutionarily wired for stress. For our early ancestors, inhabiting a natural world beset with predatory dangers the flight/fight response was crucial to survival. The same alarm system exists today for the same survival purpose evolution originally intended. What is different is that … [Read more...]
The language of love: how couples communicate
When working with couples I am often struck by how much they love each other!This may sound surprising – by definition the couples I see in my practice have come to me because their relationship is in trouble. However I rarely see couples who say they no longer love each other. In my experience … [Read more...]
What is the difference between fate and destiny?
Many people will use the terms ‘fate’ and ‘ interchangeably and it can often not only be difficult to differentiate between the two, but also to understand what is actually meant by them. Both terms essentially refer to predetermined events that lie outside of our control and thus imply some sort of … [Read more...]
New, ongoing adult psychotherapy group starting in Autumn 2019
New, ongoing adult psychotherapy group starting in Autumn 2019 A new, ongoing adult psychotherapy group is due to start in the Autumn - a mixed gender group held at the Brighton & Hove Psychotherapy Practice in Hove on Saturday mornings. This group will be guided by group-analytic … [Read more...]
When praise becomes harmful to children
Contrary to its intention, praise does not always make a child feel good.Whilst we might typically think of praise as a gift, it is technically an evaluative judgement on the other person (e.g. “you’re a good girl” or “you’re a brilliant artist”), which for some children can be experienced as … [Read more...]
What is EMDR?
You might have seen EMDR being spoken about in the media a fair bit recently. Many famous people have been speaking out about how it has helped them with psychological difficulties, most often past traumas, but what actually is it?EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. … [Read more...]
The Therapeutic Relationship and the Unconscious
Freud believed personality and behaviour come from the unique interaction of conflicting psychological forces that operate on different levels of awareness: the preconscious, conscious and unconscious. He believed these play an important role in behaviour. During therapy, we tap into our unconscious … [Read more...]
How do I choose a psychotherapist?
Deciding that you want or need psychological help can be a difficult position to arrive at. Choosing the right practitioner to work with can feel like a daunting task with so many different fields of talk therapy, types of therapy and professional bodies overseeing the field. This blog is a guide … [Read more...]
A Dramatherapist at work in the sand tray
Dramatherapy is one of a group of therapies which are called Creative Arts Therapies, along with Music therapy and Art therapy. Today I am going to explore one aspect of Dramatherapy.We usually come to therapy to talk. Dramatherapy has the capacity to go beyond the talking because it … [Read more...]
Is growing up in a different culture always a good thing?
The world today seems smaller than ever before. We think nothing of travelling to once exotic destinations for our annual holiday and more and more of us are choosing to live in countries other than that of our birth.Alongside these effects of globalisation is that of children who are now … [Read more...]
What is ‘Blocked Care’ as it applies to parenting?
The phenomenon of parental ‘blocked care’ is a term coined by Clinical Psychologists Dan Hughes and Jonathon Baylin and Psychiatrist Dan Siegal. It represents a central feature of the Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) approach to treating children and young people with a history of … [Read more...]
How important are our Groups?
“Each individual – itself an artificial though plausible abstraction – is basically and centrally determined, inevitably, by the world in which he lives, by the community, the group, of which he forms a part.” Foulkes, S.H. (1948, p 10, Introduction to Group Analytic Psychotherapy, Karnac)The … [Read more...]
What causes insomnia?
Insomnia is defined as being a habitual, or regular, inability to sleep.Whilst it can be linked to medical conditions, the most common causes of insomnia are lifestyle related as well as anxiety, depression and stress related.With regards to anxiety, depression and stress, insomnia … [Read more...]