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July 13, 2020 by Brighton and Hove Psychotherapy Leave a Comment

A Primary Task

This is second of eight short blogs exploring the elements of therapeutic change as proposed by Dr Sebastian Kramer.  Click here to read the first one – ‘A Desire to Change‘.

2.  A primary task, a goal . . .

When a client enters therapy they give us permission, to help them with an initial task or goal.  This goal may change throughout the therapy so it can be discussed and the ‘therapeutic sat nav’ can be reset. 

It is important that both of therapist and client understand and agree with what is being worked towards. 

We call it a ‘therapeutic contract’. It helps to keep our talking on subject and the last thing a therapist wants is for a client to walk out of the room thinking that the session had not been useful, that the conversation may have drifted around too many subjects or they had not been asked the questions they were hoping to be asked.  

In systemic psychotherapy it is not unusual for us to ask for feedback from our clients a little way into the session to help us understand if the session feels on track and useful so we can change direction to recalibrate the conversation.

When I was training I thought it was the therapist’s job to solve all of the client’s problems and dilemmas – this was an overwhelming and crippling thought.

I now understand that therapy can exist in chapters, in segments and in episodes.  You can move in and out of therapy with different goals.   

Therapy is an on-going dialogue with the therapist’s job being facilitate, encourage, cajole, challenge, question, celebrate and witness the reflection, insights and successes that our clients experience.

 

Sharon Spindler is an experienced Systemic Family Therapist with twelve years experience within the NHS and private practice.  Sharon is available at the Brighton & Hove Practice.

 

Further reading by Sharon Spindler –

A Desire to Change (part 1)

Covid 19 – Talking with children in uncertain times

Family Therapy for Beginners

Face to Face and Online Therapy Help Available Now

Click Here to Enquire

Filed Under: Mental Health, Psychotherapy, Sharon Spindler Tagged With: Counselling, Psychotherapy, systemic psychotherapy

February 17, 2020 by Brighton & Hove Psychotherapy Leave a Comment

So what actually is a Psychologist?

It’s important to note that the term ‘psychologist’ is not actually a protected title.  So, anyone can technically call themselves a psychologist.  If someone claims to be a psychologist, then the question to ask is, what kind of psychologist are they, and perhaps more importantly, what qualifications do they have.

Undergraduate degrees may be undertaken as either a Bachelor of Science or of Arts.  Completing an undergraduate degree in psychology gives a good basic introduction to a wide range of psychological theories and applications, but not necessarily expertise in any one area.

The British Psychological Society describes psychology as:

‘the scientific study of the mind and how it dictates and influences our behaviour, from communication and memory to thought and emotion.  It’s about understanding what makes people tick and how this understanding can help us address many of the problems and issues in society today.’

There are many areas of both theory and application within psychology; health, educational, forensic, counselling, occupational, clinical, sports and exercise, and neuro.  Becoming qualified in one of these fields requires post-graduate study.

In the example of Clinical Psychology; the current route for training is a 3 year doctoral degree (after the undergraduate degree) which involves both university teaching days and days on placement with the NHS.  In order for someone to call themselves a Clinical Psychologist, they must have completed an approved training course, and be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

The HCPC regulates all applied psychologists within the areas above. The below are protected titles, which means people can only use them if they have completed an approved training course and complete ongoing appropriate Continuing Professional Development.

  • Practitioner psychologist
  • Registered psychologist
  • Clinical psychologist
  • Forensic psychologist
  • Counselling psychologist
  • Health psychologist
  • Educational psychologist
  • Occupational psychologist
  • Sport and exercise psychologist

Any other titles, such as Media Psychologist, Celebrity Psychologist or TV Psychologist, such as are often seen in the media, say nothing about the qualifications or expertise of the individual.  Understandably this is often misunderstood by the public.  As a Clinical Psychologist it concerns me that people may put their trust in, or even pay for services delivered by, unqualified people.  In addition it is concerning that the reputation or credibility of the profession may be damaged by unqualified people providing a poor service.

It is a very confusing area, however, probably the most important thing to remember is if you are considering working with a psychologist in any of the fields above check that they are registered with the HCPC on www.hcpc-uk.org

 

Please follow the links to find out more about about our therapists and the types of therapy services we offer.  We have practices in Hove and Lewes.  Online therapy is also available.

Face to Face and Online Therapy Help Available Now

Click Here to Enquire

Filed Under: Mental Health, Psychotherapy Tagged With: Counselling, psychology, systemic psychotherapy

December 30, 2019 by Brighton & Hove Psychotherapy Leave a Comment

Using the body to calm the mind

When we think about psychological difficulties, we often think of these as being purely in the mind.  In some of my other blogs I’ve spoken about the link between mind and body, and this is something I work with a lot in my therapy sessions with clients. 

This is particularly relevant with issues of anxiety; where the fight-flight-freeze system comes into play.  This ancient pathway in our brains allowed us to detect and respond to threats before we even had a conscious awareness of them.  Nowadays of course often the ‘threats’ are more likely to be psychological (fear about a situation for example) rather than a physical threat such as being attacked by a wild bear.  However, our bodies still react in the same way, by preparing our bodies to fight, run, or stand very still and hope the bear doesn’t notice us.  This is why stress and anxiety tends to lead to symptoms such as racing heart, tight muscles and increased breathing rate; all things that would help us to fight, run or stand very still.

We often might think of needing to use our minds (thoughts) to calm ourselves, and certainly in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy this is an important part of learning to manage anxiety.  However, we can also use our bodies to calm our minds.  As well as the messages coming from our brain to our body to say ‘quick, get ready to respond’ our bodies also send messages back to our brains.  So if we can do things with our bodies to calm, that in turn can send messages of calming back to our brains.  A good example of this is breathing:  In flight-fight-freeze mode our brains’ automatic response is to send a message to our bodies to make breathing shallower and faster in order to get oxygen to our muscles to prepare to run, fight or stand really still.  If, however, we over-ride this and purposefully slow our breathing to take deeper, slower breaths, that will send the message to our brain to say ‘it’s ok, we don’t need to be anxious’.  Some people find using a breathing square or star can be helpful.  If you imagine the shape and trace round it in your mind, breathing in as you trace along one side, and out as you trace along the next and so on.

Using progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is another body based technique that can be really useful.  This involves working through the body from feet to head, tensing and then relaxing different parts in turn.  There are many scripts available online, or even YouTube videos which take you through a PMR exercise.  Again, this helps calm the mind by sending messages from the body back to the brain.  Even just going for a walk can be really useful when we are stressed or anxious.  At times of anxiety or high stress our bodies get flooded with hormones, including adrenaline.  This is what tells the body to prepare to run, fight or stand really still.  All the time high levels of adrenaline are present in our blood we will be in fight-flight-freeze mode.  Adrenaline is used up by our muscles, so doing activities that use our muscles will reduce the amount of adrenaline in our system.  So things like going for a walk are great for reducing adrenaline.

Most people anecdotally have probably found that when we are stressed or anxious going for a walk or taking 10 deep breaths can be useful.  As we can see there is a very real reason for why this can help; our bodies can be used to calm our minds.

 

Please follow the links to find out more about about our therapists and the types of therapy services we offer.  We have practices in Hove and Lewes.  Online therapy is also available.

Face to Face and Online Therapy Help Available Now

Click Here to Enquire

Filed Under: Brighton and Hove Psychotherapy Tagged With: anxiety, stress, systemic psychotherapy

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