PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPY

Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) is a useful model to use when someone is experiencing feelings of shame and/or engages in high levels of self-criticism.  

CFT suggests that we have three dfferent systems, the soothing system, the threat system and the drive system.  These are balanced and can be activated in order to help us soothe, avoid danger or 'get up and go' when needed.  Adverse life experiences, particularly in childhood can alter the sensitivity of these systems, or impede their ability to grow and develop.  This results in responses that may be disproportionate or the misinterpretation of different situations.  In addition, negativity can then be turned inward as self-criticsm and self-punishment.

The aim of CFT is to balance out the systems and enhance the ability to select the most appropriate responses for the situation, while learning ways of self-soothing.  CFT sees compassion as a flow that starts with compassion towards others, moving to being open to compassion from others and then learning self-compassion.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) comes from the perspective that life is painful at times.  While there are some things that we can change, there are others that we can't.  

ACT explores what matters to us and challenges us to ask ourselves whether we are living our lives in a way that fits with this.  It suggests that when we live in ways that do not fit with what matters, we experience distress and life can become a struggle.  We can become stuck in this struggle and all the thoughts and emotions associated with it, making us feel even worse.

While ACT does not attempt to change things that cannot be changed (for example we all have feelings no matter how much we sometimes wished we didn't), it helps us to accept things as they are and commit to taking action that creates energy for and moves us towards doing more of what matters, even when all we really want to do is run away and hide or lash out.

Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprogramming, or EMDR for short, is an intervention most often known for helping people who have had trauatic experiences.  However, it is successfully used to help people with anxiety, OCD and depression as well.

EMDR is different from other therapies as it relies a lot less on talking.  Although you will need to give a history of the difficulties you are having, you do not need to give a long account of things that have happened.  Instead, you think of a particular memory to target and then allow your brain to 'go where it needs to go' under the guidance of a trained EMDR therapist.  It is difficult to explain exactly how EMDR 'feels' and often people describe it as strange (which it kind of is!!) but it works.  As an EMDR therapist, you have to have experienced it yourself during the training, so you can be assured that the therapist knows a little bit about how it feels (even if they still can't describe it very well).

When doing EMDR processing, you will be asked to follow some hand movements with your eyes, or to tap yourself with your hands and then just give the 'headlines' of what came up for you (much as if you are sitting on a train and giving the highlights of what you see as you go past).

What is really great is that when you do EMDR, you start by thinking about different resources that you could bring in to the therapy, as well as some strategies to help you when you feel overwhelmed, meaning that you can go into the processing part knowing you have the resources you need to allow your brain to do what it needs to do.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT is a therapeutic approach that is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for anxiety, depression and trauma (using the Trauma-Focused CBT model; TF-CBT).

CBT explores the links between your thoughts, feelings and behaviours, aiming to reduce distress by challenging unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviours while learning new skills and strategies.  

Unsurprisingly, CBT is a behavioural approach, which actively involves elements of behavioural practice, such as carrying out behavioural experiments or scheduling in activities.  The aim is to break the unhelpful interactions between thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is an intervention that works on the premise that 'problem behaviours' can be redefined as 'attempted solutions' and curiously aims to find the underlying positive motivation (for example, a parent shouting at their child when they run off may not be an effective strategy, but the underlying motivation in shouting is to keep their child safe).

Therapy explores what an individual's preferred future would look like, asks what would be different when it is happening and what is already being done that fits with this vision.  

SFBT is an active therapy that makes an assumption that change will be made in between sessions and seeks to encourage this by shifting focus onto noticing when things are different.  

Narrative Therapy (NT) looks at the stories that we hold and tell about ourselves and our lives.  While our stories can be balanced, difficulties can occur when a person's story becomes saturated with problems.  This can affect the way that we see ourselves and we start to act as if the problem-saturated story of our life is the only story there is.  We can then start believing that all others can see are the 'headlines' of this story.  Often these stories are not even authored by ourselves, but by those around us (for example, the teacher that said we would amount to nothing or the friend that talked behind our back).

Therapy involves learning how to be the author of our own lives and choose co-authors that are able to support a balanced story, and not one only focused on the bad.  While we cannot change past events, we can learn to seek balance and enrich our stories with both positives and challenges we have faced.  It recognises that people can become stuck in the same old story, and seeks to explore the exceptions to the rules and beliefs that we hold.  For example, recognising that the belief that 'no-one cares for me' can be enriched by adding context.  Maybe my ex didn't care about me, but actually my friend came over when she found out about our break up.  While this doesn't exclude the notion that the ex was uncaring, it becomes part of the story, rather than the whole story.

Both SFBT and NT work well together, holding a socution focus while holding a safe and non-judgemental space to explore and re-author your own story.

I am trained to Level 1 in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP).  This means that I am able to incorporate a DDP framework into my practice, but am not a DDP practitioner.

DDP is an intervention intended for use with adopted children, however its principles can be applied to any parent-child relationship.  

DDP explores ways of relating to children in a way that helps them learn about their own internal world and how to react and respond differently.  It uses 'PACE' to do this:

P - Playfulness

A - Acceptance

C - Curiosity

E - Empathy

Therapy using DDP starts with the parents, teaching them the principles and how to apply them, even when they are feeling stressed or overwhelmed themselves.  When ready, the young person would be invited into the sessions so that their story can be heard and attended to.