top of page

Psychological Therapy & Counselling

We provide 1:1, couples and family therapy and counselling to people experiencing a range of mental health and physical health difficulties. Psychological therapy and counselling is provided by highly specialist accredited clinicians. Our clinicians strive to offer a safe space and a warm, compassionate and non-judgemental environment to explore difficulties and to build on strengths.

​

Counselling and therapy typically involves meeting regularly on an individual, couples or family basis with a psychologist or counsellor. Most people opt for weekly or fortnightly sessions, however session scheduling can vary between twice weekly to once a month. Sessions can be short-term or long-term. Some people prefer to schedule a fixed number of sessions, whilst others prefer an open-ended approach. 

​

Support is person-centred, which means it is based on a thorough assessment & understanding of your personal needs, hopes & goals. Sessions typically include a discussion & exploration of current & historical difficulties, as well as the contributing & maintaining factors to these difficulties. This understanding of the formation of difficulties is then used to inform treatment planning, which may include a reflective & processing space, a focus on skills building and / or the use of specific strategies.

​

​

​

Our Specialisms Include:

​

psychologist bristol

WHICH THERAPY APPROACH IS RIGHT FOR ME?

Psychological Therapy

Psychological therapy sessions are a high intensity form of therapy and counselling. Psychological therapy provides a reflective and emotional processing space as well as a skills building element to aid with enhancing wellbeing and reducing distress. It can be helpful for more complex or longer-term problems such as depression, anxiety disorders (e.g. OCD, social anxiety, phobias), physical health issues (e.g. chronic pain, fatigue, diabetes), self-esteem issues and relationship issues.

​

What to Expect:

The initial sessions involve undertaking an assessment and formulation of current difficulties, which involves exploring:

  • Predisposing factors that may have made us more vulnerable to developing difficulties

  • Triggering factors for difficulties

  • Factors that may maintain or perpetuate our difficulties

 

These factors may be relational (e.g. family), environmental (e.g. work or school), or internal (e.g. our personality style). Psychological therapy enables an in-depth exploration of these factors and our wider experiences, helping us to understand what shapes our identity and sense of self.

​

The assessment and formulation then informs the treatment approach and the intervention strategies used. Intervention and treatment strategies may include:

  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

  • Mindfulness-based approaches

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

  • Compassion-Focused Therapy

  • Family therapy

  • Couples counselling

  • Parental consultation

  • School consultation

  • Person-centred counselling

  • Psychological counselling

  • Neuropsychological rehabilitation

counselling bristol

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a medium to higher intensity form of therapy that focuses on exploring and assessing the link between our thoughts, feelings, behaviours and physical sensations. Sessions are practical and experiential, with a focus on developing tools, skills and strategies to use in everyday life to manage difficult thoughts, emotions and physical feelings by changing our behaviours and our thoughts.

 

CBT has a strong evidence-base for helping with a variety of difficulties including depression, anxiety, self-esteem issues, anger, stress and physical health difficulties (e.g. chronic pain, fatigue, diabetes, long covid, COPD).

 

What to expect:

The initial sessions focus on building a personalised assessment and formulation of the key unhelpful or distressing thoughts, feelings, behaviours and physical sensations the person is experiencing. The CBT therapist then uses this formulation to help the person to explore different ways of managing their thoughts and behaviours to improve how they feel, both emotionally and physically. 

​

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

cbt bristol

Counselling

Counselling is a lower intensity form of therapy that provides a processing and reflective space as well as a skills building component. Counselling can be helpful for managing difficult feelings such as anxiety, stress, anger, low self-esteem and low mood and for processing certain issues such as physical health problems, perinatal issues and trauma. It can also be helpful for adjustment, grief and relationship issues as well as workplace difficulties.

​

counsellor bristol

What to Expect:

Counsellors provide talking therapy, which involves offering an emotional processing and reflective space to explore difficulties from. Counsellors are trained in and may draw from various different therapy models, for example CBT-based approaches, person-centred counselling, psychodynamic therapy and humanistic counselling. They may also be trained in other modalities such as EMDR, hypnotherapy and mindfulness.

Couples Counselling & Family Therapy

Couples & family therapy sessions include 2 or more members of the family working together towards a goal or identified outcome. These sessions can be offered weekly, fortnightly or monthly. 
Sessions typically involve hearing from all family members regarding their perspective of the problems or difficulties, building skills to address these problems or difficulties & working together towards a shared goal. For more information about couples counselling click here.

couples counselling bristol

If you would like to know what you can expect from your clinician, please do check out our blog here.

bottom of page