COUPLES THERAPY

Relationships can offer a secure, safe and supportive place in the face of the inevitable challenges life brings. However, they can also be the place of painful disconnection, distressing emotions and long-held injuries leading to a reduced sense of wellbeing, stress and even hopelessness. My work with you will aim to mend emotional disconnection and negative expectations, address habitual and stressful patterns of interaction and help you better understand yourselves and your partner.

I work with a range of difficulties that can impact on relationships, amongst them: problems with communication and conflict, highly escalated interactions, infidelity or other issues that have caused a breakdown in trust, intimacy/sexual difficulties, loss or other life changing experiences, depression, anxiety or other mental health problems impacting on the relationship, autism and ADHD/ADD, blended families, history of trauma, stress/pressures of child care, gender and sexuality issues. As I am also a qualified Clinical Neuropsychologist, I can help with relationship stress caused by changes in physical health or neurological conditions. As mentioned, I often work with couples where one partner is neurodiverse and my training in Neuropsychology helps with understanding different ways of thinking and feeling.

The main therapy I use in couples work is called Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), although I draw on other approaches such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Solution Focused Couples Therapy and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), all underpinned by a psychological understanding and a non-judgemental approach.

Helping you become more aware of your own and your partner’s emotions and reactions will be an important part of our therapy. You will be supported and helped to become more responsive, emotionally available and engaged with one other. Unhelpful reactions, repetitive patterns of interaction and cycles of conflict will be identified in order to change old habits. Transforming the way you respond to one another and experiencing your partner as more emotionally available helps restore, or develop, a sense of safety and security within your relationship.

Appointments are mainly offered during working hours but I also hold clinics outside of working hours specifically for couples. At present I am only working online. I have found this works well with couples as it often makes therapy more easily available to both partners.