I use a range of evidence-based therapeutic models focused on dealing with present difficulties or aiming at ironing out difficulties from the past that affect your day-to-day functioning. They all provide an explanation for how the problem started and what is maintaining it. Depending on the difficulties to work on, we may use one model or another, or we may combine aspects of different models. Take a look at what they involve.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, is a short-term therapy based on identifying and changing vicious cycles between unhelpful beliefs about oneself and others, feelings and behaviours. It uses a range of techniques to change these and help you unlearn maladaptive ways of responding. It is mostly focused on present difficulties. It has been recommended by the NICE guidelines as effective with a wide range of psychological difficulties, including mood and anxiety problems, insomnia and trauma.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, is a mindfulness-based model aimed at helping you change your relationship with uncomfortable thoughts and feelings that get in the way of living your life. It helps you develop acceptance skills to make space for these unavoidable internal events and thus enables you focus on moving towards the sort of goals and values you want to pursue in life. Also backed by research, it can be very effective when working on mood, anxiety difficulties and long-term health conditions.
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, or EMDR, is a novel but research backed model aiming to help you process difficult memories that have got stuck and keep acting as a stumbling block in your present life. By using bilateral stimulation combined with other ways of activating these memories, it jump-starts the brain´s natural processing abilities, releasing the person from undue distress and enabling them to reengage with a more meaningful life. It is NICE-recommended to work on trauma (i.e., PTSD, complex trauma), but it can be effective on a range of problems linked to past difficulties.
Behavioural Couple Therapy, or BCT, is the application of behavioural and cognitive principles and strategies to the context of couple relationships. It aims to identify the unhelpful interaction patterns that develop between partners and address these by practising communication skills and working on the beliefs that underlie these. Improving their communication enables the couple to address different aspects of their couple life as well as their interaction with external environment (family, work, etc.).