Ribhu Goyal

Practitioner Psychotherapist and Counsellor (BACP Registered) with 10,000+ hours of extensive experience in therapeutic practice. I am a Graduate member of British Psychological Society and Registered member of British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. I additionally hold 15+ years of experience in personal practice of Mindfulness and other forms of meditation.

I formally took up Psychology as a subject matter about 16 years ago. 11+ years ago, I started practicing as a professional in the field of Counselling and Psychotherapy. I call myself an Integrative Psychotherapist and my work is informed by various Schools of thoughts such as Psychoanalytical & Psychodynamic, Cognitive & Behavioural, Client centered, Humanistic & Existential and Mindfulness. I use an eclectic approach which is a blend of different approaches and techniques to suit the client's needs aiming towards symptomatic relief, long term sustainable change and relapse prevention. I believe in constant review of the process and collaborate with each client to gauge what does and doesn't work for them.

I also practice alternative techniques such as Breath work, Deep relaxation, different forms of meditation, and willing to blend these with the therapeutic process if the client wishes to.

In the process I work with my clients towards reinstating the lost sense of hope and trust. Empowering them with skills to build up on resilience and self reliance, is the core of my therapeutic work with them.

I believe we human beings are a holistic and interactive system functioning on Mind-Body-Spirit level. I work with my clients to achieve a state of harmony within oneself. The aim of my work is to enable my clients with skills and techniques which they are able to incorporate in their lives to achieve optimal wellbeing and progressively working towards enhancing overall quality of Life.

I offer short term, medium term and long term therapy.

In today’s fast paced life everyone experiences tension(s), stress(es), pressure(s) that play with our physical and psychological wellbeing. These are some triggers that pave the path for various conditions that take us far away from positive mental health & optimal wellbeing.

Despite all the efforts and intentions to live healthy and enjoy harmonious relationships, we slip in the opposite direction. One reason is that we don't realize early enough and continue repeating what isn't healthy but damaging. Increased awareness and understanding not only helps rebuild individual health as well as harmony in relationships but also helps us stop the harmful and un-useful patterns in future. Absence of the same repeatedly plays havoc and leads to disruption in normal functioning of life and relationships.

There could be times when inability to resolve conflicts effectively leads to turmoil and unrest within one's psychological system. When left unresolved for long time, coupled with challenging life sometimes takes the form of Guilt, Shame, Negative Self Image, Low Self Esteem, Worthlessness, Lack of motivation, Hopelessness etc.
Major or minor mental health issues could also result such as Anxiety and related issues, Panic Attacks, Insomnia, Phobia, Depression, Self Harm, Eating Disorder, Suicidal Ideation, Obsessive and/ or Compulsive thoughts/ behaviors and many other.
It is also commonly reported that these difficulties could in turn lead to difficulties in establishing or maintaining relationships, performance at work, ability to enjoy life, socialization, confidence, intimacy, feeling motivated, living a fulfilled and enriched life.

Therapy is a process that ultimately leads to a better relationship with oneself and hence others. In other words its about working with various aspects of your life that are responsible for pulling you down due to some reasons.
It is about taking one step at a time under the guidance of an expert towards freeing yourself from bondage of the painful emotions and experiences from the past that contribute to your inadequate or irrational view of yourself. And learning to work with the here and now negative patterns and irrational thoughts that maintains inadequate view of yourself or the situation. Therapy provides a safe, confidential, trustworthy, warm and accepting place (environment) to reconnect with oneself. Its a place where one is encouraged to let go the barriers that keep you from connecting with the unbiased image of yourself.

In simplistic terms, therapy is all about endowing the individual with a "tool kit" that enables them to connect with positive belief in themselves, have a good and healthy view of themselves and not feel trapped or helpless in challenging and difficult situation.

Based on client's needs and expectations, therapeutic plan is conceived with the aim to achieve long term sustainable change (transformation) in terms of quality of experience and outcome of Life. Therapy on one hand should aim at finding the root cause of the presenting complaint(s) and nip it in the bud but at the same time symptomatic relief in short term is deemed important.

I look at the therapeutic process as a success when the client reaches a place where they are able to believe in their ability to work through the complex emotions and thoughts with some confidence. When they are able to work on both preventive as well as curative level effective especially with regards to the initial complaints.

The consultation process starts with Assessment Session of 60 minutes. It is a detailed discussion and an opportunity for both the therapist and the client to see how they connect in the professional therapeutic alliance. It also is an opportunity for the client to share the main concerns and ask questions. In other words, this Assessment Session gives you an idea about what therapy is & how is it likely to work.
Once initial bits are discussed and it is agreed that both the client and the therapist mutually willing to work together, a therapeutic contract is put in place. This includes the day and time of the appointments going further, mode of work, frequency and the duration of sessions and the term of therapeutic work. The therapist then discusses and collaborates (depending on the form of work agreed upon) with the client to conceive therapeutic plan.

Therapy could be life transforming experience for many. The therapeutic alliance between the therapist and the client plays a very important role in the outcome of the process. I encourage all the prospective clients to choose the "Right" therapist in addition to looking for the "Best" one. Right in this context means, a therapist who is able to understand you and the subjective aspects of your 'story'. Feeling judged, unable to say everything out, being cut short or interrupted, unable to get your point across to the therapist, missing cultural context are a few signs that need to be checked for. An effective therapeutic alliance is likely to feel warm, non judgmental, accepting, trustworthy and safe environment that enables an individual to open up naturally in due course. It is common for the clients to report a basic level of comfort and understanding with the therapist and that could be an indication of a potentially effective client - therapist relationship, worth taking into account while making a choice of therapist.

Psychosomatic Disorder (Psychogenic and Somatogenic), Sleep Disorder

The therapy fees is based on either sliding scale or standard fee charge. Sliding Scale is to facilitate each of the client’s financial circumstances. Fee calculation using sliding scale is based on a simple formula:

1/1000th of your annual income + 25.

A standard fee of  £85.00 is charged for appointments in London and £70.00 is charged for appointments in Kent for the Assessment Session if the client wishes not to declare the income.

A limited number of appointments are available for students and low income groups. Though supporting evidence for qualifying for low fees might be needed.

Appointments are available on weekdays from 7.00 am to 02.00 pm.

In certain cases therapy sessions can be provided on home visit basis. Please ask for more information. 
Therapy through Video Conferencing and Telephone are also available.

The Alternative modes of therapy such as Video Conferencing, Telephonic or Email are becoming more and more popular as it helps people who are constantly on a move or have time constraints or simply find it difficult to commit for a face to face session every week due to erratic schedule.

These modes are also becoming equally popular as face to face therapy, as they are cost effective and more affordable and provide enough flexibility without compromising on the effectiveness and success of the therapy sessions. But one thing than needs to be kept in mind is that not all the forms of therapy can be offered by alternative modes as in certain specific forms of complaints and issues the effectiveness is likely to be compromised. Its advisable to check with the therapist of your preference before deciding on the mode, that is likely to be most effective (both from time and money standpoint).

In my experience, the clients who are keen on working on themselves but are finding it difficult to fit in 'face-to-face' therapy they are proactively asking for different modes like video conference or telephonic more than email/ text chat.

I have been using these alternative modes of therapy for more than 5 years now and the process outcome is similar to the face to face therapy outcome. At present, almost 50 per cent of my work is using at least one of the alternative modes of therapy.