Alessandra Jolliffe
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
I am a qualified Integrative and UKCP Registered Psychotherapist with a peaceful consulting room based in Battersea.
My primary aim is to offer you an empathic, safe and supportive space. Together, we will explore whatever has been troubling you, identify feelings and thoughts and reflect on your experiences, including both how you see yourself and how you relate to others, in a collaborative way.
As an Integrative Psychotherapist, my personal approach integrates several different theories. However, Attachment Theory and Object Relations concepts and formulations are at the heart of my work.
I believe in the importance of early attachment experiences as creating an internalised working model that serves as a schema or template to close relationships. Our characteristic attachment style will influence the characteristic manner in which we approach the other and construe the world around us.
I also consider that our current relationships and ways of solving problems are often influenced by past events and how we understood them at the time. I am interested in the way we unwittingly repeat in adulthood these patterns we learnt in childhood, no matter that they may no longer be helpful and even that they play a part in maintaining our current problems.
By recognising these patterns and understanding what triggers them, how they are maintained, we are in a better position to understand ourselves and our inner motivations more completely and accept ourselves more positively. To work out what our possibilities and choices are therein, as well as new ways of thinking and acting that can help us lead a more fulfilling life.
Training, qualifications & experience
Professional Qualifications:
- BA (Hons) - 4 years
- Foundation Course Psychotherapy & Counselling - 1 year
- PGDip Psychotherapy & Counselling - 2 years
- Advanced Diploma Integrative Psychotherapy - 2 years
- Certificate in CBT Skills (Endorsed by CORST)
Member of:
• Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy College
• The Regent's School of Psychotherapy and Psychology
I have worked with a wide range of clients in private and NHS settings. Some of these include working as a psychotherapist within:
- Private practice.
- Consulting advertising agencies on brand strategies. My latest project was with Boots No 7.
- A creative communication agency, with offices worldwide.
- A Psychotherapy Service in Waterloo facilitating my clients to resolve emotional issues, particularly childhood emotional and sexual abuse.
- In the Palliative care department in Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, offering psychological support to people with cancer and their carers/family members.
- A multidisciplinary team on a mental health, medium secure locked ward at West London Mental Health NHS Trust, Ealing Hospital.
I work mainly with young women from a wide range of cultures. Being half Greek, half English and having also lived abroad, I have a great understanding of - and am very interested in other cultures. I believe it is imperative to take cultural considerations into account when working with clients.
My areas of speciality are:
- Bereavement, Grief & Loss
- Childhood or Adult Sexual, Physical or Emotional Abuse
- Cultural Issues
- Family Issues
- Relationship Difficulties, Issues & Endings & Divorce
- Working with family members or friends of alcoholics
I DO NOT deal with Addiction, Anger Management, Eating Disorders, OCD, Phobias or Sexual Problems (this is not the same as Sexual Abuse).
Member organisations
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is a leading professional body for the education, training and regulation of psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors. Its register is accredited by the government's Professional Standards Authority.
As part of its commitment to protect the public, it works to improve access to psychotherapy, to support and disseminate research, to improve standards and to respond effectively to complaints against its members.
UKCP standards cover the range of different psychotherapies. Registration is obtained by training or accrediting with one of its member organisations, or by holding a European Certificate in Psychotherapy. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
When I work
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Further information
If you would like to make an enquiry, arrange an initial session for an assessment, or set up a telephone call, you can e-mail me and I will get back to you within 24 hours on weekdays. You do not need to be referred to the service by your GP.
If you choose to email, please include your availability for psychotherapy from Monday - Friday. Please provide a wide range of days/times, in case your preferred slot is not available.
I normally arrange a 15 minute phone consultation before the first session. The first session is an assessment of 50 minutes to get a good initial sense of your present situation and learn a little about your past, as well as about your hopes for the future. It is an opportunity to say what is troubling you, what has brought you to therapy now and what you would like to achieve in coming.
I will be directed about what we should focus on and make some suggestions about how we might approach it.
I will be happy to answer any questions you have about the process or about the way I work and you can get a sense of what it feels like to talk to me. If you would like to continue to work together, we will normally meet for 50 minutes each week.
