Catherine Clouse
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
As an experienced psychotherapist and counsellor, I provide a relaxed, confidential and comfortable space where you can talk about issues which may be troubling you. At the moment I am offering session in person or via Zoom. If you are feeling that you need some extra help to see you through a rough patch or if you want some help dealing with anxiety, stress, family issues, relationship issues, then I can help you find some space to explore in a safe environment.
These issues might be depression, anxiety, stress, relationship issues, bereavement, eating disorders, self-harm, autism, adoption, abuse, personality disorder, PTSD, or something completely unique to you. By talking through the challenges you are facing, the work we do together can help you gain a new understanding of yourself.
What can I expect from Psychotherapy and Counselling?
Psychotherapy and counselling are traditionally known as the “talking cure”. They provide the opportunity to talk in a non-judgemental, relaxed and confidential environment and discuss problems that can feel overwhelming and impossible to resolve alone. Psychotherapy is not about being given instant answers to these problems; it is a collaborative endeavour to find a way through the darkness, and learn to turn inwards to find your own inner strength and solutions to your own life issues.
Psychotherapy and counselling are a regular commitment and I see clients once or twice weekly for a 50-minute session, during which we work together to explore and understand what is causing your pain, and search for ways to live a more peaceful, balanced life. We can work for as little as 6 weeks, or as long as a number of years, depending on your reasons for seeking therapy.
People from all walks of life come to see me, for all sorts of reasons. You may be facing a one-off challenge, such as bereavement or job loss; you may be struggling with a specific issue, such as an eating disorder; anxiety, depression, relationship issues. You may want simply to learn more about yourself. If you feel that you have not found the answers to your life’s issues alone, then talking to a counsellor can help you to overcome personal fears, challenge negative thought-processes and reconnect you with your inner strength and resources.
Whatever it is brining you to psychotherapy, the initial step can feel daunting. You may be feeling confused, isolated and anxious, and the idea of reaching out for help can seem overwhelming. You may also have questions as to what it all entails. For that reason, I am available for a confidential talk on the phone, prior to potentially arranging an assessment session. In the initial face-to-face session, we will discuss whether psychotherapy or counselling would be most appropriate, what you would like to get out of therapy, and how long this might take. Ultimately this is also an opportunity for you to see if you feel comfortable working with me.
I offer both short and long term work, depending on whether after an initial consultation we decide if your particular situation would be more suited to counselling or psychotherapy.
What is the difference between psychotherapy and counselling?
Counselling tends to be time-limited and deals with a specific goal, while psychotherapy tends to be longer term and explores issues in greater depth. In counselling, we would meet for weekly sessions over a specific time frame, and would tend to focus on a single issue.
In psychotherapy, we would tend to work in an open-ended way, and would see each other once a week over a longer period. In these sessions, we would not us to focus on a single issue, but would explore how your patterns of behaviour are influenced by the past – and help you see how your unconscious mind is influencing the way you live your life, as well as thinking about your relationship to yourself, and those around you.
I work with a psychodynamic frame drawing on the therapeutic approach of looking at the past as a way understanding the here and now and understanding patterns of behaviour. However, I will always tailor my approach to your individual needs. My aim as a psychotherapist is to create a safe space that you can work from to investigate and understand thoughts and feelings which may seem overwhelming and frightening.
From my years of experience seeing clients, I believe that it takes courage to sit with another human being and explore your most private feelings and thoughts. By talking through the challenges you are facing, the work we do together can help you gain a new understanding of yourself. By connecting you to a more conscious sense of yourself, it can help you to make more informed choice and live a more satisfying and balanced life.
Adoption Therapy
I am also a registered adoption therapist having trained and registered through Barnardos Link service. It is a requirement of all therapists where adoption becomes a central issues to be registered with OFSTED to work with clients. This is because issues that may arise when Adoption is considered can be complex and specialist training is understood to be essential.
Eating Disorders
For those seeking support with anorexia and with a stable BMI over 15 then I can discuss engaging in Focal Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. While this is a new addition to the Nice guidelines for treating anorexia it is well researched. This is not a CBT approach and works best if there has already been CBT input and a more stable BMI has been achieved. It is a therapy that can be engaged in alongside CBT and is reliant on being able to maintain a minimum BMI. Do call me for more information about this therapy.
Training, qualifications & experience
I am an experience psychotherapist and counsellor working with many different issues including personality disorder, abuse, anxiety, depression and autism. .A specific interest is in working with all aspects of adoption as I did my Masters research on adoption.
I have full professional indemnity insurance and am regularly supervised. I am an accredited member of UKCP and UPCA and am a registered member (MBACP) of BACP. I follow my accrediting body the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapist (UKCP) Code of Ethics.
I studied for four years at postgraduate level at the University of Oxford, gaining a Masters in Psychodynamic Practice.
Post qualification I have trained at the international respected Anna Freud Centre in Metallisation Based Treatment (MBT), which is an acknowledge way of working with personality disorder, as well as an effective treatment for depression and anxiety.
I also trainined in Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) at the Anna Freud Centre. DIT is a way of working short term over 16 sessions psychodynamically. It is in a NICE guideline IAPT treatment for moderate depression and anxiety. Research shows it is significantly more effective than CBT one-year post treatment.
Training at the Tavistock Institute Relationships, in working with couples.
EMDR therapy for the treatment of trauma.
OFSTED registered adoption therapists through Barnardo's Link
Attachment Focused Therapy training with Barnardo's.
Focal Psychodymamoic Therapy for Eating Disorders
My first post graduate degree was from the University of Westminster in Journalism, an area I worked in for fifteen years as a national print journalist and BBC radio and television producer. It was working as a journalist that I became interested in people's understanding of themselves, their history and actions.
Member organisations
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred).
Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision.
Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training.
All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
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
Fees
£80.00 - £90.00
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
Walton on Thames
Daytime - £80
Adoption Counselling - £80
Attachment Focused Family Therapy - £90
EMDR - £90 per 50 mins. Sessions tend to be 90 minutes after the initial sessions.
When I work
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Daytime sessions are from 8am to 6pm.
Further information
Therapy gives you the opportunity to talk in a safe space to someone who is objective, non-judgemental, empathic and who can be trusted to keep what you say totally confidential. Under these circumstances it is possible to talk about what are sometimes very painful issues or the challenges in life that you might be struggling with. Therapy offers support, clarification and insight into what can often seem confusing and difficult feelings, and can help you deal with such issues as emotional distress, anxiety, depression, difficult situations, life changes, anger, having difficulty with relationships, relationship breakups, divorce, confused sexuality, problems at work, or with alcohol, food or drugs, and more.
Psychotherapy believes we all have an in-born drive to actualise emotional and mental health. Part of therapy is about identifying and removing the blocks that are stopping this, preventing us from achieving our potential and becoming who we really are. The process of therapy enables one to make the necessary and important links between past and present experiences. By doing this, you will begin to understand why you behave the way you do, why you respond in certain ways: possibly over-reacting, getting angry or overly upset with those who you are close to, or with people at work and other situations you encounter in life or simply why you feel depressed or lacking in confidence or self-esteem.
Our childhoods and the way we were treated by our parents and significant others form our core beliefs, the way we view ourselves and others, and we all carry these beliefs into adulthood, some of them more unconsciously than others. For instance, we may carry around a life script such as ‘I deserve nothing’ or ‘I am not good enough’ which we may or may not be aware of, but which play out in our relationships with others, and can even sabotage our relationships and careers. This life script governs the way we interpret situations and what others say to us and can also stop us reaching our full potential.
The aim of therapy therefore is to enable you to gain insight into the way you behave, respond to others and why you feel and think the way you do. This insight is achieved by exploring and understanding how your past affects your present and by identifying patterns of behaviour in life scripts that are not serving you and are not in your best interests. It also comes from working with the unconscious, for example by looking at your dreams and working with creative imagination exercises.
The aim is also to support you and help you find solutions and finding new ways of thinking and being that will give you the inner support, strength, creative thinking and resourcefulness to lead an independent and happy life.
