Dr Craig Griffiths

Putting yourself forward for therapy is a big step and can feel like a risk. It is also a major investment in yourself, costing time, money, effort, and emotional distress. I would encourage you to think about your options carefully: please take a moment to read through my profile and get in touch if you would like to discuss further. 

I am Craig, a chartered clinical psychologist practicing with the NHS and in a private capacity. I have spent more than 13 years studying psychology and psychotherapy, and have been working in the field of mental health since 2010. My specialism is in assessing and treating mental health difficulties in adults, and I have a lot of experience working with people who find themselves in complex situations involving, for example, neurodiversity, psychosis, personality difficulties, substance use and addiction, complex trauma, social disadvantage, and family or systemic problems. I have also expertise in children and adolescent mental health services, having worked in CAMHS locally for three years.

If you were to choose me as your therapist, our focus will initially be to co-create a reflective, empathic, validating, and non-judgmental space as a foundation for discussing and exploring the situation you wish to address. If what you want is to talk freely about things that have happened or are happening, that will be fine. But, I will be careful to explore with you the possible benefits and drawbacks of such an approach. My approach is to use a therapeutic relationship to help you make progress towards your individual goals. To do that, we will clarify what it is you want to get out of therapy. Once we know that, I aim to be pragmatic and accountable: we will set targets and track progress towards them. This way, you will know when you have got what you need. 

To start, we will develop a 'formulation' together. A formulation is a shared understanding of what has been happening, how this situation developed, what may be keeping things from getting better, and what resources (in your life and in you) you have to draw upon for making positive changes. As part of this process, we may talk about issues and situations from your past, but only where this is relevant to your goals and at a pace that is comfortable to you.

After we have built up a formulation to explain what is happening, we will set about making targeted changes. It can help to think of therapy as a laboratory in which we test solutions in the real world. If a solution doesn't work, we will try to understand what went wrong, revise our formulation if necessary, and try again. I will be there to support and encourage you throughout, and will respect any boundaries or limitations.

Clinical psychologists are trained to doctoral level in mental health service delivery. Our knowledge-base is intentionally both broad and in-depth, covering a wide range of clinical presentations and psychological models for alleviating distress. A word you'll often see used is 'integrative,' meaning that a therapist tailors the best feature of many psychological models to the specific needs of each individual person. Where appropriate, we may discuss using such an approach, but I may also recommend a single-modal approach where best-practice evidence suggests that will be most likely to help bring you quickly to where you want to be.

Thank you for taking the time to look through my profile. If you would like to talk with me to find out more, please get in touch for a free, 15-minute telephone consultation.

Therapy appointments for individuals are 60 minutes and charged at £80 per hour.

Therapy appointments for couples are 60 minutes and charged at £110 per hour. 

I currently work both in the NHS and privately, and therefore my availability currently falls outside of typical office hours. I am able to offer appointments online or via telephone, though for people local to Charnwood we may be able to make alternative arrangements if face to face appointments are desired.