About me
Approach
I am a BABCP Accredited Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist and EMDR Europe Accredited Practitioner.
Starting therapy can feel daunting, particularly when you are talking about experiences, thoughts or feelings that you may have struggled with for a long time. My aim is to create a safe, compassionate and non-judgemental space where we can understand what is happening and work together towards meaningful change.
I am gentle, patient and methodical. Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, we will develop an understanding of your individual difficulties and draw on the approaches below to find what works best for you.
EMDR and DBR
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) can help us work with experiences that have felt overwhelming, frightening or emotionally distressing.
When something overwhelming happens, a memory can remain associated with the emotions, bodily sensations and beliefs that were present at the time. This can leave us particularly sensitive or reactive to certain situations, people or places — even when we consciously know that we are safe in the present.
It can be helpful to think of this as a filing system that has become disorganised: the experience is remembered, but aspects of it can continue to feel activated in the here and now.
EMDR and DBR can help us process these experiences at a deeper emotional and bodily level, allowing memories to become less distressing and more integrated. As this happens, triggers can become less powerful and you may feel more balanced, secure and confident in yourself and your responses.
CBT
CBT can help you understand how your experiences have shaped the beliefs and fears you hold about yourself, other people and the world. For example:
“There’s something wrong with me.”
“Other people will hurt me.”
“Things always go wrong for me.”
We can then identify the protective strategies you have developed to keep yourself safe, such as avoidance, reassurance-seeking, checking or withdrawing, and understand how these may unintentionally maintain difficulties such as anxiety, depression or loneliness.
Together, we will develop an individualised formulation: a clear, easy-to-understand map of what is maintaining your difficulties and what may help you move forward.
From this, we can choose the most appropriate interventions. This might include a specific treatment protocol, such as Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for OCD, or general CBT approaches such as cognitive restructuring and behavioural experiments.
Third Wave CBT
I am also passionate about ‘third wave’ approaches, including Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
These approaches focus not only on changing what we think and feel, but also on changing our relationship with our thoughts, emotions and experiences. They can help you to:
* Understand your emotional regulation systems and strengthen your soothing system, helping you manage difficult emotions more effectively.
* Become more present and spend less time caught up in rumination about the past or worry about the future.
* Create more space around difficult thoughts and feelings, observing them without automatically acting on them and recognising that thoughts are not necessarily facts.
* Approach difficult experiences and explore how they are felt in the body, rather than automatically avoiding, suppressing or pushing them away.
* Understand how the brain detects threat and responds to uncertainty, while developing compassion, strength, wisdom, care and commitment to help regulate emotional responses.
* Identify your values and develop practical steps towards living more closely in accordance with them.
Testimonial
It would be impossible for me to overstate the positive effect Gareth has had on my life. I came to him with depression, anxiety and a panic disorder, and have recently finished seeing him as a completely different person. Not only did the issues I came in with get sorted, but I am a much calmer, balanced, happy and kind person than I was when I came in.
Friends and family have commented on how grounded and content I seem since working with Gareth, and I absolutely agree. Through EMDR, DBR, mindfulness and compassion-based exercises, Gareth was able to help me get to the root of issues, hang-ups, and insecurities I didn’t even know I had, address them, and move on from them, so they no longer run my life for me.
In my experience with Gareth, therapy was not “hard,” but something that I looked forward to as each time I learned something new about myself and the way that I interact with the world. No other single person has had such a positive impact on my past, present, and future and I am so incredibly grateful to have had the chance to address everything in such a safe, understanding, judgement-free, and compassionate space.
I always felt seen and understood, and never doubted for a second that Gareth was 100% in my corner. I genuinely believe that any future successes and contentment in my career and personal life are attributable to the work done here. If it is not clear, I cannot recommend Gareth enough.
Further information
For more information about me, my approach and the treatments I provide, including further testimonials from previous clients, please visit my website:
www.easeofmindtherapy.com
Training, qualifications & experience
- BSc Psychology
- MSc Health Psychology
- NVQ Level 3 in Health and Social Care (Adults)
- Postgraduate Flexible Professional Development in Evidence Based Psychological Treatment
- Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy
Member organisations
school Registered / Accredited
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 BABCP is the lead organisation for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in the UK. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in the practice, theory or development of CBT. BABCP also provides accreditation for CBT therapists. BABCP accredited members adhere to the Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics in the Practice of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies, and are willing to be scrutinised in this adherence as required.
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
£125.00 per session
