Gareth O'Halloran
Every professional displayed on Counselling Directory has been independently verified by our team to ensure they have suitable credentials to practise.
This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Approach
I am a Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist (BABCP) and EMDR Europe Accredited Practitioner.
It can be frightening to start therapy and try something unfamiliar, but I am here to help you on this journey and gain a sense of peace and contentment in life.
I am gentle, patient and methodical. Together we will discover which approaches work best for you, as detailed below:
CBT
- Gain a deeper insight into how your life experiences have shaped the fears you have about yourself, others and the world, e.g. “There’s something wrong with me”, “Others hurt you” and “Things always go wrong for me”.
- Understand the defensive strategies you developed to keep yourself safe e.g. avoidance, and the unintended consequences of these strategies e.g. loneliness, depression and anxiety.
- Map out an idiosyncratic ‘formulation’ which summarises the above two points into to an easy to understand format, providing a map for therapy so that we know what approach will be best suited to help you with your difficulties.
- Choose an intervention such as a diagnosis specific treatment protocol, like Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) for OCD. Or take a more standardised approach, for example, learning to relate to your thoughts differently with cognitive restructuring, and/or making changes to your safety/defensive strategies by engaging in behavioural experiments e.g. learning to tolerate uncertainty by not seeking reassurance.
EMDR and DBR:
- Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) & Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) enable us to process experiences that have been overwhelming and distressing and therefore traumatic. To achieve ‘natural recovery’ from traumatic events we talk, think and dream about the experience until it is placed in context and fully integrated by the brain.
However some experiences can be so frightening and upsetting that our brains aren’t able to integrate what we have been through. It’s a bit like a filing cabinet which has gotten very disorganised, with files missing or in the wrong place. In life you may find that you can be very sensitive and reactive to certain situations/people/places (triggers) and find it difficult to manage how you are feeling.
EMDR and DBR enables the brain to desensitise and reprocess the experience/s at a deep and emotional level so that we have a fully functioning filing cabinet once again. In life we no longer get triggered as we once were and feel much more balanced and confident in who we are.
Third Wave CBT:
I am passionate about ‘third wave’ approaches, such as Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). These approaches are transdiagnostic and which means they are appropriate for varying presenting issues.
Using these approaches I will help you:
- Understand the different emotional regulation systems we have evolved with and teach you how to strengthen your ‘soothing’ system, which will enable you to manage your emotions more effectively.
- Be more present and spend less time ruminating about the past, or worrying about the future.
- Change your relationship to your thoughts and feelings by creating more space for them, learning to observe them and understanding ‘thoughts are not necessarily facts’.
- Learn to approach difficulties and explore how they feel in the body, rather than avoiding or pushing them away.
- Understand how the brain has evolved, how this can cause us distress and tune into the qualities of compassion (strength, wisdom, care and commitment) in order to regulate your emotions.
- Identify values in key areas of your life and make action plans of how to live more closely by them.
What I can help with
Complex trauma. Low self-esteem. Depression. Recurrent depression. Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Worry. Anxiety. Panic. Stress. Procrastination. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Social anxiety. Health anxiety. Phobias. Relationship difficulties. Life transitions/adjustments. Substance misuse problems. Confidence issues. Perfectionism. Sleep. Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). Long-term health conditions. Neurodiversity.
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
More details about me, the treatments I provide and other testimonials from previous clients are available on 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
£130.00 per session
