Mark De Freitas
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
I have experience of working as a counsellor, psychotherapist and DBT therapist with children and adults. My abilities as a therapist have greatly benefited from my experience in NHS, Clinical Psychology, Education, Workplace, and Substance Misuse settings. I have helped people with a wide range of issues.
My therapeutic approach is to help you to learn and develop the practical skills that will enable you to regulate your emotions, and therefore gain greater control of unhelpful behaviours. You will develop greater ability to overcome challenges, navigate change, and in doing so reach your true potential.
Through evidence-based practices and informed guidance, I endeavour to support you to shift from a fixed to a growth-oriented mindset. Growth mindset emphasises the idea that challenges and failures can be opportunities for learning and improvement, fostering a focus on personal growth and psychological flexibility.
Working together, we will use the tools from practical psychology to increase resilience, self-awareness, and overall well-being. Whether facing personal, professional, or emotional obstacles, I provide the tools and support needed to cultivate confidence, adaptability, and lasting positive change.
My aim is to develop an open, trusting, and collaborative therapeutic relationship with you. I will help you cultivate practical skills to reduce negative emotions and guide your life toward greater personal fulfilment, replacing limiting life patterns with greater harmony within yourself and with others.
I offer both long-term and short-term therapy. I also provide Anxiety Management. For more information about this, please scroll down to the “Any Further Information” section. For more details about DBT, please scroll down to the “Other Areas” section.
For as long as I can remember, I have been intrigued by the age-old question: how do we create a happy and fulfilling life? I believe that neuroscience’s study of the relationship between the brain and the mind has provided the most convincing answers to this enduring question. These new discoveries have helped us realize that many things we do to improve the quality of our lives don’t actually help, and in the long term, they often make things worse. This helps explain why many people spend years trying to improve their lives without success. In our attempts to live better, we often unknowingly do the wrong things, albeit for the right reasons.
My approach is based on what neuroscience has revealed about living happier, more fulfilling lives. I will help you learn the practical skills that clinical trials have shown to have positive and lasting effects on mental health. The aim of my work isn’t solely to reduce negative emotions but also to help direct you toward greater life fulfillment. I believe that living well isn’t just about reducing suffering but also about feeling fulfilled.
Because our mental well-being is so intimately connected to our physical well-being, these changes can help us maintain our physical as well as our mental health. By reducing toxic stress, which negatively affects both the body and the mind, we can help restore our natural body rhythms of sleep, appetite, and recovery.
I will support you in developing the necessary skills to overcome your personal difficulties. Working together, we will bridge the gap between where you are in life and where you want to be. As your therapist, I will support you in cultivating the skills necessary for life to flow more naturally. Therapy is an opportunity for you to develop greater clarity of mind, see through the psychological fog, and establish the life you want for yourself. Therapy is a space where you can find greater personal freedom.
Appointments.
I will usual arrange an initial appointment with you, either in person or on the phone. This is an opportunity for us to discuss your reasons for seeking therapy, and to see if we both feel that I am the right therapist for you to work with. Following our initial appointment we will usually agree a schedule of appointment. The usually pattern for appointments is to meet weekly, on the same day and time each week. We will periodically review our work together and assess how we are progressing. Therapy normal ends when we both feel the time is right.
I initially trained as an Integrative therapist, training in Cognitive Behavioural (CBT), Humanistic and Psychodynamic therapies. My therapeutic approach is Existential/Humanistic. The focus of which isn’t solely to alleviate the difficult aspects of life, but to make life happier, richer and more fulfilling. To find a way for you to live with greater purpose and direction.
Training, qualifications & experience
BACP Accredited Psychotherapist
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy(DBT) Diploma (Distinction)
Advanced Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Practice (University of Warwick)
Diploma in Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy
Diploma in Integrative Counselling (University of Warwick)
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.
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
Other areas of counselling I deal with
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), is a type of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy(CBT). DBT is used to help people develop a set of skills that research shows to help improve a wide range of behavioural and psychological issues. DBT can be used to help with mood disorders, such as, anxiety, anger or depression. DBT is effective in helping people who experience problematic habitual behaviours, such as, substance misuse, OCD, eating disorders or self harming. DBT can also be used to help those experiencing relationship difficulties. DBT is effective because it focuses on developing skills associated with health and well-being, as opposed to merely symptom reduction. DBT is a very practical system of working to resolve personal difficulties.
Therapies offered
Fees
£55.00 - £70.00
Additional information
Psychotherapy - £55
Anxiety Management- £55
DBT - £70
Package of 4 sessions of DBT - £ 250
When I work
I offer 50 minute face-to-face appointments daytime/evening and weekends in Moseley. I also offer telephone or online appointments.
Further information
My areas of special interest are working with stress and anxiety disorders such as: Anxiety, low mood, panic attacks, general anxiety disorders, OCD, phobias, work related stress, sleep disorders, eating disorder, health issues, and addiction.
Stress is the bodies’ natural response to feeling under pressure. It is useful in motivating us to achieve what life requires of us at home, work and in the other areas of our lives. Unfortunately, in excess it can have the reverse affect making us feel anxious, which is harmful to our well-being.
In therapy I will help you to understand the cause of your stress and how to manage your anxiety. You will develop practical skills with which you can reverse the damaging effects of your anxiety. This will enable you to live with greater peace of mind and restore balance to your body and mind.
Although anxiety is made up of the same component parts, we each experience it in our own unique way. The degree to which we experience the different recognizable components is often used as a guide to categorising types of anxiety, such as OCD, phobias or work related stress.
Anxiety affects our body while simultaneously affecting us emotionally, psychologically and behaviourally. When we feel anxious it affects all aspects of our being and our ability to function. If we experience frequent anxiety it can have a profound affect on the quality of our lives.
The physical affects of anxiety can disturb our sleep pattern and appetite, and in the long term may lead, to conditions like Insomnia and digestive problems, lack of appetite, sickness and IBS. The physical affects of anxiety can also make us feel tired or lethargic. Some people feel restless when they are anxious which can lead to exhaustion, which is a common feature of Work Related Stress.
The emotional aspects of anxiety can make us feel insecure, uncomfortable, overwhelmed, or threatened. This can lead to changes in our behaviour, such as Social Anxiety, when we avoid anxiety provoking social situations. Or compulsive behaviours (OCD) were we repeat certain behaviours in a futile attempt to manage our anxiety. We can experience Health Anxiety, the persistent concerns about our or other people’s health, which can lead to excessive hygiene rituals, research about health conditions and unnecessary medical appointments.
The psychological affect or General Anxiety, can make us worry excessively, have intrusive thoughts, and find ourselves unable to let go. This can lead people to blame themselves for how they feel and can result in Low-Self-Esteem or Depression or Depressive Anxiety, which is a combination of feeling sad and anxious.
The behavioural aspect of anxiety can lead to us trying to avoid the unpleasant affects of anxiety through avoidant behaviours or Addiction to alcohol or drug misuse. Or engaging in other excessive avoidant behaviours like over eating, phone use, shopping or gambling.
