Maxine Altman

If you feel anxious, depressed or struggling in a difficult relationship, therapy can help you to understand painful or confusing feelings. Through gentle exploration and with deep respect, I will support you as you make sense of your experience and find ways of dealing with it.

Practical Therapy
I will invite you to describe the trigger issue that is creating anxiety or depression, speak confidentially about your feelings and the impact of the issue on your wellbeing and happiness.

Together we will look closely at what brought you to this point and decide how best to approach it. As a BACP and UKCP accredited psychotherapist and also a trained coach, our work may involve setting specific goals and working towards them, or exploring your past to understand unconscious patterns that are creating unhappiness in your life.

According to your presentation and expectations of this work, I may draw on CBT and solution focused therapy for short term intervention. If you would prefer longer term therapy to explore your inner world and the depths that lay within the unconscious, my approach would include psychodynamic, Gestalt and transpersonal psychotherapy. Many clients find dream analysis effective and this may be helpful for you. We can also explore the layers of meaning in your bodily tension or pain, as a way to reach and heal the root of your issue.

To help you decide if my approach is helpful for you, the initial meeting is charged at a reduced fee.

Coping with Anxiety and Panic
When an anxious response to a difficult or threatening encounter becomes overwhelming, you may want to explore the cause, and develop coping strategies to deal with the symptoms. Anxiety indicates underlying fear often triggered by a memory of a painful event. Even though the event may have taken place in childhood, your body remembers the fear even though your conscious mind has forgotten it.

A range of approaches reduce anxiety and panic. CBT actively reframes anxiety symptoms. A gentle sifting of feelings will uncover the deeper beliefs and doubts that lay beneath. Mindfulness meditation can also identify the places where fear is held in your body, revealing the historical pattern behind your symptoms. Whichever approach works for you, we will follow the threads to unravel your fears. Then, with a clarifying lens, you will discover a more confident self-belief to manage future events.

Couples Counselling and Relationship Issues
If your relationship has reached an impasse or life's pressures are affecting how you communicate, by facing one another honestly and learning new ways to relate, you can transform your conflict and rediscover love. I will show you how to cross the bridge between you and your partner, listen to one other's feelings and recreate a loving relationship where you are true to yourself while respecting the needs of the other.

Help with an Eating Disorder
An eating disorder is secret and isolating, releasing angry or self-punishing feelings. It feels so shameful it is usually done in private. When you eat unhealthily, you can never get enough of food you don’t really want. Eating soothes the pain of a difficult experience and silences unbearable feelings. Talking about the shame and exploring early memories helps to alleviate suffering around this common problem.

Losing Someone You Love
The pain of losing someone close to us can feel unbearable. When we are bereaved, we go through a grieving process which begins with disbelief then turns to anger, deep sorrow and finally acceptance of our loss. You may be feeling isolated and not want to burden others. Therapy allows you to express your feelings in a safe place.

Writing
I came to psychotherapy through my own work as a client, having realised that my therapist had the best job in the world. I was right. It is by far the most humbling and rewarding career of all. I also believe that the process of self-reflection ends only when we do, and that life demands that we continually shed layers of false beliefs that bind us in limitation.

My own reflection takes the form of writing and journalling in which my inner experience is revealed and held. You may be interested in an article posted on the Huffington Post blog on Courage: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/maxine-altman/what-can-we-learn-from-malala_b_9622778.html

You can find out more on my websites:

http://www.maxinealtman.com

http://www.thecoachingroom.co.uk/

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

I charge a rate of £85 for individuals for a 50 minute session, with reduced rates for low-income clients.

The fee for couple counselling is £110 per 60 minute session.

I have a 48 hour cancellation policy.

I am registered as a psychotherapy provider with Aviva, Allianz, AXA PPP, BUPA, Cigna, Healix, Inhealth (The Exeter) and Simply Health insurance companies.