My Approach
Our work is tailored to your unique needs, drawing upon various therapeutic modalities. Your story is unique; it matters that you are heard and understood with compassion and without judgement. It's about your journey – and psychotherapy is a new opportunity for you to take ownership of your life and go from where you are now – to where you want to be.
I offer long and short-term therapy drawing upon a range of therapeutic modalities from Gestalt therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (also known as CBT - more action-oriented work), Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), Attachment Focused Therapy to Person Centred Therapy and Transactional Analysis.
Welcome to
Crossroads Psychotherapy
As a fully qualified Psychotherapist with over 25 years in the field, I’ve worked across a diverse range of clients with a multitude of issues for therapy - I specialise in people, not stigmatising language, or labels. I create the space for you to be, to support you to look at obstacles as opportunities, rather than blocks for growth.
Success in therapy centres on our relationship as therapist/client. A true partnership is based on mutual commitment, transparency and authenticity which builds during our sessions. At times, it might feel uncomfortable. But therapy is a safe space to welcome discomfort where change can take place – at your pace.
I offer short-and long-term sessions either face-to-face at my Bournemouth practice or via zoom online or telephone.
Individuals, Couples, Groups, Teenagers, Students, Trainee Counsellors or Therapists, Blue light services and Veterans.
Process groups, Personal development/Psycho-educational, Trauma/Grief/Anger Management. Young mothers/Birth mothers, Adoptive Parents, Adoptee’s. Men’s Personal development, Women’s Personal development groups. Obsessive compulsive behaviours.
- 6-8 in any given group
- 10 weeks
- 90 minutes a session
- £250 block of 10 sessions
Open and closed groups depending on what type of group.
Therapy Approaches
Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that is centred on increasing your awareness, freedom, and self-direction. It focuses on the present moment rather than past experiences and works on the idea that people are influenced by the immediate here and now - and how exploring this helps you. It looks at how your past affects and influences your feelings at this moment rather than how you felt back then.
This type of therapy focuses on raising your immediate awareness of how you are while allowing you to experiment with different response methods. I help you focus on the present to understand what is happening in your life and how it makes you feel. We focus on empathy and unconditional acceptance so you can learn how to trust and accept what you feel.
CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)
The core idea behind CBT is that your thoughts and actions create your emotional states. These emotional states lead you to either feel stuck and do nothing or do things you regret. When faced with a difficult situation and having a negative thought, it creates negative feelings and body sensations. These feelings, in turn, push us to make a wrong choice – which, in turn, creates another negative thought – and the cycle continues. You can change your thinking and behaviours with CBT to stop the negative process.
Changing or re-conditioning our thoughts or behaviour can overcome specific problems, and CBT teaches you strategies to manage your mental health daily. CBT helps turn negative thoughts into more helpful thinking patterns for you to take action instead of being constrained in avoidance behaviours and negative self-talk. CBT enables you to stop behaving in ways that make you feel bad and improves your problem-solving skills; it widens your perspective and focuses on how your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes affect your feelings and actions.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a therapeutic approach for individuals, couples, and families. EFT incorporates elements of Gestalt and Person-Centred approaches, systemic therapy, and attachment theory. Used mostly with couples and families but applicable to individuals, EFT is a therapy that focuses on developing emotional intelligence and the importance of secure relationships.
Rather than seeing emotions as something to be controlled, EFT sees emotions as something to be explored and experienced and as essential guides to what we need or want that can lead toward personal growth for ourselves and our relationships. First, EFT aims to expand critical emotional responses within relationships and organise those emotions. Secondly, the goal is to identify the positions being taken within relationships and shift these habitual positions to new, positive and supportive ways of interacting. And lastly, the goal is to encourage secure bonds within relationships.
Attachment Focused Therapy
Attachment-based therapy is a brief, process-oriented form of counselling. The client-therapist relationship is based on developing or rebuilding trust and centres on expressing emotions. An attachment-based approach to therapy looks at the connection between an infant’s early attachment experiences with primary caregivers, usually with parents, and the infant’s ability to develop normally and ultimately form healthy emotional and physical relationships as an adult.
Without a healthy foundation, babies may grow to be fearful, confused, and insecure, ultimately becoming depressed or even suicidal as adolescents. By forming a trusting relationship with parental figures or with the therapist, the client is better prepared to form strong bonds in other relationships. Attachment-based therapy aims to build or rebuild a trusting, supportive relationship that will help prevent or treat mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
Person Centred Therapy
Person-centred therapy, or client-centred therapy, is a type of psychotherapy that emphasises your subjective experience and your innate capacity for self-awareness and personal growth. It is rooted in the belief you have the answers within.
Person-centred therapy enables you to eliminate the idea or feeling that external forces beyond your control influence you. The goals of this practice include increasing self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-acceptance, leading to improved emotional resilience and more meaningful relationships with others.
Person-centred therapy helps facilitate your self-actualisation, allowing you to develop solutions to your problems and reach your full potential. It is a non-directive therapy where you act as an equal partner in the therapy process, where I am without judgement. There are three main features: genuineness and congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathetic understanding. I act mainly as a guide or a source of support where you feel heard and understood. You focus on maximising your ability to find solutions during the therapeutic process, which encourages positive change within yourself.
Transactional Analysis
Transactional analysis is designed to promote personal growth and change: it is an integrative approach to psychotherapy grounded in humanistic philosophy - the analysis of how people communicate and relate to each other or how they 'transact'.The analysis of transactions work on ego states—three different ways of being that shape our inner world and behaviour - parent, adult and child.
These ego states are often developed in the past and recreated in the present. They maintain old, unhelpful patterns which you can become more aware of and change.
Parent (behaving in ways which we learn and react to our parent's behaviour as adults); Adult (using logic and evidence to guide our behaviour, not becoming emotional); Child (replaying childish behaviours as adults).
Transactional analysis aims to help you enhance your communications with others. Through skilful questioning and using various models, techniques, and tools, I help analyse your past and how it affects the here and now. You’ll work on problem-solving behaviours and develop day-to-day tools for finding solutions so that you regain autonomy to reach your full potential in all aspects of your life.
Who Benefits
The primary goal of individual therapy is to increase understanding of one's thoughts and behaviour patterns to help improve function and well-being. In therapy, I help you learn how to effectively manage stress, interpersonal difficulties and troubling situations so you can develop more of an ability to make healthy decisions, set goals and become more self-aware.
As your therapist, we create a deeper connection so that you feel comfortable to talk openly and freely. Therapy allows you to explore your feelings, beliefs and behaviours, work through challenging issues and identify aspects of your life you
would like to change, better understand, set personal goals and work towards desired change. The benefits of individual therapy can be life-changing, and we review how long your therapy may last as you go along
When beginning family therapy, I start by helping your family understand how the system functions and how individual family members relate to each other. I’ll support you in recognising unhelpful communication patterns and how they disrupt the functioning of the family system. Through facilitating productive dialogues, the family can work together to make changes and choices that improve the quality of familial relationships.
Couple and family therapy can be necessary to help develop better communication skills, resolve conflict and create healthy, more flexible boundaries between loved ones. Most couples and families seek therapy because of a crisis such as a divorce, loss, or repetitive fighting. Couples and family therapy can help resolve old interaction patterns and create space for healthy, rewarding connections.
The teen years are a time of growth and transition. Teenagers undergo significant developmental, hormonal, and social changes during these years. Though these changes are natural, they can be overwhelming. Emotions become heightened, external pressures increase and intensify, and behavioural changes occur. I help young people learn to deal with challenges related to anxiety, depression, relationships with friends and family, school-related pressures, dating, and identity issues. I help teens tune in to their emotional experiences by learning to recognise their thoughts, feelings, and body sensations.
Group therapy can be a powerful way to work through interpersonal issues related to the past, present, and future. Groups function as a microcosm of the real world. Safe, confidential group psychotherapy can provide the space to allow one to work through issues that may hinder personal development. How? Hearing how other people have dealt with their issues, even how others suffer from something we know, can help us understand, identify and relate our predicament.
These groups are for anyone looking at personal development within interpersonal relationships. Exploring/experiencing social and emotional interactions between members of the group sharing common interests & goals. All groups would be contracted to keep a safe and open space for connection & growth.
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