Anyone can benefit from psychotherapy – you don’t need to have a diagnosed mental health condition or be in crisis. Therapy can simply be an opportunity to take a step back and explore what is preventing you living your ‘best life’, enabling you to develop new perspectives on yourself, your relationships and the issues you are facing.
You may be struggling with current difficulties or have unresolved issues from the past; you may have fears for your future or feel that life lacks meaning and purpose. Depending on your specific needs, our work together can help you:
- Identify and challenge self-defeating patterns of relationship, thought, feeling, or behaviour.
- Develop an increased sense of self-acceptance, self-esteem, choice and autonomy.
- Work through grief and loss.
- Manage symptoms of anxiety or depression, whilst also addressing the underlying issues.
- Process feelings of guilt, shame, anger or fear.
- Reset the boundaries in your relationships.
- Understand how past experiences may be impacting present difficulties.
- Recover from trauma and post-traumatic stress.
- Deal with issues relating to identity, including gender and misattributed parentage experience.
- Resolve personal and relationship dilemmas.
- Address phobias and compulsions and develop appropriate coping strategies.
- Explore the existential challenges of being human: from mortality and meaning, to personal choice and responsibility.
Appointments
Therapy sessions take place either in person at my practice in Hindhead, Surrey; online over Zoom; or by telephone.
Sessions last 50 minutes and usually take place at the same time each week. Where this is not possible I’m happy to arrange a more flexible schedule to fit around work or family commitments.
I offer both short-term therapy (typically 6-12 weeks) and longer-term/open-ended therapy, as required. During our initial consultation I will offer guidance regarding an appropriate timeframe, but ultimately it is your decision as to how long you continue with therapy. You will usually know when you are ready to finish and we will work together to prepare for this.
As a first step I offer a free, 20-minute, introductory call over Zoom or by telephone, during which we can briefly discuss the issues you would like to bring to therapy and you can ask any questions you may have about the therapeutic process. This will help us establish that I can provide the type of support you are looking for and give you a good sense of whether I’m the right therapist for you.
To book please text/call 07790 366314 or email helenbrucetherapy@gmail.com
Confidentiality
Everything we discuss during therapy sessions will be treated as strictly confidential. The only exception to this would be if I was legally compelled to disclose information, or if I have a strong reason to believe that you or a third party may be at risk of harm. In such cases it may be necessary to inform others, such as a GP, of the situation but I would always seek to discuss this with you beforehand. I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and abide by its professional code of ethics.
The Integrative Approach
As an integrative therapist I am not limited to using one singular therapeutic approach. Instead, I am able to draw on a range of core therapeutic ‘modalities’. In practice this usually means blending the most appropriate and effective aspects of each approach in order to meet the unique needs of individual clients.
The modalities that inform and underpin my work are:
- Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
- Existential Psychotherapy
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Relational Transactional Analysis
- Person-Centred Counselling
In a (very brief) nutshell:
PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY recognises that difficulties and distress in a person’s present life may have their origins in earlier life experiences. By exploring both the past and the present in tandem, the approach is able to examine patterns of thought, behaviour and relationship which may have persisted throughout a person’s life. Psychodynamic therapy pays particular attention to those impulses and mental processes which lie outside of conscious awareness. It enables clients to gain insight into the strategies and defence mechanisms they habitually use to deal with life’s challenges and provides a space to explore how unconscious processes and unresolved internal conflict may be impacting present difficulties.
EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY is a philosophically informed approach which allows us to explore what it means to be human: how to balance personal capacity and aspiration within the limitations of the ‘human condition’. The existential approach considers each person capable of an enormous range of experience – each person is in a constant process of ‘becoming’. It focuses on helping clients understand and take ownership of the ways in which they create the reality they experience and aims to empower them to increase their sense of freedom and choice in the way they live their lives.
COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY looks at how a person’s thoughts, beliefs and assumptions directly impact their feelings and behaviours. The aim of the approach is to challenge and revise negative thought processes, core beliefs, and behaviours in order to improve emotional wellbeing.
RELATIONAL TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS highlights the centrality of ‘relationship’ to each of our lives: the way we interact with others, and the way we relate to ourselves, is fundamental to our wellbeing. The focus of the approach is an exploration of modes of relating, both at a conscious and unconscious (or subconscious) level. Through the establishment of a collaborative, empathic and authentic working alliance between client and therapist, the therapeutic relationship itself serves as a vessel for healing and change.
PERSON-CENTRED COUNSELLING emphasizes the importance of empathy, acceptance and a non-judgemental approach in the therapy room, providing a caring, safe environment in which difficult and painful feelings can be explored without fear of judgement or rejection.
