Decades of research has shown that psychological therapies are an effective treatment for a broad range of difficulties. Psychological therapy is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for many issues, including generalised anxiety, trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), phobias, health anxiety, insomnia, emotional dysregulation issues, eating disorders and addictions. Psychological therapy is also recommended by healthcare professionals for managing and adjusting to a range of health issues including medically unexplained symptoms, premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoria, chronic pain, sleep disorders, adjustment to illness or disability, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), tinnitus and diabetes.

Sessions are offered at a frequency of once a week to allow time for processing between sessions. Individual sessions are 50 minutes long. The number of therapy sessions you’ll need will depend on your individual needs. EMDR is usually a short-term therapy and some people may reach their goals after just a few sessions, for example, for single event traumas. Where there is complex trauma, it could take considerably longer. Our goal is to empower you through therapy, rather than creating a dependency on it and so we can think together about when you feel ready to end the therapy.

It can feel overwhelming to know which type of therapist to choose. There are so many different types of therapy and practitioners on offer. The therapeutic relationship is incredibly important when it comes to the effectiveness of therapy. We see it as the foundation upon which everything else stands. In other words, if there isn’t a good working relationship between the therapist and client then the therapy is less likely to be successful, regardless of the type of therapy being provided or how skilled, qualified or experienced the practitioner is. For this very reason, we offer all new clients a free 15-minute phone consultation so you can get a feel of what working with us will be like. It really matters to us that you achieve the outcomes you want, so we want to make sure we’re the right fit for you.

We believe everyone can benefit from having protected time and a safe space to process and reflect on their thoughts and experiences and feel heard and understood. Our aim is to provide time and space for you to gain clarity to help you improve your psychological well-being and develop your resilience to the stresses of life, while improving your experience of life through learning new skills and strategies and how to use your personal strengths.

Therapy involves a significant investment of time and energy. You need to be willing and open to talk about your thoughts, feelings, experiences, needs, wishes, hopes and fears. It can be useful to think of psychological therapy as a form of training, and like any other form of training the more you put in, the more you’ll get out. Therefore, motivation and openness are really important. Therapy is at its most effective when people want things to change and feel motivated to try.

Will everything I discuss remain confidential? As a Registered Mental Health Nurse Bethan is committed to a high standard of client care and bound by the professional and ethical framework of the Nursing & Midwifery Council and also the EMDR association. That means everything you discuss will be kept completely confidential unless you give your explicit consent for certain information to be shared with particular individuals, like your GP. You can choose to withdraw this consent at any time. There are rare circumstances which permit us to break this confidentiality agreement, for example, in instances where we feel you are at significant risk of harming yourself or other people. Whenever possible, we would let you know if this was the case. Please contact us if you would like to discuss this further.