Types of Therapeutic Models
Karen is trained in and may draw upon various therapeutic modalities. Find out more below.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) looks at your thoughts, feelings and behaviours. It invites you to wonder about, and re-assess, how you have been seeing the world and the messages you have been giving yourself. This will enable you to both improve how you feel and to change the behaviours that trouble you. It is particularly useful to combat the after-effects of trauma, anxiety-related conditions and depression.
Adlerian counselling
Adlerian Counselling emphasises the importance of overcoming feelings of inferiority, and gaining a sense of belonging, in order to achieve success and happiness. It also focuses on the importance of having social interactions and community involvement to help us achieve individual growth; everyone’s need for connection and belonging; and to leave behind feelings of inferiority. Because it is a holistic approach that takes both the inner and outer world of the client into account, people can gain a greater awareness of different aspects of themselves as well as a greater understanding of how they fit in within their social world.
Existential Counselling
The existential approach brings elements of philosophy and psychology into therapy to help you understand your place in the world. It focuses on the anxieties and uncertainties that are a fundamental part of life and existence—such as death, the fear of the unknown and the meaning of life. At its core is the idea that we all have both the ability and personal responsibility to make decisions and create our own success. It’s a very client-focussed and empowering way of working. The existential approach focusses a lot on the present. It does, however, take account of how your past experience affects how things are for you today.
Systemic Therapy
Systemic therapy focuses on relationships between a group of people, such as a couple or a family, rather than solely on an individual’s thoughts and feelings. It focuses on the interactions and relationships. It helps people address problems; and to move on. Systemic therapy identifies deeply entrenched patterns; and brings to light how the couple or family members communicate, and behave within a system, based on beliefs about their respective roles. This both improves communication, and builds stronger relationships.
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing helps you recover from traumatic experiences, that are affecting your emotional health and wellbeing. It involves using side-to-side eye movement, or other bilateral bodily movements, in a specific and structured format. As a result, the negative images, emotions, beliefs and body sensations, associated with traumatic memories, are no longer experienced as unbearably painful. In addition, EMDR would enable you to see everything related to the trauma from a more measured perspective. EMDR is a way of kickstarting our natural healing and recovery process. Working in this way means we can reprocess the emotion-laden memories, and experience transformative change.
EFT
Emotionally Focussed Therapy puts emotional experiences and reactions in the forefront. It is based on attachment theory, and the importance this places on secure connection to others. This connection is the major source of human comfort and safety, and a vehicle for growth and development. EFT is especially useful when couples arrive at counselling in emotional distress; or feel so alienated they may believe that the relationship is irreparable. It is also useful for couples and individuals who have difficulty expressing emotions or who believe that doing so is a sign of weakness. At the other extreme, EFT is valuable to those who have trouble regulating emotions. Their intense reactivity is believed to result from emotional alarms set off by fears of abandonment. The therapy is also used to repair family bonds in instances where parent-child relationships have become troubled.
Get in touch
To book an appointment with Karen, call 0208 368 0309. If she is unable to answer, feel free to leave a message. She will come back to you as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can email her on karen@registeredtherapist.co.uk
If you would like to speak to Karen; either to ask her some initial questions, or to get a better sense of her, before booking a session; Karen is happy to arrange a time to have a 15-minute free chat on the telephone.