We provide psychological assessment and treatment of a wide range of difficulties covering the life span, including children, adults, and older adults. If you would like to enquire as to whether our service may be of help, please telephone for some confidential advice. We are based in Swaffham, Norfolk UK.
Treatments include therapeutic approaches that have a strong evidence-base. Therapy may be offered for an individual, group, couple or family. The following lists the types of therapy on offer by the service and this would be decided upon following an initial assessment.
The initial assessment will usually last 1 ½ hours and will involve collecting information about yourself and the current difficulties you are experiencing and any information about how this may have developed. We may also use psychometric questionnaires that help measure your current symptoms or to help gather further information. This information gathered is kept confidential and the conditions of this will be explained to you prior to your assessment. At the end of the consultation, the options of treatment will be fully explained to help you make an informed choice. There is no obligation to pursue treatments following the assessment.
Psychological Treatments
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a popular form of therapy for common mental health difficulties such as anxiety and depression. It has a strong evidence base and is recommended by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) for the treatment of anxiety disorders, depression and psychosis. CBT involves collaborative exploration of thoughts, feelings and behaviours in order to help ascertain what may be maintaining mental health difficulties. Often people can get stuck into patterns of behaving or thinking and feel unable to break the cycle. The therapist uses CBT to help assist individuals, family or couples to understand their problems and by doing this, identifies where small changes may be tried to bring about an improvement in their difficulties. A course of CBT is usually between 10-12 60 minute sessions on a weekly basis.
Family Therapy
Therapy is offered to families who are seeking help for psychological problem(s) existing for one or more family members. The therapy is facilitated by one of our therapists and it aims to understand the problem from the perspective of each family member in order to help the family identify ways in which they can work together to resolve existing difficulties. An initial assessment with our therapist will help to identify a course of sessions to work towards agreed goals. Sessions are usually weekly and family members will have time in between to try out tasks set as a shared goal. Duration of sessions vary but are usually 1-1 ½ hours long and for 10-12 sessions.
Psychodynamic
Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy is an approach which recognises and works with deeper constructs of the inner psyche. It originates from Sigmund Freud’s theories at the start of the century in which he identifies the id, ego and super-ego. Briefly, the id is thought to be our unconscious primal drives (including sexual and aggressive drives) which are governed by the ego which interacts between our realities and the id. It is at this stage that ‘defence mechanisms’ may be developed in response to these unconscious/conscious experiences. The super-ego is a further part of self that operates to control the id drives by methods such as guilt, shame (Messer and Warren 1995).Using principles of psychoanalysis, the therapy identifies processes both conscious and unconscious that may be operating to maintain problems. The theory suggests that difficulties have their foundation in early childhood experiences that later have resonance with present-day interpersonal problems. The relationship between therapist and client helps to identify and work through processes at work by the use of methods such as interpreting transference. The therapy aims to help the individual explore unresolved conflicts that may be at the heart of dysfunctional relations with self and/or others. Therapy sessions are 50 – 60 minutes long on a weekly basis for 20-25 sessions in total.
Group Therapy
Therapy offered in a group-based format may take a cognitive behavioural or psychodynamic approach depending on the needs of the group members. Groups are facilitated by two therapists and depending on the purpose of the group, will usually contain 6-8 members. The sessions are usually held on a weekly basis for 1 ½-2 hours, for a 10-12 week duration.
Couples Therapy
Therapy is offered to couples who are seeking psychological help for difficulties existing within the context of a relationship. Systemic approaches are used to formulate the problem from the viewpoint of both individuals to help a couple gain some understanding and identify with the therapist ways in which changes may be made to effect an improvement.
Please contact us for a confidential discussion about the services that we offer.