The Relaxed Mind Approach

Find out about the kinds of therapy I offer and what to expect

I use an evidence-based combination of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), hypnotherapy and mindfulness to help you break free from anxiety, stress and worry.

I use evidence-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help you overcome your anxiety, worry or stress

My goal is to help you develop the tools to help yourself - not become tied into a long-term therapy programme

I work with you to develop a treatment plan that works for you and your lifestyle

My approach incorporates techniques based on the latest scientific evidence

I am accredited by the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) and General Hypnotherapy Register (GHR), am a member of the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC), and am bound by their Codes of Ethics

Finding someone you feel comfortable working with is the most important thing.  Please contact me for a free, no strings 15 minute phone consultation to find out how I can help or, if you prefer, send me a message

Cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, is a form of talking therapy which helps you identify negative patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving and replace them with more helpful ones. The focus is on dealing with your problems in the here and now rather than analysing the past, which helps to make treatment faster.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the NHS recommend CBT in the treatment of anxiety and depression, and there is also strong evidence that CBT can help with many other conditions such as panic attacks, phobias, sleep problems and stress-related conditions.

CBT, you and I work as a team.  You are the expert in you, so you and I work together to try to understand the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that are causing your problems. I like to think of CBT as skills training – the idea is that you learn the skills to help yourself. Because of this, CBT tends to involve fewer sessions than many other forms of counselling.

We'll identify your goals for therapy, and agree a treatment plan based on what we discover is holding you back.  We’ll use a mixture of discussion, structured questions, imagery-based techniques (such as imagining trying out new coping skills), and real-life experiments to help you develop and try out new skills. Some examples of skills we might cover could include relaxation skills, learning to spot and evaluate unhelpful thinking patterns, or mindfulness skills. We’ll agree things you feel comfortable trying in between our sessions (perhaps keeping a thought diary, or trying a relaxation exercise). We’ll always discuss what you’re finding most helpful and why, so that we can do more of the things you find most useful.

We’ll track progress towards your goals, and you’ll develop a plan to help you maintain and continue your progress.

Where relevant, I combine CBT with  hypnosis and/or mindfulness.  I do this when the evidence suggests this is likely to be helpful, or if you have a strong preference for these approaches.  I'm always happy to discuss this with you.

Hypnosis is proven to help with a wide range of issues. Research shows it is particularly helpful for dealing with anxiety management, pain management, sleep problems, stress-related issues and breaking habits.

In hypnosis, use your imagination to evoke positive emotions and mentally rehearse new ways of thinking or behaving. It’s a bit like becoming engrossed in a film or a book, and it’s usually very relaxing. By relaxing, thinking positively and picturing your goals, hypnosis can help you change how you think, feel and behave.

You are always in charge – you will remember everything that happens and cannot be made to do anything you don’t want to do. Please forget anything you may have seen in comedy TV or stage hypnosis – clinical hypnotherapy is completely different!

Most importantly, hypnosis is a skill which you can learn to do by yourself, for yourself. I will help you at first, and then provide you with the tools and techniques to try for yourself at home.

I always combine hypnosis with evidence-based CBT principles. Research suggests that hypnosis, in combination with CBT, can be more effective and quicker than CBT alone for some conditions (Kirsch et al., 1995).

Mindfulness is about paying more attention to the present and being more aware of what's going on around you, and inside your body, from moment to moment.

It's a useful skill because it helps you to recognise when your attention becomes focussed on unhelpful thoughts, for example worrying about something that might happen in the future. By practising mindfulness, you can learn to recognise when this happens, and choose when to pay attention to your thoughts and when it's more helpful to let them go.

It's increasingly recognised by many, including the NHS, that mindfulness can help improve our mental wellbeing. Mindfulness can form part of a treatment plan in combination with CBT and/ or hypnotherapy depending on your goals.

31 Old London Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT2 6ND

26 Kingston Road, New Malden, Surrey KT3 3LS