Therapy Approaches
My main therapeutic approach is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which focuses on finding ways to live with difficult emotions and experiences, while also making meaningful changes in pursuit of what matters most to you personally.
I also use mindfulness-based approaches, flexibly adjusting them to suit the different needs of individual clients. Standard mindfulness approaches do not work well for everyone, particularly for neurodivergent people and those living with chronic illness, pain or disability, but my experience is that with some creativity, most of us can find ways to be more present and less overwhelmed by unwanted experiences. I also draw on compassion-focused therapies and self-compassion practices. My work is informed by attachment theory, which can help us to understand how some of the patterns in our relationships are shaped by early experiences, and how we can change them.
As a large part of my work is with neurodivergent and/or physically disabled or chronically ill adults, I focus on adapting all of the above approaches to be a better fit for the ways that different bodies and brains work, and to suit any specific individual’s needs and resources, rather than assuming that clients should adapt themselves to suit the therapy.