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therapy@promise
52A Old London Road, Kingston, London KT2 6QF
Harley Street, London W1G
+44 7495 514855
mail@therapywithpromise.com
Therapy
Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy
This therapy seeks to help you change the way that you feel, through making changes with how you think & your behaviour. If a person feels really down or anxious, it's not that their thinking is wrong or bad, but it's likely that the person experiences very critical, worrying or negative thoughts. This in turn affects the way that they feel & what they feel able to do. So your therapist would help you find ways of thinking about yourself differently, supporting you to develop more balanced thinking. We all see the world through our own eyes, based partly on our past experiences. If our beliefs about ourselves as a person are not so good, then this can darken our view of the world, like putting on a pair of dark glasses. But it doesn't have to be this way, as you can learn to develop more positive beliefs. Often our problems get stronger because of the things we do, or don't do perhaps. Making sense of this & trying out new things with the support of your therapist, gives you the chance to make real changes in your life. This kind of therapy is mainly based in the here & now. Many people have found this kind of therapy helpful, as they learn to become their very own expert in their own well-being.
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
Mindfulness teaches us to stay in the present moment & to accept the way that we are without judgment or criticism. So many of us can spend a lot of our time not truly conscious of what we are experiencing in this very moment. You may find that you are living in the future, with worry or even fearful thoughts. Or perhaps in the past, going over events in your mind, with all that, 'what if?', 'if only I had?,' kinds of thinking. Perhaps you have critical or judgment thoughts about yourself as a person, 'I should be this way', 'I am not good enough'. We might have felt this way for so long, that we are not even aware of our thinking, like someone has switched on the auto-pilot, only to find ourselves feeling really down or anxious. Let's give an example, if you have leant to drive, then it's likely that the first day you got your license, you were really quite conscious of what you were experiencing. As time went on & you mastered the skill, you didn't really think about changing the gear stick or turning the steering wheel. Your mind could actually be elsewhere at times. As human beings we all have this ability, in fact it can be really helpful at times, enabling us to do quite a few things at the same time. We all have wandering minds, our thoughts can leap & change from moment to moment & it's likely we are not even aware of them. Our minds naturally want to solve problems, that's why if someone is depressed, the person plays over past events in their mind, but instead of solving the problem, we end up tying ourselves in knots & feeling much worse. Mindfulness gives you the chance to step out of these loops of thinking. Your Therapist would support you to do this through learning breathing & meditation techniques & also with some cognitive therapy exercises.
Just like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Mindfulness can help people experiencing unusual & perhaps very stressful things, like hearing voices or sounds.
As you learn ways to stay with the way that you feel, you will find that this frees your mind from critical or judgmental thoughts & you are able to feel less harsh towards yourself & make better life & in the moment choices.
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