I am a Clinical Psychologist with over 9 years experience as a mental health professional in both clinical and research settings. I have experience working with both children and adults experiencing a wide range of mental health difficulties. Following doctoral training, I completed Level 3 training in Eye Movement Desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR).

I currently work in a NHS secondary care mental health service, offering psychological therapy to support people with complex mental health needs, in addition to private practice.

I am registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and a member of EMDR UK and Ireland.

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Embarking on psychological therapy can be a daunting prospect. Each person brings their own unique experiences and difficulties to therapy, as such each person’s therapy is unique and deeply personal. To enable difficulties to be explored requires the development of a safe therapeutic relationship, which I seek to facilitate by listening, understanding and working at your pace. I work using a number of different psychological approaches and integrate these to best suit each person’s needs:

• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
• Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)

My therapeutic style is open and collaborative, recognising that we both bring our own expertise and experiences into our shared therapeutic space.  I usually work in a sequence of stages: Initial Consultation, Understanding, Working Through and Ending. 

Initial Consultation

This is a single session during which we discuss your reasons for seeking psychological support, the therapeutic goals you would like to achieve and I will be able to answer any questions you might have.  The aim of this meeting is to help you decide whether you feel you would like to work with me.  It also allows me to think about whether the psychological therapy I can offer is likely to benefit you.

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Understanding

These (usually up to 3) sessions are designed to enable us to gain a thorough understanding of the issues that have brought you to therapy, to begin to get to know your life history and significant experiences. The aim is for us to to develop a good understanding of how the difficulties you are experiencing tend to show up in your life, how they may have developed and what keeps them going. We will also take time to think about what you would like to be different, or perhaps simply understand better. This allows us to choose the approach(es) most likely to help you towards your therapeutic goals.

Working Through

Having developed a good understanding of the issues and therapeutic goals, this stage is focused on ‘working through’ the issues that brought you to therapy. This stage can look very different for different people. For some it may involve a deeper exploration of past events and/or expression of long-held or avoided emotions. For others, it could be examining and adjusting unhelpful patterns of behaviour. Some people may work on testing out new strategies to help manage day to day events, and yet others may work to processes traumatic memories that up until now, have been left unprocessed and are causing distress in the present.

Ending

The ending of psychological therapy is an important stage in the therapeutic process and aims to allow for time to reflect on what we have achieved and to process feelings associated with the ending of our work together.

1: What are the fees?

50 minute sessions are £100, 80 minute sessions are £145.

2: What length of appointment will I need?

Initial consultations and therapy: 50 minutes. EMDR: 80 minutes.

3: How long will I need to attend?

Each person comes to therapy with their unique experiences, issues and goals. Therefore, each persons therapy is carefully and individually tailored, making the length of therapy difficult to specify in advance.

Therapy is a dynamic process, at times issues come to the fore during the course of the work that affect the overall length of the work. As a guide, therapy can last from around 6 weeks to up to around 18 months, depending on the focus of the work.

We will discuss your personal therapy goals and agree an initial number of session at our initial consultation. We will have regular reviews to check on our progress and think about whether we need more or less time to reach your goals.

4: How often will I need to attend?

Usually, weekly. We can discuss alternative options if you do not feel this is possible for you.

6: When can I attend?

Practice times are Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Please contact me to discuss current availability.

5: Where is the practice based?

Hove Therapy Rooms, 69 Church Road, Hove, BN3 2BB

7: What happens if I need to cancel?

Cancellation with 24 hours notice is possible. If less than 24 hours notice is given, the session will be charged in full.

8: What about confidentiality?

The content of our work is usually completely confidential. In the very unusual instance that I become concerned that you or someone else is at risk, then I have a duty to report that to relevant agencies. I would always attempt to discuss this with you prior to contacting any other agency. If you have specific concerns about confidentiality, please discuss these with me.

9: Can I take a break from therapy?

Yes. If you have holidays, life events or feel you would like a break from therapy we can discuss and plan for this.

10: Are there issues that you don’t work with?

In my private work I am not able to offer crisis or emergency support. Therefore if you feel unable to stay safe between sessions or are experiencing issues that result in very high levels of risk, it is most likely that you can be best supported within NHS services. You can access these by visiting your GP. Please contact me if you would like to discuss issues around risk further.

If you have any questions about how I may be able to help you then please contact me:

• email: lisa@betterlifepsychology.com
• phone: 07964 035174

Currently, sessions are taking place online. Face to face sessions, when possible, take place in Hove at :

Hove Therapy Rooms, 69 Church Road, Hove, BN3 2BB.