Therapies

Different modes of psychotherapy are used to treat problems requiring change and needing new ways of dealing with daily living. The personal meanings we give to experiences in our lives are often learned from childhood and are also influenced by our experiences to influence thinking, emotions and behaviour. The inventor behind this mode of therapy was psychiatrist Aaron Beck in 1960. This mode has gained popularity as more and more research was done demonstrating clearly that it not only works at the time of the problem but sustains the change made. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a practical, quick goal-orientated, here-and-now way of solving problems.

What we think and do affects the way we feel. Sometimes we can get stuck in a vicious cycle of thinking, which drives negative feelings and dysfunctional thinking and behaviour. We can also experience bodily sensations and an emotional reactions. The goal of CBT is to notice the bodily sensation, change patterns of thinking or behaviour related to the problem and thus change the way you feel.

Michelle and the client work closely together to find new strategies to deal with clinical issues such as anxiety, obsessive behaviour, depression, drug and alcohol abuse, trauma and insomnia. Educational problems such as procrastination, exam anxiety, oral presentations and sport can also be addressed using CBT. A set of principles are applied and practiced to be used like a toolbox in your head in practical daily activities. The idea is to change dysfunctional, negative, learned ideas and assumptions that are automatic conversations in the mind.