Treatments Explained

Our Treatments

CBT is a structured psychological treatment which recognises that the way we think (cognition) and act (behaviour) affects the way we feel. CBT is one of the most effective treatments for depression and has been found to be useful for a wide range of ages, including children, adolescents, adults and older people. 

CBT involves working with a professional (therapist) to identify thought and behaviour patterns that are either making you more likely to become depressed or stopping you from getting better when you’re experiencing depression.

It works to change your thoughts and behaviour by teaching you to think rationally about common difficulties, helping you to shift negative or unhelpful thought patterns and reactions to a more realistic, positive and problem-solving approach.

MBCT is generally delivered in groups and involves a type of meditation called ‘mindfulness meditation’. This teaches you to focus on the present moment – just noticing whatever you’re experiencing, whether it’s pleasant or unpleasant – without trying to change it. At first, this approach is used to focus on physical sensations (like breathing), but then moves on to feelings and thoughts. MBCT can help to stop your mind wandering off into thoughts about the future or the past and avoid unpleasant thoughts and feelings. This is thought to be helpful in preventing depression from returning because it encourages you to notice feelings of sadness and negative thinking patterns early on, before they become fixed. As a result, you’re able to deal with warning signs earlier and more effectively.

MBCT can help clients to stop their mind wandering off into thoughts about the future or the past and avoid unpleasant or unhelpful thoughts and feelings. It encourages clients to notice feelings of sadness, anxiety and negative thought patterns early on, before they become fixed. As a result, they are able to deal with warning signs earlier and more effectively.

While behaviour therapy is a major component of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), unlike CBT it doesn’t attempt to change beliefs and attitudes. Instead it focuses on encouraging activities that are rewarding, pleasant or satisfying, aiming to reverse the patterns of avoidance, withdrawal and inactivity that make depression worse.

EMDR procedures facilitate the effective reprocessing of traumatic events. 

EMDR is a psychotherapy developed by Francine Shapiro that emphasizes disturbing memories as the cause of psychopathology and alleviates the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). EMDR is used for individuals who have experienced severe trauma that remains unresolved. According to Shapiro, when a traumatic or distressing experience occurs, it may overwhelm normal cognitive and neurological coping mechanisms. 

The memory and associated stimuli are inadequately processed and stored in an isolated memory network. The goal of EMDR therapy is to process these distressing memories, reducing their lingering effects and allowing clients to develop more adaptive coping mechanisms. This is done in an eight-step protocol that includes having clients recall distressing images while receiving one of several types of bilateral sensory input, including side to side eye movements. The use of EMDR was originally developed to treat adults suffering from PTSD; however, it is also used to treat other conditions and is also used with children.

IPT is a structured psychological therapy that focuses on problems in personal relationships and the skills needed to deal with these. IPT is based on the idea that relationship problems can have a significant effect on someone experiencing depression and can even contribute to the cause.

IPT helps you recognise patterns in your relationships that make you more vulnerable to depression. Identifying these patterns means you can focus on improving relationships, coping with grief and finding new ways to get along with others.

The aim of sex therapy is to help you improve the physical intimacy between you and your partner and overcome or manage any sexual difficulties you’re having. … emotional (unhappiness in the relationship, unresolved grief) situational (certain situations or environments). Couples would typically be asked to engage in a behavioural programme aimed to increase physical and emotional intimacy.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an action-oriented approach to psychotherapy that stems from traditional behaviour therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy. Clients learn to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions and, instead, accept that these deeper feelings are appropriate responses to certain situations that should not prevent them from moving forward in their lives. With this understanding, clients begin to accept their issues and hardships and commit to making necessary changes in their behaviour, regardless of what is going on in their lives, and how they feel about it.

Working with a therapist, you will learn to listen to your own self-talk, or the way you talk to yourself specifically about traumatic events, problematic relationships, physical limitations, or other issues. You can then decide if an issue requires immediate action and change or if it can—or must—be accepted for what it is while you learn to make behavioural changes that can affect the situation. You may look at what hasn’t worked for you in the past, so that the therapist can help you stop repeating thought patterns and behaviours that are causing you more problems in the long run. Once you have faced and accepted your current issues, you make a commitment to stop fighting your past and your emotions and, instead, start practicing more confident and optimistic behaviour, based on your personal values and goals.

Grief is a natural response to losing someone you care about. There’s no right or wrong way to grieve. Everyone’s experiences of grief are individual. 

Grieving can be painful, and it can’t be fixed or made to go away. But the grief and pain will lessen and there will come a time when you can adjust and cope without the person who has died.

A neuropsychological assessment provides an objective way of characterising cognitive, emotional and behavioural symptoms. This process typically involves completing a number of different cognitive tasks and questionnaires. The process is not painful, but it may take a number of hours. The results will guide the treatment process.

Treatment is offered to help improve or mitigate the impact of presented cognitive, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Within the Clinical Neuropsychology service this is provided within the framework of a brief goal-focused intervention model. This work involves aspects of cognitive rehabilitation, the implementation of strategies to compensate for cognitive problems and, where appropriate, brief psychological therapy interventions for associated psychological difficulties, typically within a cognitive-behavioural therapy framework.

 

Complex interactions between cognitive, behavioural, emotional and physiological factors will determine an individual’s experience of pain. Pain experience is therefore different from person to person as a result of varying combinations of these factors. Assessing the bio-psycho-social aspects of a patient’s pain can be vital to identifying the most successful treatment options before any intervention begins.

The assessment of the psychosocial aspects of an individual’s persistent pain involves and requires the accurate evaluation of:

• Behavioural changes affecting work and domestic responsibilities, leisure and social activities, marital and family relationships, sleep patterns and medication use.

Cognitive factors, including beliefs and attitudes, expectations, coping skills.

• Emotional state (such as the presence and severity of anxiety and depression).

• Whether any post-traumatic stress disorder linked to an incident which has caused the pain could be affecting the patients experience of the pain.

 

After an evaluation a Clinical Psychologist/ therapist might recommend several types of treatment including:

A. Individual psychotherapy aimed at providing a better understanding of the behavioural and emotional responses to the pain and to help modify such responses to increase one’s comfort, ability to cope, and sense of wellbeing.

B. Pain management to help you learn sufficient self-management strategies for your pain.

C. Biofeedback to help you learn to reduce activity of the part of your nervous system that responds to stress. Activity from this part of the nervous system increases management of pain.