INDIVIDUAL
THERAPY

For the good times. However, therapy is not only for the hard times when life seems to be falling apart, it can be an enriching experience in itself. It can, for instance, help you with:

• expanding your awareness, enabling you to accept yourself and become a true friend to yourself;
• working towards healthier self-esteem and better self-care;
• improving already functional relationships with your loved ones;
• promoting healthy changes in your career by exploring what you need to progress, helping you overcome fears and interpersonal problems;
• generally becoming more aware of your purpose, beliefs and emotional reality, which will often return excitement and inspiration to your life.

Psychotherapy or counselling?

All of our practitioners in West London offer individual counselling or psychotherapy.

The terms psychotherapy and counselling are often used interchangeably but there are some differences.

Counselling tends to be shorter-term and focuses on supporting you through a current difficult experience such as bereavement, illness, divorce, and milder mental health dysfunctions.

Psychotherapy typically involves a more in-depth process of self-exploration, for example, looking at how ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that formed in early life are affecting you now and what new attitudes and skills you can develop to live a happier and healthier life. A great benefit of psychotherapy is its long-lasting effect. Apart from helping you to cope better now, you can learn and practice new skills that will become a part of you and expand your potential.

People come for counselling and psychotherapy for many reasons. Some of the most common reason include:

• anxiety
• depression
• loss and bereavement
• alcohol, drug, food, exercise and pornography addictions
• relationship and sexual difficulties
• problems with anger
• insomnia and stress

In counselling and psychotherapy sessions, the work involves talking with a therapist and exploring with the many different aspects of a person's life experiences. This helps them to understand themselves more deeply, including what has shaped them - why they think, feel and behave in certain ways. It also helps people to learn new, healthier ways to cope with life's stresses, such as hurt, disappointment, conflict, and loss,

Our therapists come from a variety of backgrounds and trainings, and so have approaches that vary a little, but they will all work, broadly, in a similar way, which is welcoming, professional, supportive, containing and respectful.

Therapy/counselling sessions normally take place at the same time and place on a weekly basis and last 50 minutes. At the first session, you will discuss what you want to focus on and will have an opportunity to ask the therapist how they work. You can decide together on a structure for the work or choose to take a route of more free exploration. Your therapist will support you in finding what works best for you.

Details about the various approaches and techniques practised by the Kensington practitioners can be found in their individual profiles. There is no right or wrong to have therapy, so take a look and choose a therapist whose working method seems to chime with you. Whatever approach the practitioner adheres to, they will give you their full attention during sessions and commit to providing a warm, safe and non-judgmental space for your exploration.

Someone coming for counselling and psychotherapy in our West London practice can expect a confidential, respectful environment in which they will be supported by a skilled professional to speak about whatever they wish, and to express and explore their feelings, safely and productively, in a variety of ways.

Practitioners offering face to face counselling or psychotherapy within safe 2 meters distance