MY SPECIALTIES
INDIVIDUAL COUNSELLING
Individual counselling is a process through which clients work one-on-one with a trained mental health clinician in a safe, caring, non-judgmental and confidential environment.
Counselling can help individuals recognize the role relationships play in the shaping of daily experiences, attempts to help people understand patterns appearing in the thoughts and feelings they have toward themselves.
ANXIETY
Anxiety, or extreme apprehension and worry, is a normal reaction to stressful situations. In some cases, however, worry becomes excessive or chronic and can cause sufferers to dread everyday situations.​
Generally, anxiety arises first, often during childhood. Evidence suggests that both biology and environment can contribute to the disorder. Some people may have a genetic predisposition to anxiety; however, even so, development of the condition is not inevitable. Early traumatic experiences can also reset the body’s normal fear-processing system so that it is hyper-reactive.
Anxiety is typified by exaggerated worries and expectations of negative outcomes in unknown situations, and such concerns are often accompanied by physical symptoms. These include muscle tension, headaches, stomach cramps, and frequent urination.
BIPOLAR DISORDER
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a chronically recurring condition involving moods that swing between the highs of mania and the lows of depression. Depression is by far the most pervasive feature of the illness, while the manic phase usually involves a mix of irritability, anger, increased energy, activity, and restlessness; euphoric mood and extreme optimism, racing thoughts, pressured speech, distractibility and lack of concentration; decreased need for sleep; unrealistic beliefs in one's abilities and powers and ideas; poor judgment; reckless behaviors including spending sprees and fast driving, risky and increased sexual drive; provocative, intrusive, and/ or aggressive behavior.
The duration of elevated moods and the frequency with which they alternate with depressive moods can vary enormously from person to person as well.
Because bipolar disorder is a recurrent illness, long-term treatment is necessary. Mood stabilizer drugs are typically prescribed to prevent mood swings.
Psychotherapy is also valuable in teaching self-management skills, which help keep the everyday ups and downs from becoming full-blown episodes..
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EATING DISORDERS
Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions that affect people emotionally, physically and socially. They centre on a person's relationship with food, eating and themselves.
Diferent types: Anorexia nervosa causes a person to feel a need to lose weight, even though they may be considerably underweight. This desire can lead to the person restricting their eating and/or exercising excessively.
Bulimiacan cause a person to fall into a cycle of eating excessively (binge-eating) and purging - typically through vomiting, over-exercising or using laxatives.
Binge-eating disorder sees people overeating regularly. Sometimes described as compulsive eating, a person may rely on food for emotional support or use it as a way to mask difficult feelings. Affecting both men and women, binge-eating disorder is more common in adults.
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DEPRESSION
Depression is a complex syndrome with a significant variety of aetiologies from different developmental and biological, social, economic, interpersonal and psychological factors. Individuals are often experiencing prolonged feelings of sadness, emptiness, worthlessness, irritable mood, accompanied by somatic and cognitive changes, which affect the individual’s capacity for action, low self-confidence, guilt or excessive self-reproach, sleep disturbance, suicidal thoughts or acts, poor or increased appetite and poor concentration or indecisiveness. Additionally, individuals experience difficulty in acknowledging and communicating their feelings, have physiological symptoms and disturbances in self-image, and inactivity, which leads to neglecting personal care or housekeeping
STRESS & TRAUMA
Following any distressing or life-threatening event, psychological trauma can set in. Sufferers may develop emotional issues, such as extreme anxiety, anger, sadness, shame, survivor’s guilt, feelings of helplessness and vulnerability, or even PTSD. Additionally individuals may have ongoing problems with sleep or physical pain, trouble with their personal and professional relationships, and low self-esteem issues.
Traumatic experiences often arouse strong, disturbing feelings that may or may not abate on their own. It’s common immediately after a traumatic event to experience shock or denial.
ADDICTION
Addiction is a condition in which a person engages in the use of a substance or in a behavior for which the rewarding effects provide a compelling incentive to repeatedly pursue the behavior despite detrimental consequences. Addiction may involve the use of substances such as alcohol, drugs, inhalants, nicotine, and others, or behaviors such as gambling and online gaming.
Addictions are often rooted in emotional pain and the desire to escape it. In the short-term, pain is alleviated with use of a substance yet the root cause of the suffering is not eliminated. This tends to lead to increasing use and subsequent addiction.
Substance use is a treatable condition and complete remission is entirely possible. Recovery, however, is often a long-term process that may involve multiple efforts. Relapse is now regarded as part of the process, and effective treatment regimens address prevention of recurrent use.
The opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety. It’s connection. So always worth to look one the support network that the individuals have around them and they can reconnect with them or built an even stronger one.
BEREAVEMENT
Some people may start to feel better in a few weeks or months - other people may take one to two years or more. As a general rule - the intensity of someone's grief usually reflects:
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The importance of their loss.
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The nature of their relationship with the person who has died.
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The circumstances of the death.
Other factors can also affect how someone grieves, as well, such as:
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The way they have grieved for earlier losses.
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Lack of social support or someone to talk to.
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Other life stresses.
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Problems with their mental or physical health.
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Further losses which have come as the result of the bereavement - such as the loss of a role like being a mother, partner or daughter, for example, or the loss of other relationships or family ties connected to the person who died.
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Feelings of guilt Trying to avoid your grief, turning to work as a distraction or trying to appear 'brave' and 'strong' can disrupt this process. Men, in particular, may think it will be a sign of weakness to show their emotions or to cry in public. Someone who doesn't feel able to grieve properly, release their pain and process their feelings may start to experience emotional problems, resort to unhelpful ways of coping like drinking too much or may find there are times when they are taken by surprise and feel overwhelmed by their emotions.
FAMILY THERAPY
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