How I Work
A personalised, formulation-driven, and collaborative therapy process
My approach to therapy combines advanced clinical formulation, evidence-based methods, and a warm, attuned therapeutic relationship. Every stage of the process is tailored to your history, emotional needs, personal resources, and the goals you want to achieve. Therapy begins by developing a shared understanding of what you are struggling with and what underlies those difficulties, so our work together is anchored in clarity, insight, and direction.
Step 1 — Initial Clinical Assessment
Your therapeutic journey begins with an extended 90-minute assessment appointment. During this session, we explore your current difficulties in detail, the symptoms impacting your daily life, and how these challenges may have developed over time. We also look at early life experiences, relationship patterns, cultural influences, and key stressors shaping your emotional world.
By the end of this session, I will share my initial clinical impressions and provide a tentative recommendation for the type and length of therapy that may be most helpful. If we both feel that we are a good therapeutic fit, we will then move into a structured and collaborative formulation phase.
Step 2 — Collaborative Formulation & Understanding Your Inner World
Following the initial 90-minute assessment, we enter a 6–8 session formulation phase where we work together to build a clear, compassionate, and psychologically informed understanding of you. This phase is a structured exploration of your emotional world, your needs, your patterns, and the underlying processes shaping your difficulties today.
During these sessions, we conduct a comprehensive needs assessment, exploring early experiences, beliefs, emotional vulnerabilities, coping behaviours, and the ways you’ve learned to survive and navigate your world. Many clients gain significant insight at this stage — noticing patterns they were unaware of, understanding the functions of their coping behaviours, and beginning to see how their history continues to influence their present.
We will also look at your emotional and psychological resources. Some people arrive ready, grounded, and able to engage in deeper therapeutic work immediately. Others may realise they need additional stabilisation, safety strategies, or emotional-strengthening tools before beginning more intensive therapies such as Schema Therapy or EMDR. If resourcing is needed, we incorporate it early, so you feel steady and empowered rather than overwhelmed.
Although I will outline a likely treatment pathway at Step 1, it is during this phase — once you have a richer understanding of yourself — that we refine and finalise the therapeutic plan together. By the end of Step 2, you will have a clear sense of your patterns, your psychological needs, what keeps the difficulties going, and what changes will be required for you to move forward. This creates a solid, informed foundation for the work ahead.
Step 3 — Tailored Treatment Planning
With your treatment plan in place, we begin the core therapeutic work. This may include:
- strengthening emotional resilience and regulation
- building psychological resources, grounding skills, or distress tolerance
- understanding and shifting long-standing emotional patterns
- processing painful or traumatic memories at a pace that feels safe
- developing healthier internal dialogues and self-compassion
- challenging unhelpful beliefs and behaviours
- transforming how you relate to yourself and others
The pace is always attuned to your nervous system. Some clients move steadily into deeper work, while others require ongoing grounding, stabilisation, or resource-building as part of the process. Therapy is never rushed and it follows your readiness and capacity.
Step 4 — Integration, Growth & Consolidation
As therapy progresses, we reinforce the changes you’re making and help you integrate new patterns into your everyday life. This stage is about strengthening emotional clarity, developing confidence in your new skills, and ensuring that change feels sustainable rather than temporary.
We continue refining the work based on your evolving needs, life stressors, relationships, and the insights you gain throughout therapy.
Step 5 — Moving Forward with Confidence
The final stage of therapy focuses on helping you carry your growth into the future. Together, we identify what has changed, what feels different, and what supports you now have in place. Clients often leave therapy with a renewed sense of clarity, self-awareness, and confidence, grounded in a deep understanding of themselves and equipped with tools that continue supporting their emotional well-being long after therapy ends.