Are you finding yourself exhausted, easily irritated and extra sensitive?
Struggling to balance your work, home and social life?
Is your sense of confidence fragile? Do you feel you aren’t competent enough? A fraud?
Do find you’re stuck comparing yourself to others and then despairing when you fall short?
Is there a sense of needing to reset and re-evaluate your goals for the workplace and life?
Maybe something shocking or traumatic has happened – the death of a loved one or the end of a relationship or career.
We all bring something unique into therapy, but the uncomfortable feelings we experience are universal. Whatever the reasons might be, I have the tools and skills to help unpick them, support you in confronting the challenges they bring and establish a new and more helpful approach.
A sense of emotional freedom is experienced not by trying to force the flow of life to fit around ourselves, but to develop a resilient but flexible mindset that moves with it.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with Rex
Registered with the NCS, I practice one-to-one therapy in-person or online. I’m compassionate, thoughtful and hold a non-judgemental space to reflect. I like to develop strong relationships with clients I work with and enjoy seeing the progress they make.
Why CBT? It’s a great type of psychotherapy due to its ability to understand and overcome a broad range of emotional challenges. At its core, it is learning and practicing psychological flexibility. A mindset that is resilient but also adaptable. For example, tolerating and leaning into the fear of rejection rather than trying to avoid it altogether, might lead us to take a calculated risk that we otherwise wouldn’t have done. Through nurturing this mindset, we can come closer to cultivating the fulfillment, connection and success that we want in life.
How it works? Typically, we work towards 12 sessions. However, this is flexible either way. We will focus on understanding your goals, and what experiences, thoughts and/or behaviours might be holding you back. Healthier and helpful alternatives are then introduced to help achieve those goals. I will support you throughout, in session and with additional resources (readings, exercises, podcasts, videos etc).
Personal approach? I will use a number of CBT & psychotherapeutic approaches; Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT); Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT); Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT); and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT); Schema Therapy.
I’m also a qualified yoga teacher. I have a regular practice, and enjoy drawing on mindfulness, breathing exercises and movement. Clients have found using one or more of these tools helpful to shift perspective.
Don’t wait for validation to act, act now and feel validated later
What things can I bring to therapy?
Some people might have an idea of what’s wrong…
- “My partner and family get the worst of me due to my job being very demanding”
- “I’m constantly comparing myself to others, and despairing where I fall short”
- “I struggle to receive critical feedback and take it very personally”
- “I can’t focus in the way that I used to, I find myself so distracted”
- “I’m scared they’re going to find out I’m not competent enough”
Others might want to be preventative and are more curious to learn new skills for better communication and emotional resilience. Or, maybe some are sensing a general lack of meaning, purpose or satisfaction in their lives, and would like to explore change.
Some common themes I work with
Work-life balance: It is challenging to balance life effectively alongside a demanding career. Typically, we can find ourselves over-investing in our work and under-investing in other facets of life. Once something goes wrong in our career, we have less to fall back on. In therapy, I will introduce some tools to help us understand what this balance looks like for you, and how to be more grounded in resetting it. Once gained a sense of balance that is aligned with you, inevitable storms in your career or personal life will be better weathered.
Compare & despair: It’s within our nature to compare ourselves to our environment. However, if our self-worth is attached to our idea of success we become reliant on this external validation to feel adequate. Without that validation, i.e. falling short of our peers on similar career paths, our self-worth is undermined and we’ll feel despaired. In therapy, through a process of acceptance, we will challenge this dependency on external validation for us to feel adequate. We don’t have to like where we are right now, and we don’t have to stay here. Once we’ve accepted the reality (e.g. where we are versus our peers), the more effective we can be at taking action.
Self-defeating & harsh inner critic: A lot of the time, we are our own worst enemy. Berating ourselves for having said that silly comment in front of new colleagues, or telling ourselves we should be performing better than we are. Maybe there was a silly comment, or you are capable of doing better, but where does it leave us by berating ourselves for it? In therapy, we learn to build an assertive and compassionate voice, that is wise and courageous in its kindness. It enables us to safely evaluate our setbacks, take learnings and move on without dragging ourselves through emotional turmoil.
Anxiety and procrastination: Often, in order to overcome the very thing we fear, we must face it. However, anxiety drives us to minimise its feeling by actively avoiding the fear. For example, procrastination can be driven by the fear of failure. In order to avoid facing that possibility, we put off doing what we know is better done today to tomorrow. Although this brings an immediate sense of relief, it’s only temporary because it reinforces the belief you can’t cope with the possibility of failure. This worsens the initial fear, leading to a vicious cycle that is likely to result in further avoidance. In therapy, we learn to break the cycle by tolerating the anxiety and acting against the urge to avoid it. Over time, showing ourselves we can cope, self-belief grows and so does our resiliency.
Relationships – intimate, family, social, and work: Relationships also come in many forms, and serve an important part to our existence. Learning to effectively manage them is challenging. From a foundational point of view, we encourage people to be there for themselves first most of the time, but not all of the time. It’s important we energise ourselves and act in self-interest to feed our self-belief. But, it’s essential this is pursued with flexibility, allowing the space for others’ joys and difficulties. In therapy, we learn what these boundaries are for you and how to communicate them effectively to get your needs met.
Other areas I work with
- Imposter syndrome
- Effective communication
- Goal setting
- Performance anxiety (+ general, social, and health anxiety)
- Depression
- Low self-worth and self-acceptance
- Anger
- Disordered eating
- Bereavement and Grief
- Panic attacks
- Phobias
- Insomnia
Psychotherapy Qualifications & Training:
- College of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
- Diploma in CBT/REBT
- Advanced Diploma in CBT/REBT
- Advanced Diploma in Integrated CBT/REBT I
My core experience to date of delivering CBT has consisted in private practice, the NHS, and an IAPT backed platform servicing veterans suffering with emotional challenges. Additionally, I volunteer for a suicide helpline in Central London, holding a space for those in significant emotional distress.
Contact:
Rates:
60-minute 1 to 1 therapy: £75
Sessions:
Psychotherapy sessions at City Therapy Space:
Tuesdays: 07:00 to 12:00
Thursdays: 07:00 to 12:00
Psychotherapy sessions at Barnsbury Therapy Space:
Mondays PM
Fridays AM
