“If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”  

    Abraham Maslow

“A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.”

B. F. Skinner

“Hope never abandons you, you abandon it.”

George Weinberg

“The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.” 

Alfred Adler

“The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.”

    Carl Rogers

“I believe that a different therapy must be constructed for each patient because each has a unique story.”

Irvin D. Yalom

“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”  

 Sigmund Freud

“If some longing goes unmet, don't be astonished. We call that Life.” 

Anna Freud

“When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.”

 Viktor E. Frankl

“Intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do.”

Jean Piaget

“There are three musts that hold us back: I must do well. You must treat me well. And the world must be easy.”

Albert Ellis

“If you want to be proud of yourself, then do things in which you can take pride.”

Karen Hornery

“If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”

Abraham Maslow

“We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us.”

Virginia Satir

“The word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”

 Carl Jung

What’s the difference between talking to you or my best friend or family?

Some friends and family members are great listeners and may give advice that works. However, a psychologist has the skills and training to help you to improve your mental health without risking any possible damage to your personal relationships.

The therapeutic relationship is fundamentally different to a friendship, and, in most circumstances, confidential. Psychologists have ethical and legal responsibilities to protect your rights to confidentially and privacy. There are, however, occasions when psychologists are legally required to disclose information, for example, if they believe you, or someone else, is at risk of harm.

Here are some aspects of therapy that go beyond the kind of chatting you may do with a friend or family member:

  • Learning how to better manage emotions;
  • Challenging negative beliefs that negatively affect your life;
  • Learning new perspectives on situations and people;
  • Learning how to improve good relationships and avoid toxic ones;
  • Identifying negative and positive behaviours, decisions, and patterns;
  • Understanding how your past is affecting the present;
  • Reducing symptoms of mental illness;
  • Learning therapeutic techniques such as breathing techniques and mindfulness; and
  • Learning to be more authentic and understand who you are.
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Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is a relatively short term, focused approach to the treatment of many types of emotional, behavioural, and psychiatric problems. The application of CBT varies according to the problem being addressed, but is essentially a collaborative and individualised program that helps individuals to identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviours and learn or relearn healthier skills and habits. CBT has been practised widely for more than 30 years. It has been researched extensively, and has demonstrated effectiveness with a variety of emotional psychological and psychiatric difficulties. It is also continually evolving, and third wave CBT therapies such as Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Schema Therapy and others are increasingly being used for a variety of emotional, behavioural and psychiatric problems.

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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, known as ‘ACT’ (and pronounced as the word ‘act’) is a mindfulness based behavioural therapy. ACT challenges may of the ground rules of most Western psychology. It utilizes an mix of metaphor, paradox, and mindfulness skills, along with a wide range of experiential exercises and values-guided behavioural interventions. ACT has proven effective with various clinical conditions including: Anxiety, Depression, OCD, workplace stress, chronic pain, and PTSD.
The goal of ACT is to allow the individual to create a rich and meaningful life, while accepting the pain that inevitably goes with life.

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Sandplay Therapy

Jungian Sandplay or ‘Sandplay’ first emerged as a therapeutic method in the 1950s. Sandplay therapy may be offered in conjunction with “talk-based therapy”, such as CBT. Sandplay is a creative way of working with symbols, small figures, and miniatures in conjunction with a tray of sand. Sandplay can be a deeply inspiring and transformative therapy where the symbols are used by the client to tell their story, express their feelings and emotions, and explore their inner world. Essentially the client creates a story that can be processed verbally or non-verbally, with the processing of the sandtray continuing long after the session has ended The non-verbal aspect of sandplay make this form of therapy an excellent form of therapy for children, though sandplay is recognised as a form of therapy for any age group. Traumatic events, for any age group, can be processed in the sand without the need for telling the story verbally.

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