Each of the areas in which I specialize as a psychologist developed as the result of many years of clinical experience, training and study. I also want to emphasize, however, that each specialization also arose in response to my own personal experience—to a critical need of my own at some point in my life. ( see About Me page for further details). In most cases, that need was not adequately met within the field of psychotherapy, inspiring me to develop an innovative and highly effective counseling model to better serve the needs of others searching for help with the following challenges:
Other areas of expertise
Sometimes it is very difficult for the client to identify the root cause of their difficulties. I have therefore attempted to provide you with a brief overview of the main areas that I specialise in, with some guideline where appropriate.
Anxiety
ANXIETY - (also called solicitude) is a psychological and physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioural components. These components combine to create the painful feelings that we typically recognize as fear, apprehension, or worry. Anxiety is often accompanied by physical sensations such as heart palpitations, nausea, chest pain, shortness of breath, stomach-aches, or headache. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is currently seen as the most effective therapy when dealing with these symptoms.
Depression
DEPRESSION - refers to both expected and pathologically chronic or severe levels of sadness, perceived helplessness, disinterest, and other related emotions and behaviours. Both clinical and non-clinical depression can also refer to a conglomeration of more than one feeling. Such a mixture can include (but is not limited to) anger, fear, anxiety, despair, guilt, apathy, and/or grief, in addition to what many people would describe as typical "sadness." Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) as developed by Aaron T. Beck was initially created to assist clients suffering from depression.
Decision Making
DECISION MAKING - I assist clients to look in depth at difficult problems from a range of perspectives which in turn enables them to make difficult decisions.
Relationships
RELATIONSHIPS - Looking at various ways of facilitating the client to function fully within the current relationships.
Psychological Resilience
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE - Enabling the client to draw on and/or develop the inner strength and flexibilities to cope. It is resilience training that will empower the client to draw on the skills learnt during Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) to resist relapse.
Post Traumatic Stress
POST TRAUMATIC STRESS - is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to one or more terrifying events that threatened or caused grave physical harm. It is a severe and ongoing emotional reaction to an extreme psychological trauma. This stressor may involve someone's actual death, a threat to the patient's or someone else's life, serious physical injury, or threat to physical and/or psychological integrity, overwhelming usual psychological defenses coping. In some cases it can also be from profound psychological and emotional trauma, apart from any actual physical harm. Often, however, the two are combined.
Professional Burnout
PROFESSIONAL BURNOUT is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion, caused by excessive and prolonged stress.
Obesity
OBESITY - is a disease in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that health may be negatively affected. It is commonly defined as a body mass index (weight divided by height squared) of 30 kg/m2 or higher. This distinguishes it from being overweight as defined by a BMI of between 25-29.9.