Therapy with mindfulness can help
I am an experienced psychotherapist who has completed an exacting training and who is registered with the BPC. I have found that some of my clients, especially those who experience social anxiety, or a combination of stress, depression, and anxiety, and often feel unable to relax, have benefited from a combination of therapy and mindfulness.
If you are experiencing this, this form of therapy which combines counselling with meditation might work well for you.
Mindfulness begins with the practice of guided meditation, which has been shown in many studies to reduce stress and anxiety, and to increase feelings of calm and wellbeing. Anyone can practice mindfulness. No prior experience of meditation is necessary.
Mindfulness helps people develop their awareness of the present moment with acceptance of all the feelings and thoughts in that moment. Mindfulness comes from a practice that allows us to be less blindly reactive to what is happening in the moment. It is a way of being that allows us to live with all our experience – whether it is positive, negative or neutral.
Combination Therapy with Mindfulness
I offer sessions which combine therapy with a mindfulness practice, as this can be an effective way to help people recognise the triggers to their feelings of anxiety and panic, and to move towards a more integrated way of being.
For example, I can help people start to see the links between the following states:
- downward mood spirals
- feelings that they aren’t good enough
- patterns of overworking
- failure to give value to experiences that make life worth living
- oppressively high standards.
Mindfulness helps develop our capacity to experience feelings and thoughts in a way that allows us to let these moods and thoughts come and go, however distressing they are, without struggling with them. This provides both relief and also a new way of experiencing life in the moment. Combining therapy with mindfulness practice also opens up the possibility of new and deeper levels of change.
Stress Reaction
Through mindfulness practice, you will learn about how to break free from a lifetime of stress reactivity. The stress reaction is a state of mind with very little awareness, very little consciousness of the present moment which leads to a biological state of acute hyper-arousal. This state brings with it: increased blood pressure and pulse rate. It can give rise to chronic hyper-arousal which leads to permanent high blood pressure, heart arrhythmias, sleep disorders, chronic headaches and permanent anxiety. This in turn leads to maladaptive coping mechanisms, such as overworking, hyperactivity and overeating.
Stress Response
Since encountering stressful situations is a part of life, stress cannot be eliminated, but it is possible to have a stress response which does not have the same damaging biological consequences as the stress reaction. It is possible to learn how to respond to stress with mindfulness, which brings with it: awareness of the total context, and appraisal of one’s thoughts and feelings, strengthening the ability to step away from a damaging fight or flight reaction to stress. With this comes the ability to make choices within the stressful situation.
You can do therapy with mindfulness with me, one to one, or you can choose to join a mindfulness group that meets once a week. Whichever you choose, I will meet you in a safe, confidential environment, where you can begin to examine your life, without being criticised or judged. You can opt for sessions at my base near London Bridge in SE1 or in Swiss Cottage, NW6.
Mindfulness Group
A mindfulness group meets one evening a week at my Swiss Cottage consulting room, a few minutes’ walk from both Swiss Cottage and Finchley Road tube stations. The cost per session is £20
If you would like to find out more about my therapy with mindfulness practice, or would like to attend weekly group sessions, you are welcome to phone or email me.
To find out more about my qualifications, experience and approach to therapy, select the Qualifications and experience link above.
To find out more about Mindfulness , you can go the webpage for the Center of Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.