A person first.
A label second.

Person-centred work is less a set of techniques and more a way of being with you: genuine, accepting, and trying hard to understand things from your side. It assumes you are the expert on your own life and that, given the right conditions, people move towards growth.

Whatever other ideas we draw on, the relationship comes first. You set the direction and the pace.

CBT looks at how the meaning we give a situation, the feelings it brings up and what we do next can keep each other going. A thought like "I will embarrass myself" leads to dread, which leads to avoiding the party, which makes the next invitation feel even harder.

I draw on these ideas to map your loops with you and try different responses, usually with small things to notice or try between sessions. It is one influence within my approach rather than a separate specialist CBT programme.

DBT holds two ideas at once: your feelings make sense in context, and there may be responses that serve you better. It was developed for people whose emotions are intense and hard to manage, and it teaches practical skills for staying steady in a crisis, tolerating distress, regulating emotion and handling relationships.

I draw on DBT skills a great deal, particularly around strong emotions and relationships. A full DBT programme has its own structure and team; drawing on its ideas in individual work is different from offering that complete programme.

ACT starts from the observation that fighting painful thoughts and feelings often makes them louder. Instead of making their disappearance a condition for living, it helps you loosen their grip and put your energy into what you actually care about.

Acceptance here never means approving of a harmful situation or giving up. It is especially useful for anxiety, chronic stress, burnout and the kind of stuckness where you know what you want but cannot seem to move towards it.

Schemas are long-standing patterns about yourself and other people that usually form early, when important needs were not met: "I will be abandoned", "I am not good enough", "my needs do not matter". They run quietly in the background and shape relationships and choices decades later.

I draw on schema ideas to help frame the patterns you notice and the needs beneath them. It is particularly valuable for long-standing difficulties and for people who have tried shorter therapies that did not quite reach the root. This is an influence on my approach rather than a complete specialist schema programme.

Hypnopsychotherapy brings together talking therapy and hypnosis, a focused and relaxed state in which the mind can be more open to new perspectives. It is nothing like stage hypnosis: you stay in control throughout and cannot be made to do or say anything you do not want to.

I am in the final stages of my training in this approach. If we consider using it, I will say clearly that I am offering it as a trainee, and it will always be your choice.