Psychological Treatment Service

• Anxiety and stress
• Fears and phobias
• Eating and body image disorders
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), skin picking and hair pulling
• Complex trauma and
• Improving levels of self acceptance and self confidence

Psychological Treatment Methods

• Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT) helps a person identify and challenge unhelpful thoughts and to learn practical self-help strategies which are designed to bring about positive and immediate changes in their quality of life. CBT is the 'gold standard' and treatment of choice for anxiety disorders and depression.
• Mindfulness involves bringing one's attention to the internal and external experiences which are occurring in the present moment. People learn to experience and enjoy life as it is occurring in a non-judgmental way.
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) teaches people how to open up and allow difficult thoughts and feelings so they can engage in life activities that bring more meaning.
• Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) focuses on building interpersonal skills and context to resolve interpersonal issues.
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) uses seemingly opposing strategies of 'acceptance' and 'change'. The clinical psychologist accepts you just as you are, but also acknowledges the need for change in order for you to recover and reach your personal goals. DBT teaches people the skills to regulate their emotions.
• Schema Therapy targets the treatment of negative and self-defeating, core themes/patterns (schemas) which are enduring and repeating throughout one's lifetime.

Anxiety Explained

• Panic Attacks are an abrupt onset of intense fear or discomfort and other physical sensations which are usually short lived. People can think they are going crazy, having a heart attack, or will faint. You can feel disconnected from your body or like you are in a dream. Although harmless, panic symptoms can be very distressing and scary.
• Physical symptoms including heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, sweating, shaking, trembling, hot and cold flushes, chest pain, nausea, and pins and needles.
• Behavioural symptoms
  • Avoidance Behaviour which is going to extreme lengths to avoid a situation that may bring on anxiety or panic.
  • Safety Behaviours are coping behaviours that you engage to elevate your fears.

• Panic Disorder occurs where a person has an ongoing fear of having panic attacks and these attacks occur out of the blue.
• Social Anxiety Disorder is an intense fear of being criticised or harshly judged or evaluated by others. An individual with social anxiety disorder will often avoid social functions and/or remain silent and unobtrusive to reduce the posibility of negative evaluation.
• Agoraphobia is extreme anxiety experience across various situations such as leaving the home, taking public transport, being in large open spaces or in crowds. A person with Agoraphobia will start to avoid situations from which escape might be difficult or help not readily available if they were to experience panic-like symptoms (including loss of control of bowels or bladder).
• Specific Phobia is extreme anxiety experienced that is experienced around specific objects or situations, such as fear of spiders, dogs, flying, heights, injections or vomitting.
• Generalised Anxiety Disorder is persistent and excessing worrying which covers a range of areas including worry about health, relationships, school or work. The worrying occurs to the extent that it significantly interferes with daily life.
• Separation Anxiety Disorder occurs when the fear concerns separation from attachment figures (e.g. from mother). It usually starts in childhood but can continue into adolescence and even adulthood.

Other Anxiety Related Disorders Explained

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is characterised by intrusive and repetitive obsessions which are often accompanied by compulsions aimed at neutralising the anxiety or preventing some feared outcome. These are time consuming and interfere with functioning. Common obsessions include contamination; the need for symmetry; aggressive, sexual or religious thoughts; and harm to others. Compulsions can be behaviours or mental acts.
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) occurs where people become obsessed with perceived defects in physical appearance. It is far more than regular body dissatisfaction wnich has become increasing prevalent worldwide. People with BDD engage in repetitive behaviours: such as comparing themselves to others, mirror checking or covering up the perceived defect (for example by wearing a hat).
  • Muscle dysmorphia is one type of BDD: the belief that one's muscles are insufficient despite the person often being of normal or solid build.
• Hoarding Disorder is where individuals have long standing difficulties discarding objects irrespective of their actual value. Most individuals also have problems with excessively acquiring objects.
• Trichotillomania (hair pulling) and Excoriation Disorder (skin picking) are excessive ongoing repetitive behaviours with repeated attempts to reduce or stop the behavior.
• Obsessional Jealousy is on ongoing preoccupation with one's partners perceived infidelity. This preoccupation leads to repetitive behaviours such as checking their phone or mental acts and causes significant distress or impairment. This condition goes far beyond the usual fear and insecurity we all feel at one point in our lives.
• Illness Anxiety Disorder is were individuals become preoccupied with having or getting a serious illness leading the person to engage in excessive health related behaviours.

Eating Disorders Explained

• Anorexia Nervosa occurs where individuals restrict the amount of energy they consume resulting in significantly low weight and they have an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat. The person's self-evaluation is linked to body weight or shape, there is a disturbance in how they experience their body, or they fail to recognise the seriousness of the low body weight.
• Bulimia Nervosa is diagnosed when individuals engage in binge eating and recurrent compensatory behaviours (such as vomiting, laxative abuse, driven exercise or fasting) to try and prevent weight gain.
• Binge eating disorder, as the name suggests, occurs when individuals eat large amounts of food within a short period of time and experiencing a loss of control. Binge eating symptoms include eating fast, continuing to eat when full, eating when not hungry, eating alone and feeling guilty or depressed after the binge eating.