How we work
Adult personal therapy
There are many stressors in everyday life,
sometimes people become overwhelmed by a particular life event, or a number of issues in their life
which may impact on their home life, family, work, social circle and how they feel about themselves and their future.
People may use our service for a number of reasons.
If you are considering therapy and make contact with us you will be offered an initial appointment. This provides an opportunity to meet with a clinician to talk about why you are considering therapy, and what you would consider to be a successful outcome. It is also an opportunity for you to ask questions about how we work, and consider if this is the service for you.
During this appointment we would ask you more about yourself, and circumstances in order to consider and suggest what type of intervention we think might be helpful.
An initial appointment would be 90 minutes long.
Child or young person
As children and young people develop they may have traumatic or anxiety provoking experiences that impact on the way they respond to the world. They may be a lot more worried, panicky, or low in mood than their peers. They may become withdrawn or aggressive or show concerning sexualised behaviours. This may have a significant impact in a number of important areas of a young person’s life and development at home, with family, school, and socially.
We use age-appropriate child-friendly approaches to address such difficulties. Before offering any intervention we would want to offer up to three appointments to talk with the parents/carers, child/young person separately and together. This will be a chance to hear everyone’s view about the concerns that have brought the young person to us, and to consider therapy.
It is also an opportunity for you all to ask questions about how we work, and consider if this is the service you want. During this appointment we would consider and suggest what type of intervention we think might be helpful, for example individual and/or family work, parent sessions and one or two therapists.
Couples therapy
Sometimes when couples are unsure about the future of their relationship, it helps to talk it through together in a neutral environment with a non-biased person who is not a friend or family member. It is not unusual for at least one person within the couple to be ambivalent about attending couples therapy; nonetheless we would suggest you both attend a consultation session to decide on whether this could be effective for your relationship.
We see it as less useful to blame the problems within a relationship on one individual, but would be interested in the problematic patterns that have occurred between you both, in relation to communication, support, and expectations, losses, traumas, and changes. As well as your strengths as a couple.
Initial consultation will be at least 90 minutes and the length of further sessions as a couple would be at least 75 minutes.
Family therapy
If a family member is struggling with a difficulty, has made a significant change, or raising concerns, this impacts on other family members around them and vice versa. We offer Family Therapy with a focus on how family members are relating to each other, un/intentional problem maintaining patterns, and family strengths.
Reflective Groups
It is common knowledge that teams working with vulnerable people that evoke powerful emotions in others may find themselves in conflict, tensions and splits with each other. However, when this is not dealt with it can become aversive to staff and team effectiveness. This can lower team competence, and morale and increase risk and burnout. A regular reflective space to communicate these issues safely can help with team cohesiveness and effectiveness, particularly so when facilitated by clinicians who are not part of that team.
Clinical groups
We can work with client groups or psychoeducational groups for families of clients, the content would have
to be constructed based on the needs you have identified as an organisation.
Please make contact to discuss what you think would be appropriate for your service and we would be happy to make an appointment with you.
Organisations
Our organisation packages are developed in collaboration with your service. We can offer one off training sessions for staff on identifying and managing psychological problems e.g. Anxiety, Depressions, Psychosis, Personality Disorder, Attachment Difficulties. We can teach on neurodevelopmmental diagnoses e.g. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
We can talk about psychological ways of working such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy approaches, Narrative, Systemic, and Psychodynamic. Additionally we can cover a broad range of issues which impact on people psychologically, such as bullying, online networking use/issues, abuse. The organisation of team away/inset days, as well as supervision and consultation services are also available.
Supervision
Some organisations may prefer to use one of our clinicians for supervision for particular members of staff who do not have a lead in their discipline or with extensive knowledge in the approach this person is using within the organisation.
We can offer regular individual or group supervision for social workers or Assistant/trainee/qualified psychologists, and other staff using psychological approaches.
Consultation
Organisations use consultation for a number of reason which range from advice around complex clinical cases to thoughtful organisational reconfigurations.
Please make contact to discuss what you think would be appropriate for your service we will be happy to make an appointment with you
Trainee Clinical Psychologists
For trainees considering personal therapy a suitable therapeutic intervention service which accommodates trainee affordability, time, and accessibility can be provided.
Dr Charlemagne Odle has always been passionate about self-care amongst helping professionals.
Reference: Charlemagne-Odle, S., Harmon, G. and Maltby, M. (2014) 'Clinical psychologists’ experiences of personal significant distress', Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice , vol. 87, June, pp. 237-252.