Talking Therapy

What is talking therapy?

Talking therapy offers a place where you can talk to a trained professional to understand and work through any difficulties you may be experiencing. It involves talking about your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in order to help you understand and recognise patterns which may be helpful to change. Talking therapy allows you to think about how you would like your life to be and make positive changes towards this.

What difficulties can we help with?

At Collaborate Psychology Service, we have specialist expertise in helping people with:

Anxiety disorders (including generalised anxiety, panic, social anxiety, and phobias)
Addictions (or feeling out of control with alcohol, drugs, or sex)
Issues related to ageing (including changes in cognition, dementia, and coping with caring)
Depression and low mood
Making changes to health-related behaviours
Low self-esteem
Obsessive compulsive disorder
Perfectionism
Post-natal depression, birth trauma, and fertility issues
Coping with and adjusting to long-term physical health problems
Relationship difficulties
Sexual difficulties (including erectile dysfunction, early or delayed ejaculation, pain during sex and low sexual desire)
Stress

What approaches do we use?

The approach that we may use with you in therapy will depend on your individual needs, preferences and goals for therapy. We may use one model of therapy, or integrate different approaches and techniques to best support you to make the changes you want. We will ask for your feedback regularly throughout therapy and we can adjust the way we are working to ensure you find the sessions as useful as possible.

We offer both short and long-term therapy and will discuss which will best suit you in your initial consultation. The length of therapy you are offered may depend on the approach or model we feel will best suit your needs.

We most frequently work with people using: Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy; Third-Wave Therapies (including Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy); Systemic Therapies, and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy.

Psychologist or counsellor - what's the difference?

There are lots of different types of professionals who can offer talking therapy (including Clinical Psychologists, Counsellors and Psychotherapists) and it can be confusing to know which is right for you. We have defined the different types of therapists along with their training and education requirements below to help you understand the differences.

Clinical Psychologists

Clinical Psychologists have a minimum of 6 years of university education. They are required to have a degree in Psychology, which gives them the scientific knowledge and understanding of the human mind and behaviour, as well as a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, where they study and practice clinically within a variety of NHS settings for 3 years. The term “Clinical Psychologist” is a protected title in the UK, meaning that Clinical Psychologists must be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), who ensure they meet the training requirements and adhere to a strict code of conduct.

Counsellors or Psychotherapists

Counsellors or Psychotherapists have had training in counselling skills (a 3-4 year program in the UK) and clinical experience, however are not required to have a Doctorate, or be registered with a professional body. The terms “Counsellor” and “Psychotherapist” are not currently legally protected titles, so it is advisable to check a professional’s qualifications before you see them.