Empathetic Therapy Tailored To Your Needs
As a fully qualified, BACP registered therapist, I am equipped to provide empathetic, personcentered support for a range of issues, including depression, anxiety, bereavement, addiction, relationship issues, and body dysmorphia. Having experienced many of these issues myself, I understand the difficulties you are going through, and how hard it is to visualise escaping them. Together we will engage with these problems in a way that suits you, either online over Zoom/Skype or from my home in the Great Chart countryside. I always draw from many different approaches – CBT, relapse prevention, etc. – to make sure you get the precise help you need.
Burnout
We all lead busy lives. Work and/or childcare commitments consume high levels of our time and act as a constant stressor, causing us to become trapped in negative thinking patterns and end up feeling exhausted. Prolonged, unchecked stress is simply unhealthy; it can make us cynical, paranoid, unsatisfied, irascible, or even indifferent, thereby reducing quality of life and productivity. Together we will identify the issues in your life that lead to burnout, exploring the effects they have and working on finding a bespoke way to reduce the impact these stressors have on your daily thought patterns.
Depression
Depression can be caused by a number of factors – both past childhood experience and present-day stresses – and affects many people in different ways, leading to feelings of hopelessness, lethargy, and other painful emotions. It is common for adults to keep difficult feelings bottled up inside for myriad reasons, but doing this only makes them worse over time and can culminate in a more serious mental health condition. I am here to help you by creating a strictly private, non-judgemental, friendly space where you can talk through these emotions in your own time – and in a way that suits you.
Anxiety
Whether we know it or not, we all hold tension in our bodies. And over time, this bottled-up stress can turn into anxiety and show up in many ways, such as feeling constantly overwhelmed, overthinking/catastrophising, or experiencing social anxiety and panic attacks. I am here to help you engage with these feelings by listening closely to what you say and noticing where your emotions arise during discussions, with an ultimate view towards identifying what lies behind your anxiety and, having found the source, come up with a bespoke way of keeping feelings of anxiety at bay when the same triggers emerge in the future.
Addiction
I take a holistic, compassionate approach towards addiction. After all, addictions are not a choice! They are in fact a very normal way of addressing emotional pain through certain substances/behaviours. As a result, we should not be asking why the addiction is there, but rather where the pain comes from. Working together in an empathetic therapeutic space, we will engage openly with your addiction, find out what hole it fills in your life, and learn why that hole emerged in the first place. I am here to help you arrive at a place where you don’t need to escape into addictions as a way of making yourself feel better.
Bereavement, Grief, Loss
I understand how painful it can be to lose a loved one. Trying to deal with the situation alone makes it even harder. Everyone experiences a bereavement in their own way and at a different pace, and you might not feel comfortable showing these emotions to family/friends, in case you upset them. My private practice in Great Chart gives you an important confidential, judgement-free space where you can bring emotions out into the open and let yourself process the bereavement in a manner that makes sense to you. I will be your confidential guide as you explore these emotions and, over time, reach a place of acceptance.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
Living with BDD is extremely lonely. Having gone through body dysmorphia myself, I know the pain of having a perceived defect that others don’t notice but you live with on a daily basis. The nature of the condition means outsiders fail to understand your problem, or even think you are self-obsessed, thereby preventing you from speaking up and seeking help. My priority, therefore, is to always make you feel welcome and comfortable enough to share your story, creating a confidential therapeutic environment where you feel listened to, accepted, and understood.
Relationship Issues
Over time, it is common for a relationship to fall into problems of some kind. Perhaps a partner has had an affair, or maybe communication has broken down and you feel yourselves drifting apart. I will adapt my approach in accordance with your unique situation to make sure we get to the root of your issues, whatever they may be. Many relationship issues are caused by both parties inadvertently setting off emotional triggers grounded in past trauma, so we will work to unearth the exact way past experiences affect you in the here and now in order to increase understanding and help you develop a healthier dynamic going forward.
Get In Touch
Feel free to email me at katrinameulemans@gmail.com if you have any questions about how counselling works, or to arrange an initial assessment appointment. This enables us to discuss the reasons you are thinking of coming to counselling, whether it could be helpful for you and whether I am the right therapist to help.
You can also call me on 07825567096 if you would prefer to leave a message or speak to me first.