Feeling better and other achievements

I’ve been reflecting on the clients who have been through my practice at Therap-Ease over the past year or so and thinking about the achievements that they have made in various aspects of their life with the help of therapy.

When clients first come into therapy they generally want to feel better. They want relief from the unpleasant effects of anxiety, to stop panic attacks, to get some sleep and to recover their lust for life.

And I find that using CBT is extremely effective in helping clients to achieving these benefits. Moreover, in the process of feeling better, clients also start to make important and meaningful changes in their lives.

I am committed to confidentiality in my practice so I won’t go into details. However, I can share that some of my clients have achieved the following:

• Applied for and appointed to new jobs or promotions
• Taken up and re-kindled hobbies and activities; started dating
• Improved relationships and marriages and ended harmful relationships
• Made important changes to their businesses
• Prepared for stressful court appearances
• Reduced tremors, swallowing difficulties, sleep problems and other physical symptoms
• Managed and taken control of long-standing disordered eating
• Reduced unwanted thoughts and images and obsessions
• Achieved personal challenges such as speaking in public, travelling and socialising
• Managed exam and assignment stress to achieve academic success
• Accepted difficult feelings around grief, loss and illness and moved forward with their lives.

All these have been achieved by clients who originally came into the clinic struggling with anxiety, feeling hopeless and overwhelmed and have left feeling better and more in control.

Contact me if you would like to speak to me about the anxiety you are experiencing and how you might benefit from CBT.

To make an appointment book online at Therap-ease or phone 0131 447 9990 to speak to a receptionist.

Ready to feel better? Start CBT this week

CBT appointments are available with Julie this week in the clinic at Therap-Ease at Morningside Road in Edinburgh.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based approach that can help you to cope and to feel better. I have successfully helped clients to deal with anxiety, disordered eating, self esteem and low mood. I’ve helped many clients who feel stuck or who are aware they want to make changes in their life.

Phone 0131 447 9990 to make an appointment or book online at Therap-Ease.

CBT without the queues

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is recommended by the NHS for anxiety, panic, low mood and depression, eating disorders and many other conditions. But NHS waiting lists can be extremely long with patients waiting months to start treatment.

I specialise in CBT and can arrange appointments at Therap-ease within days. This means that you can start to make important steps forward with your mental health straight away.

Many of my clients experience a benefit early in the treatment from using simple strategies and we get stuck straight in to making the manageable changes that help you feel better.

I work with adults and young people from my clinic at Therap-ease in Morningside Road, Edinburgh. Therap-ease is multi-therapy centre with comfortable rooms and reception area.

Appointments can be booked online and during February all new clients will receive a self-help book (worth £12.99).

Friday and Saturday CBT appointments at Therap-Ease

I’m adding some new clinic times and days. From December I’ll be adding Saturday mornings and Friday daytimes to my regular slots at Therap-Ease at 382 Morningside Road, Edinburgh.

I use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for issues like anxiety, low mood, panic attacks, eating disorders, low self esteem and relationship matters.

First sessions with new clients are £45 during December.

Book online at http://www.therap-ease.biz or phone 0131 447 9990 to speak to a receptionist.

Bringing holiday spirit into the everyday

I am just back from the most wonderful holiday in France, visiting friends and in the company of my loved ones. These were good times filled with laughter, fun, joy, love and the holiday spirit. We commented that the experience of being away, time to relax, sitting in the sun, with friends, drinking and eating well and experiencing new things is the best therapy.

A holiday can give a new perspective, a chance to reflect and review, an opportunity to re-connect with others and with ourselves. I love to eat well, have fun, try new things (kayaking in this case), be outside, enjoy familiar joys (reading, cooking, drinking red wine…). It’s also a chance to take stock of where we are, who we are, where we are going and what we value.

When the holiday ends there can be a crash back to normality, to the hum-drum and to the realities of everyday life – My credit card bill arrived even before I’d unpacked…but the best holidays can help us make a important shifts. Most of our life is spent not on holiday and it feels like a missed opportunity to live from one holiday to the next.

I’m working on incorporating some of the holiday spirit into my everyday life through some small and simple but meaningful changes. That might be a commitment to eating more vegetables and cooking from scratch more often, or to making some plans for the future, to socialising more and making time for family and friends. Since I’ve been back I’ve been struck by how beautiful the roses in my garden are this year; I’ve been out walking and cycling, for coffee with friends; and taken my daughter out for lunch. I’m hoping to beat the threat of post-holiday blues by bringing the holiday attitudes of joy, hope, time to relax and time to connect into my everyday.

 

Eating disorders…Why wait?

According to the charity ‘Beat Eating Disorders’ an average of 149 weeks pass between experiencing eating disorders and seeking help. That’s almost 3 years of suffering and distress before getting help.

26th Feb – 3rd March is ‘Eating Disorders Awareness Week’. BEAT has some good ideas for how to spread the word, addressing the stigma of eating disorders and help those affected to seek help.

Eating disorders are not primarily about dieting, willpower or self-control. There is usually a psychological and emotional underpinning to this behaviour.

Very often eating disorders work as protective behaviours – keeping those who experience them from facing difficult feelings like hurt, shame, sadness, fear and rejection; giving a feeling of being ‘in control’ or a sense of freedom from distress. But, paradoxically eating disorders also often control our lives and exacerbate the difficult feelings that we seek to avoid creating a vicious circle of thoughts, feelings and behaviours. The sense of control and freedom they offer is a con.

CBT is an effective method for treating eating disorders and the approaches that I use in clinic seek to explore, understand and challenge thoughts, feelings and behaviours and to gently try out alternative approaches to taking control and eliciting freedom.

I experienced disordered eating myself as a younger woman so this subject is close to my heart. I understand how difficult it is to over-come eating disorders; and at the same time, I can offer hope that the approaches I use work.

Contact me if you would like to make an appointment. All first appointments are half price during March 2018.

Our relationship with food and eating…it’s complicated

Ruby Tandoh was on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour today talking about the pleasure of food. In our media and social-media obsessed culture, we are inundated with confusing messages about the epidemic of child obesity, the abhorrence of size zero models and even the possible danger of asparagus. So, it is refreshing to hear someone celebrating food.

Food is so much more to us than fuel: a means for us to socialise, to soothe, to communicate, to show love and caring, to demonstrate and perpetuate our family values and rules. Food is also the means by which we harm ourselves, punish ourselves and protect ourselves from difficult and painful emotions.

Nice clean plates; don’t be greedy; a good appetite; far too thin; let herself go; greasy, fat slob; bag of bones; who ate all the pies?; the starving children in Africa would love that; men like something to hang onto; real woman; thigh gap; don’t just pick at it; eat up; too thin; she doesn’t look healthy; lanky; fatty; you can’t have your pudding til you’ve eaten your meat; could do with a square meal inside her; treat yourself; if you’re good you’ll get some sweets; eat up then you’ll be a big strong man; slaving over a hot stove; wolf it down; comfort food; slimmer of the week; birthday cake; eating disorder…

Many of my clients have issues with food and eating. Sometimes I’m dealing directly with disordered eating from the start, or the relationship with food emerges later into the therapy. We all carry rules, restrictions and judgements relating to food and eating – often conflicting and contradictory – and it’s difficult to get the balance of eating an acceptable amount, maintaining a certain weight and being sociable; without adding emotional and psychological well-being to that too. And you won’t be surprised to hear that often  messages and rules relating to food and eating date right back to early childhood and relate very closely to painful core beliefs.

Hearing Ruby Tandoh celebrating food this morning was a breath of fresh air. I am going to be sharing more of my thoughts on emotional eating, disordered eating and ways to improve your relationship with food and eating over the next few days and weeks. In the meantime, listen to Ruby’s discussion on BBC iPlayer  here.

If you live in the Edinburgh area and would like help with emotional eating including binge-eating, disordered eating, yo-yo dieting and so on, please contact me

Or book an appointment online at my clinic at Therap-ease.