About me & the therapies available

About me

All Clinical Psychologists complete six years of formal training, through an undergraduate degree and a three year Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) to ensure competence in delivering therapies with a range of different people, across the lifespan. Most also undertake additional employment and training prior to being accepted onto the DClinPsy.

I gained a First Class undergraduate BSc Psychology degree, and then worked in the NHS for two years as an Assistant Psychologist, prior to completing the DClinPsy at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and qualified as a Clinical Psychologist in 2012. I am professionally registered with the Health and Care Professions Council.

I spent 10 years post-qualification working full time as a Clinical Psychologist in busy NHS hospitals in London and Bristol, specialising in supporting adults adjusting to living with long term physical health conditions, in particular cancer, cardiac conditions and diabetes. This included working with individuals and groups, as well as designing and delivering training for staff and students.

For the last 10 years I have also developed my own own private therapy practice, working with adults experiencing a range of mental health and adjustment difficulties.  

Therapies available

Clinical Psychologists are trained in a range of therapeutic models and continue their professional development throughout ongoing training. I work integratively to draw on relevant areas of the models with which I am experienced in, to best suit your goals and stage of therapy.

  • ACT aims to increase one’s ‘psychological flexibility’ by learning ways to be less impacted by difficult thoughts and feelings when they show up - which they have a habit of doing! ACT also aims to encourage people to connect more with the people and things that matter to them.

    ACT is the approach that I drew most on throughout my NHS career working with people experiencing physical health related conditions. I’ve found it’s a really useful approach to draw on when someone is facing a challenging situation, such as a health condition, or life change such as relationship breakdown or redundancy. When the situation itself is not something someone can change, ACT teaches techniques so that they can change the way they respond to such challenges.

  • CBT is a widely used therapy and is generally based on identifying negative thoughts and behaviour cycles, which create and maintain negative emotions and body sensations. CBT includes a range of techniques to help develop alternative, more helpful thoughts and behaviours, which in turn help to reduce emotional distress.

    This approach is often used for therapies relating (but not limited) to depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and phobias.

  • CFT is an integrative therapy, informed by human evolution. It highlights that we are born into ‘tricky brains and tricky bodies’. - we will all experience distress and suffering at some point.

    Compassion in CFT is defined as a ‘sensitivity to the suffering of self and others, with a commitment to try to relieve it and prevent it’

    CFT includes learning a range of skills to help both tolerate distress and reduce or alleviate it.

  • MI is “a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication with particular attention to the language of change. It is designed to strengthen personal motivation for and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the person’s own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion.”  (Miller & Rollnick, 2013, p. 29)

    MI can be helpful to draw on to help explore one’s ambivalence and/or lack of confidence or perceived importance of change.

  • Mindfulness in psychological therapies is the practice of having a non-judgemental present moment awareness. Noticing whatever thoughts, feelings and/or body sensations are present. Mindfulness is stepping out of ‘autopilot’ and into conscious awareness. There are lots of different mindfulness practices, drawing on awareness of breath, body and thought. Mindfulness techniques also feature in other psychological therapies, such as ACT and CFT.

Concerns I May Support With

I work with individuals over 18 years. The below gives a summary of the areas I may support you with, for more information and to discuss your specific concerns and goals for therapy, please get in touch

Adjustment difficulties

Including adjusting to living with a physical health condition; loss or change of role, e.g. redundancy, relationship breakdown

Anxiety

Including worry; social anxiety; phobias; post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); panic attacks; and stress management

Behaviour change and increasing motivation

Including reducing emotional eating and increasing physical activity 

Depression and Low Mood

Including low self-esteem and high self-criticism; rumination (getting caught in negative thinking loops)

Goal Setting

Identifying what matters to you and setting goals relating to these areas. Help to feel more like ‘you’ again.

Sleep Difficulties

Exploring ways to help get to sleep, and return to sleep after waking

Fees and Insurance

Each session lasts 50 minutes and is charged at £120, payable in advance of each scheduled appointment.

I am also registered with AXA, Bupa and Vitality Health private healthcare insurers.

Please contact me to find out more.

Contact Dr Banwell