Psychotherapy and counselling are talking therapies which help people understand their thinking, feelings and behaviour.
It helps us make sense of who and how we are, and how we interact with others around us. With this awareness and an enhanced reflective capacity we can understand our processes, and through a shared responsibility, between therapist and client, can give us the choice and opportunity to change.
Psychotherapy covers a range of methods, my approach to psychotherapy is "Transactional Analysis".
TA is based on the philosophy that we are all OK. The belief is that we all have the potential and desire for growth and self actualisation.
As we grow, we learn specific behaviours and decide on who and how we are going to be in the world. We are therefore ultimately responsible for our own growth and behaviour and no one can make us change or behave in a particular way. However we can have a profound influence on each other, we want those influences to be positive to increase the likelihood of making growth enhancing decisions. Whatever the relationships we have through life, both parties have needs, wants and feelings which are important and must not be discounted. The quality of the relationship between client and therapist is therefore itself an essential feature in effective therapy. TA has a positive philosophy which promotes understanding and change in our thinking, feelings and behaviour in safe exciting and fun processes.
I can offer short term or long term therapy, I can deal with more immediate concerns that may have arisen recently, or I can offer more in depth work where issues may be rooted in the past.
Psychotherapy is not only a one-to-one or couples therapy. It can be used in groups in many locations, such as in the workplace, health centres and hospitals.
Are you compromising yourself?
Is life having a detrimental effect on you?
Are you discounting yourself to fit in with everyone else?
Are you having to be strong for everybody else?
Can you not relax until it's all done, but it never ends?
Are you giving up on your sense of coherence?
Loss can be psychologically and physically traumatic.
Are you struggling to accept the reality of your loss?
Are you suffering with the pain of grief?
Have you lost your sense of self?
Are you managing to function in the world?
Has the loss affected your health?
Do you feel poor and empty?
Are you feeling sad but everything seems great?
Is it effecting your health?
Are you feeling negative about yourself, the world and the future?
Do you feel like you don't fit?
Do you want to make positive changes in your life?
Do you want to be responsible for your own choices?
Do you discount yourself?
Do you compromise yourself?
Are you giving up your sense of coherence to preserve a relationship?
Are you lonely in your relationship?
Are you in a reinforcing cycle?
Are you discounting yourself to please someone else?
Are you living someone else's story?
Are you struggling to accept the reality?
Are you feeling lost and lonely?
Are you angry, scared, and fearing the loss of your normality?
Are you discounting yourself to live for someone else?
Do you feel guilty?
Is it affecting your relationships?
Having been a Cancer and Chemotherapy Nurse for 20 years, my passion and belief for the importance and fundamental necessity of talking led me to study Psychotherapy.
My patients have been an important influence in developing my fundamental belief of what is important in life - our relationships and the impact we have on each other through communication.
I am proud to have developed and proposed a Psychological Support service for chemotherapy patients who are so desperately in need of someone to talk to.
I believe I must be committed, throughout my career, to developing myself though training (currently studying at Masters Level in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy), my own personal therapy and supervision, from senior UKCP and BACP registered psychotherapists.
I thoroughly enjoy being a volunteer counsellor at the North Devon Hospice, where I offer one to one therapy to patients, and their family and friends. I also run a therapy group for nurses at the local hospital.
My Qualifications and Memberships:
Certificate in TA
Advanced TA Psychotherapy Course Year 3
TA 101 Certificate
UKATA Student Member
Diploma in Nursing Studies
Oncology Nursing Course
Care of the Patient Receiving Chemotherapy Course
Teaching, Supervising, & Assessing Clinical Practise Course
RCN Member
NMC Member
CRB Checked
I appreciate how important it is to talk and be heard, and how our therapeutic relationship will allow you the choice to bring about change or enhance your wellbeing.
Simply talking in a safe environment gives you permission to offload and relieve yourself of any distress or anxieties you are carrying.
My Promise to You:
I am going to provide you with the opportunity to talk openly and freely in a safe and confidential environment.
I will listen with empathy, compassion, and without judgement.
Together we will build a relationship of mutual trust and respect.
PLEASE NOTE
Unfortunately I am unable to accept any new clients at present.
fiona@fionathomas.org
07850 364016