About Eddie
As a person
I am friendly and accessible, an easy communicator who likes to share the hard work involved in relating. I have a deep interest in people, and have been passionately interested all my life in exploring how we can all get through this thing called life, maximising our happiness and fulfilment, while minimising our suffering. I am also an experienced meditator.
I have a strong creative and intellectual life, and like to spend time with poetry, psychology, philosophy, music and photography. I also love sport, like to swim and run, and have done one or two triathlons in recent years.
As well as being involved in therapy and psychology, I also work as an accountant, helping people to grow their businesses.
As a therapist
Training
I have a First in Psychology, and a Postgraduate Diploma (with Distinction) in Counselling Psychology. I am a person-centred therapist, who is also trained in CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) and psychodynamic therapy.
Experience
I have trained thinking skills since 2001, and have been involved more directly in mental health since 2011. I have worked with charities and the NHS, and now work mostly in private practice. Over the years I have helped dozens of clients with a wide range of presentations, including anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, assertiveness issues, obsessive compulsive disorders, difficulty regulating emotions, addictions, and relationship difficulties.
I respect neurodiversity, and prefer to work with a client’s own thoughts and experiences, encouraging freedom to escape family and cultural pressures.
Methods
As a person-centred therapist, I believe in being open and transparent with clients, offering them an atmosphere of unconditional acceptance. Given a good relationship with you, I believe that as a therapist I am then in a better position to understand and empathise with you, jointly exploring ways forward that are realistic for you, and fit your style and view of the world.
Working with your personal style
Three things probably characterise my style of therapy.
Your Personal Style
Firstly, I will always work in sympathy with your personal style, trying not to restrict you in any unnecessary way. This sometimes means I will go to great lengths to understand your particular ways of thinking about the world. It doesn’t mean I will always agree with you, but it means you will have an ally who will not dismiss your preferred beliefs and approaches.
Joint Adventurer
Secondly, I will work as a joint adventurer with you. Your goals are my goals, and your future happiness is my number one concern.
Where appropriate, I will share psychological ideas and research with you, rather than trying to hold you back with psychological diagnoses or stereotypes.
Language
Thirdly, I believe that language helps to define us. Without a language to express ourselves well, we can become a victim of others around us. I will work hard to develop with you suitable new ways of talking, so that you can relate to those around you more assertively and happily.
