TREATMENT
TREATMENT
Experienced Clinicians
At Lighthouse Psychology our experienced clinicians treat and manage a wide range of mental health and emotional issues. Our clinicians are all consultant psychologists who hold registration with the Psychological Society of Ireland or the British Psychological Society.
This is your absolute guarantee that each clinician holds the specialism to treat your issue expertly and according to the latest clinical guidelines. Lighthouse Psychology work with adults, adolescents and children.
Deidre has felt tearful for no specific reason, she hasn’t eaten property for days, she can’t sleep and is having suicidal thoughts. She calls Lighthouse Psychology and is offered a full assessment. A diagnosis of clinical depression is made as a result of the assessment. Deirdre begins cognitive behavioural therapy. After the third session she begins to feel much better and therapy is completed after 8 sessions.
Eoin is feeling stuck, his wife died suddenly 6 months ago. He can’t seem to move on. Eoin wanted simply to discuss his problems with a professional and work towards finding a way to move forward. After 6 sessions of integrative bereavement counselling, he was able to begin to plan a positive future which also honoured his wife’s memory.
Mental Heath and Emotional Issues
Anxiety
Depression
Mood Disorders
Personality Disorder
ADHD/ADD
Trauma/PTSD
Sexual abuse
Sex and sexuality issues
Gay and lesbian issues
Gender dysphoria
Addictions and Recovery
Eating disorders, Anorexia and Bulimia
Stress
Medical and Health Concerns
Coping with Chronic Illness
Grief and Loss
Work and Career Issues
Difficulty with decision-making
Self-assertion problems
Blocks to productivity
Types of Treatment
Our team use a variety of evidenced based treatments to help you feel better. We have listed here explanations of some of the therapies we use. It is important to stress that each person is unique and therefore, your treating psychologist focuses on your individual clinical needs.
CBT involves the psychologist and their patient identifying the negative thinking patterns, such as core assumptions and beliefs, that affect the patient’s wellbeing.
These negative thought processes have usually developed over a lengthy period of time, sometimes going back to childhood, and are frequently at the root of the patient’s current difficulties, even if this isn’t immediately obvious until the CBT work begins. Once uncovered, those core beliefs, for example ‘I am unlovable’, or ‘I am a bad person’, can then be addressed.
More appropriate or adaptive thinking patterns are learnt, as part of a process known as ‘cognitive restructuring’. During the treatment period, new thought patterns gradually become integrated into thinking, and the therapist and the patient work together to resolve the original problem by moving on from the original thinking patterns to the new ones.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is an evidenced-based form of treatment and is recommended in the NHS NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) Guidelines. It can be used with or without medication. CBT takes time to be effective, but it’s one of the most popular talking therapies in the UK.
It was developed in the 1990’s and became established as an evidenced based and effective long-term intervention. It is also highly effective when used to treat mood disorders and recovery from sexual abuse.
DBT teaches patients lifelong skills which enable them to manage their overwhelming emotions better and improves their quality of life and relationships with others.
Past events and experiences are explored to understand the reason a person thinks/behaves/acts as they do. Understanding the individual’s processes makes sense of their current behaviours and allows the development of new problem solving and coping methods to be devised.
Patient and therapist collaborate in this problem-solving therapy.
Cognitive Analytical Therapy is considered a time limited therapy. CAT tends to last between 4 and 20 sessions. The average treatment duration at Lighthouse Psychology is 10 sessions.
Do you feel stuck in a cycle of negative feelings or behaviour? Are you struggling to make changes, however hard you try? Solution-Focused Therapy (also known as SBT, or Solution-Focused Brief Therapy) may be the right treatment for you. It is an approach to psychotherapy based on solution-building.
Rather than concentrating on the things you can’t change or have no power over, Solution-Focused Therapy makes you reflect on the future and the things you can control.
How Solution-Focused Therapy Works
Together with your therapist, you will identify ‘possible futures’: tangible goals that you can work towards. Solutions are developed by talking about your plans for these possible futures and identifying the thought or behaviours that might sabotage your progress, without dwelling on the past. You will also learn how to cope with setbacks and changes of goals along the way, relying on your own hidden strength and resources.
Importantly, this type of therapy can take only three to five sessions, so it can be very helpful if you are aware of feeling stuck but you can’t commit to a long period of therapy. Often used as an early intervention strategy, it can give you the confidence and tools you need to make progress at a busy or difficult time. We can also incorporate Solution-Focused Therapy into a larger treatment programme, as it doesn’t conflict with other types of therapy. It is suitable for both children and adults with a wide range of issues, but it can also be useful for managers seeking better workplace strategies.
Solution-Focused Therapy was developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, two influential psychologists who believed the patient, and not the therapist, knows what will work best for their problems. You just need therapeutic encouragement to reflect on scenarios that would remove or reduce your problem and create lasting change with an action plan that works.
In Solution-Focused Therapy, we measure your progress using a ratings system. As you learn to focus on what’s going right, and how you can leapfrog from one positive sign of change to the next, you will learn to shift your focus from negative automatic thoughts to proactive goal-setting and life changes. If you’re normally a goal-oriented person but you feel bogged down by life’s obstacles, you will benefit from this type of talking therapy.
Family therapy is a type of psychotherapy used to help resolve any kinds of family issues. Contrary to what you might have heard, family therapy is not a long process or a chance to apportion blame, but it really can help all kinds of families.
What separates family therapy from other kinds of psychotherapy is its approach: a therapist looks at family relationships and interaction, not the specific problems associated with one person.
Instead, they focus on the systems of individuals – this could be their coping mechanisms, communication, behavioural patterns, family rules, and so on – and the impact of their relationships, either negative or positive, on each other. This is where the first misconception of family therapy comes up: many people assume the therapist wants to blame parents for a child’s problems, but this isn’t the case. The whole family dynamic is explored, and the therapist wants to maintain a good relationship with parents and children.
How Family Therapy Works
Problem-solving is more important to family therapists than naming the single cause of a difficulty. For example, a family therapist may see more than one family member at each session, and aim to relate the conversations and patterns of each family member to the others. This might involve seeing the parents without the children, and vice versa.
There is no rule of having certain family members allowed in each session; family therapy is delivered on a case-by-case basis, and it may become clear a couple of sessions in that the therapist needs to do more work with some family members instead of others. Your specific treatment plan will depend on your family’s situation. Family therapy sessions can teach you skills to deepen family connections and get through stressful times, even after you have finished going to treatment.
Since a significant amount of stress is involved for families seeking therapy, the therapist aims to involve families in solutions for problems. The overarching belief in all different forms of family therapy is that involving the family can bring out the strengths of the wider system.
Family therapy is often short-term, which can surprise new clients, as TV dramas and films can often give the impression you’ll need months or years of treatment. Typically, a family intervention would take only 4 – 6 sessions.
Contact Us today to arrange a consultation about family therapy, and we can discuss your family’s needs.
Psychotherapy helps you develop insight into your difficulties or distress; it can give you a greater understanding of behaviour you couldn’t grasp alone. Your psychotherapist is trained to explore the issues you present in a safe and nurturing way, without judgement.
At Lighthouse Psychology, we work with clients of all ages, from children and teens to adults, to deliver psychotherapy or counselling when needed. Unlike talking to family, friends or colleagues, which can involve revealing uncomfortable truths or issues to those personally affected, adult or child psychotherapy sees each session takes place in confidence, with professional boundaries and undivided attention. Together you will explore feelings, beliefs, thoughts and relevant events, sometimes from childhood and often in the present, in a structured way.
Many people don’t realise their coping mechanisms for stressful or new situations may have been learned in childhood and are damaging, out-dated or counter-productive – for example, a child who changed schools a lot might struggle to put down roots as an adult; someone who was a young carer could find themselves mirroring the caring role for decades, perhaps taken for granted by employers, friends and partners.
For other clients, their reason for starting psychotherapy may be more recent: a teenager who has begun to self-harm, or an adult feeling vulnerable after a burglary. Whatever the source of the problem, you will work with your psychotherapist to develop more appropriate ways of coping or bringing about changes in your thinking and actions.
Finding Adult or Child Psychotherapy to Suit You
Our team of qualified psychologists and psychotherapists are experienced in each of the core disciplines of psychotherapy and can tailor their therapeutic approach to each client or patient. This might include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Humanistic or Psychoanalytic therapy – some of the more common forms of psychotherapy. Alternatively, it could include an evidence-based approach, such as Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Cognitive Analytical Therapy (CAT) or Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT), which are all influenced by the more common types of psychotherapy.
The most important element of therapy is having a space where you can process your emotions about a situation, rather than merely change your behaviour. A humanistic and existential approach is ideal when you need to process these emotions, and the memories that may accompany them.
Most of our interventions tend to be short-term – between 3 and 8 sessions, with 5 sessions on average – but, again, this will vary for each client, as we tailor our interventions and treatment programmes to suit you.
To find out more about adult or child psychotherapy with Lighthouse Psychology, contact us today.
Integrative psychotherapy as the name suggests is a therapy that combines several distinct types of psychotherapy. It is provided in a highly individualised manner.
The therapy traditionally draws elements from existential, cognitive behavioural and psychoanalytic models. Elements of gestalt therapy or solution focused therapy are often incorporated.
Integrative psychotherapy is based on the core belief that each individual is unique and therefore a dynamic therapy which will meet each person’s personality and needs is provided.
The emphasis is firmly placed on the creation of a positive therapeutic relationship between client and therapist which is a major component in successful therapy.
This type of therapy is highly specialised and delivered by psychologists who have the requisite qualifications in each of the core disciplines.
EMDR is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Repeated studies show that by using EMDR people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can causes intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.
Lighthouse mediation is designed to help when disputes/difficulties have arisen at work. We provide a bespoke service to Employers, HR Managers and Employees to resolve situations quickly and fairly without further workplace disruption.
The mediator acts as an impartial and qualified facilitator and helps those involved reach a settlement in difficult to resolve situations.The meetings normally take the form of individual and joint sessions.
Settlements are constructed at the joint meeting stage.
Lighthouse Stress Audit effectively measures the extent that stress is adversely affecting your organisation and identifies stress hotspots as well as the root causes of stress.
Our specialist psychologists will identify practical steps you can take to fully address stress-related issues and help your workforce develop preventative strategies for the future.
This will reduce the risk of stress-litigation and loss of productivity and comply with the latest compliance standards.
How it Works
Free Telephone Assessment
You will be offered a 15-minute free telephone assessment appointment with one of our psychologists who will ask you some questions about the issue you are seeking help with.
Options Discussed
From there, depending on your responses, your own preference and personality style, the psychologist will discuss relevant options with you. Together, you will select an immediate and appropriate pathway to feeling better.
Appointment
You may be offered an appointment for a psychological assessment to provide a diagnosis and to formulate a treatment plan. This is normally within a few days of your initial contact.