Most of us experience problems with intense emotions at some point in our lives.  These often occur in relation to disturbing, distressing life events, loss or significant transitions and change.  These are normal human responses to external events and are usually short lived in relation to the events happening around us.  However, sometimes we can become very stuck and bogged down in these intense emotional states or find ourselves constantly looping between different states in an endless pattern.  At these times, psychological therapy can be very helpful in terms of making sense of these experiences, resolving emotional overwhelm, moving out of repeating patterns more quickly and developing more effective ways of managing these emotions when they show up.

When we experience disturbance to our mental health and well being it’s often either due to a significant stressful or traumatic event or a number of different experiences in life that gradually overwhelm our nervous systems and affect our ability to function.  Stressful events can occur in relation to all areas of life but commonly what comes up in my therapy sessions is stress relating to work, relationships and parenting. Making sense of these experiences and the impact they have on our wellbeing can help enormously in navigating our way to managing things more effectively and identifying the changes required to reduce the impact of the demands we are facing.

When we experience a traumatic events either as an adult or a child, the memory of those events can become stuck in the brain in an unprocessed format.  People with trauma memories find they can become easily activated, feel very ‘real’ as though the traumatic event is happening all over again, and sometimes lose touch with reality and re-experience the event again and again with all the same emotions, thoughts and physical sensations that were present at the time.  Sometimes the traumatic events that are at the root of these experiences are very clear and well defined.  At other times people just experience repeated, intense emotional states and imagery without having a sense of what it stems back to. 

However the trauma symptoms present, psychological therapy has proven effectiveness in terms of making sense of what’s happening, reducing the intense distress associated with trauma memories, shifting the way we relate to ourselves about the initial incident and allowing our brain to more effectively process what’s happened and leave it in the past.

There are various forms of therapy with a strong evidence base that can help with this.  Speciifically I use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy and EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy) to help people experiencing the consequences of early and more recent life trauma. 

People attending my service often have a diagnosis of ADHD, are awaiting a diagnosis or  have an idea that what they may be experiencing could be attributed to ADHD or another type of neurodivergence. 

On many occasions this is not the problem that is bringing them to therapy, and it is simply important for the therapist to be aware that this person processes information in a particular way and to adjust how we do therapy accordingly. 

On other occasions, the primary presenting issue is related to difficulties specific to ADHD.

 People who are recently diagnosed may experience a range of intense emotions that are difficult to process such as rage, guilt, regret, grief and loss as they make sense of their lives through the lens of ADHD (it’s important to note that many people also experience profound relief and validation, but this is not the case for everyone).

People with ADHD may also be struggling with emotion regulation and executive functioning skills as a direct consequence of having ADHD.

My approach to working with people with ADHD (or suspected ADHD) includes the following offers:

• A space to reflect on the consequences (real and perceived) of diagnosis
• Working with the range of responses to diagnosis
• Developing more effective emotion regulation skills
• Developing skills to overcome problems with executive functioning.

*Please note: I do not currently offer an ADHD assessment service but can provide information regarding accessing assessments via other services.