I was lucky enough to be assigned Maja as a compassion-based therapist during an extremely difficult period of my life. I’d just been through a radical hysterectomy at 40 and was working through challenges at work and home and just not coping at all. I was traumatised by the whole situation. Life felt bleak and as if things would be so forever.
I’m not neurotypical, and the CBT which I’d been offered previously hadn’t helped at all, it’d just stressed me out more than anything.
Maja taught me a lot about myself, and showed me lots of techniques to help myself get into a pattern of positive thinking. She has a good objective eye and noticed things that I hadn’t previously considered. Maja has experience with a lot of methodologies and techniques and she told me that DBT tools were the most helpful for me from her observations during our sessions, and gave me resources to continue with once our sessions came to an end.
She saw me and understood what I needed when no one else did. I can’t recommend her highly enough.
I am a clinical and counselling psychologist and a BABCP fully accredited CBT therapist who specialises in all kinds of trauma as well as a variety of common mental health conditions. This means, that apart from my main therapy modalities, I have additional training and many years of experience of delivering so-called third waves therapies. The term third wave refers to newer forms of therapies which originated from CBT and includes
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT),
- Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT),
- Metacognitive Therapy (MCT),
- and Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs), such as MBCT – Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy.
These therapies generally share an emphasis on acceptance and mindfulness.
About me as a third wave therapies therapist
Testimonials
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an effective psychological therapy that uses acceptance and mindfulness interventions alongside identifying a person’s life values and using commitment and behaviour change strategies to enhance psychological flexibility and reduce emotional distress.
ACT gets its name from one of its core messages: accept what is out of your personal control and commit to action that improves and enriches your life. According to Russ Harris, the founder of ACT, the aim of it is to maximise human potential for a rich, full and meaningful life; to cultivate health, vitality and well-being through mindful values-based living.
ACT can be used as a stand-alone model of therapy or easily combined or used alongside other treatment approaches. I often draw on ACT’s easy to connect with metaphors and exercises and utilise ACT’s focus on values to help clients explore their identity, sense of purpose and establish a more value-driven approach to life.
Please find further information about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by clicking on either of the links below:
Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)
Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) is a relatively new psychotherapy approach which was originally developed by British psychologist professor Paul Gilbert to work with shame and self-loathing (self-criticism).
It aims to promote mental and emotional healing by encouraging a more compassionate stance towards your own self and other people and therefore is applicable to a range of mental health difficulties.
Understanding and applying compassion in our own lives can help overcome emotional distress, such as shame and guilt, which can be common experiences following trauma.
The skills of self-compassion and other-oriented compassion, which are thought within CFT, help regulate mood and lead to feelings of safety, self-acceptance, and comfort. CFT is embedded within evolutionary psychology and contemporary neuroscience of emotions, mind-body connection and the workings of human mind and hence it emphasises the practice of mind and body awareness.
Compassion Focused Therapy can be used as a stand-alone model of therapy or easily combined or used alongside other treatment approaches.
CFT and can be used as a stand-alone model of therapy or easily combined or used alongside other treatment approaches. I tend to combine elements of it especially for clients who present with strong feelings of shame, guilt and persistent inner critical voice.
Resources
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a type of talking therapy, based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), but it is specially adapted for people who feel emotions very intensely. “Dialectical” means combining opposite ideas. DBT focuses on helping people accept the reality of their lives and their behaviours, as well as helping them learn to change their lives, including their unhelpful behaviours. Therefore, the aim of DBT is to teach people skills to strengthen their capacity to recognise and tolerate emotional experiences, cope healthily with stress, regulate emotions, and improve relationships with others.
DBT was originally intended to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD, nowadays referred to as Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder, EUPD), but it has been adapted to treat other mental health conditions beyond that. It can help people who have difficulty with emotional regulation or are exhibiting self-destructive behaviours (such as eating disorders and substance use disorders, risky behaviours), and many DBT techniques are also very useful for people suffering from complex PTSD and trauma (especially childhood trauma).
DBT can be used as a stand-alone model of therapy or easily combined or used alongside other treatment approaches. In my view, many of DBT techniques have been incorporated into other forms of therapy and we all can benefit from learning some DBT skills.
Resources
MBCT – Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a modified form of cognitive therapy that incorporates a variety of mindfulness techniques. In clinical sense mindfulness refers to awareness that emerges as a by-product of cultivating three related skills: (a) intentionally paying attention to moment-by moment events as they unfold in the internal and external world, (b) noticing habitual reactions to such events, often characterized by aversion or attachment (commonly resulting in over-thinking), and (c) cultivating the ability to respond to events, and to reactions to them, with an attitude of open curiosity and compassion. MBCT teaches the above-mentioned skills. In essence, mindfulness allows us to gain more control of our lives by increasing self-awareness, attention control, and the capacity to distance ourselves from unhelpful thoughts and feelings. This gives us the freedom to choose how to respond effectively, rather than get caught up in the content of our thinking and react in unhelpful ways.
MBCT and can be used as a stand-alone model of therapy or easily combined or used alongside other treatment approaches. I tend to combine elements of it and, depending on my clients’ needs and interests, I may recommend mindfulness practices alongside and outside of core therapy model.