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Jane Watkins CBT therapy session for OCD

Therapy

I specialise in treating OCD using CBT, along with CFT & mindfulness

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) aims to make you your own therapist.  CBT looks at how we think (C of CBT) and how this affects what we do or our behaviour (B of CBT) and how this makes us feel, emotionally and physically.  CBT guides us to explore more helpful ways of thinking, behaving and feeling and leaving the vicious cycle of negative thoughts and feelings behind.  It is very normal for people with anxiety (in whichever form, eg OCD, GAD, Stress, low self-esteem etc) to go through CBT multiple times. We learn different things from different therapists and the point we are at in our lives, this entirely natural.

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CFT (compassion focussed therapy) help us deal with guilt we feel and the self critic that disables our ability to interpret the world in a balanced way. Most of my clients cringe at the word compassion, so I think of it, more as being fair to ourselves.  You are fair to others? 

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Mindfulness is very helpful for any form of anxiety among many other things. Worrying is all located in a catasthrophic imagined and hypothetical future.  All the worst things that COULD happen. Things that have not yet happened. As I say to all my clients, 'shit' happens, of course it does. But not to the extreme your mind is leading you to believe.  Mindfulness helps us ground ourselves in the CURRENT moment where, most of the time, everything is ok. Imagine what that would be like, to be in the current, safe moment?  I can help you do all this, contact me now.

CBT Therapy for anxiety

CBT is the recommended talking therapy for many anxiety disorders (NICE).   I have seen CBT have amazing results for clients over the years.  You are here because you are considering getting some help for your anxiety. Therapy is very rewarding and is also hard work, for us both. To get the best out of therapy you need to feel motivated and have time to put in some practice between sessions. 

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You will see, what I call ‘practice’, referred to as homework elsewhere. To me, homework can have unhelpful reminders of years gone by from school!  The reason I use the word practice is that you have been ‘practising’ the use of anxiety for, probably, a long time.   In order to learn more helpful ways to respond to anxious thoughts, you will need to practice these new ideas, to make them your new default.   This is why I think of therapy as a ‘team effort’.  I bring a new way of thinking about and managing thoughts and will help you to claim your life back from anxiety.  You bring your expertise of being you all the helpful coping strategies you already have, even if. you are not aware of them at the current moment.  Put these together with some hope, patience and practice, and you can claim your life back from anxiety and start living your life the way you choose.

OCD treatment with a professional therapist
Personalized therapy plans for OCD

I want a face to face appointment but you are too far away

I do understand this and unfortunately wherever I live, this would be an issue for most people who were not in a reasonable driving distance.  Even before COVID I had been doing lots of therapy via Microsoft teams and Zoom.  Since COVID so many of us are now used to it and for young people its just normal everyday life.   

We are now used to the technology that allows us to pick therapist we would like to work with from the comfort of our own home easily, no matter where that therapist lives.

All the research suggests that the efficacy (how well therapy works) is just the same whether it is delivered via video or in person.  I always speak to all potential new clients via phone first, so if you wanted to try out video, lets do that first free meeting (15 minutes) via zoom or teams and see how you find it, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

You also have the convenience of being able to do sessions wherever you are, in the car (you would be surprised how many sessions on on in cars!), at home, or in the office.  All you need is a private space where you feel safe to talk.  You don't have the hassle of travel and the worries about being delayed or late, it is really great!   Give it a chance and see.

I don't do therapy by phone though.  As long as we can see each other, it works just fine, by phone, not so well as most of our human communication is via body language that is lost via phone but not via video.

  • For OCD - Do you use ERP in therapy?
    Usually yes. ERP or Exposure Response Prevention is a therapy where people are encourage to face their fears and just let the obsessive thoughts flow without engaging in any compulsions. The 'exposure' is where people confront the anxiety provoking 'situation' and the 'response' is making the choice to not carry out the OCD compulsion. Most of my clients do say they cannot imagine doing this as it will make them anxious. We will talk about this in depth in therapy but if you think about it, you are already anxious, but using OCD to try to make the anxiety go away? The idea is that you experience the anxiety naturally disappearing (I know you cannot imagine that happening!) without 'neutralising' the thought using an OCD compulsion. We always start of with small things that are manageable, not the most anxiety provoking thing you can think of! You will find success here that will give you confidence to go on and manage bigger things. I am here to support you through all of this. I can exposure with you, if you have a phone, even remotely! ERP can be an important part of therapy but it is not to be used alone. It is very important to lay the groundwork of understanding your OCD and how it operates first. We need to understand what is driving the compulsion first. You would not build a house without foundations first.
  • For OCD - What is the difference between CBT & ERP?
    In CBT we will spend our first few sessions looking at how OCD is maintained, that is, what is it, how does it effect you, what are intrusive thoughts, how do the thoughts effect how you behave, effect your emotions and how you experience that physically. We will then look at how OCD tells you to live your life and what life without this bully in your life would look like so you can develop ideas and goals for therapy. We will then start 'experimenting' with what OCD says. You know that OCD makes no sense, but it is a 'better safe than sorry' strategy at the moment. We want to work on more helpful strategies to have a life free from OCD. Most research suggests that there is little difference between the outcomes between ERP and CBT. It does also suggest that CBT could have better long-term benefits. My take on that, personally, is that if you understand your OCD really well, what it is, how it operates then you can develop strong strategies for living your life without it. I tend to incorporate ERP into CBT treatment.
  • How long does a session last?
    Sessions last for 60 minutes
  • How do I make an appointment?
    I would very much like to have a chat on the phone with you before we start therapy. It gives you a chance to ask me any questions you may have and it also gives me a chance to ask you some questions to make sure I think I can help.
  • When can I see you?
    I don’t offer evening or weekend sessions. You may be surprised how much your employer will support you taking an hour out of your day.
  • How much do sessions cost?
    £90 per hour
  • How many sessions will I need?
    This is almost impossible to answer as everyone is so different. I also think that if I were to say, 12 sessions and you needed more, it might make you feel a failure? Which would not be the case at all, it is just that we are all different!
  • What age range of client to do you see?
    From 13 years up
  • Can I see you in person?
    Yes, if you are local to me we can do a face to face session
  • Does remote therapy work?
    Yes, the evidence suggests that remote therapy has the same efficacy as face to face session.
  • Do you do telephone therapy?
    I don’t offer telephone therapy. The reason for this is that I don’t feel it works very well. I can’t share diagrams, whiteboards and so on, on the telephone. It just doesn’t work at all for me. I want to give you the best therapy that I can, so lets meet face to face, in person or online.
  • What frequency of sessions do you recommend?
    Particularly at the start I have found that weekly sessions work the best, we get a good momentum going. Later on in therapy we can spread sessions out. I do realise that there are financial considerations as well and so please do talk to me if this is the case for you.
  • Will we look at my past or just what is going on at the moment?
    This is hard to answer, but mostly yes I take a very holistic approach to therapy and so looking at everything is important to be able to do that. I have had some clients who do not want to talk about the past, and this is fine. We can still work together.
  • Do you work with insurance companies?
    I no longer work with insurance companies, only self-funding clients
  • Do you offer a sliding scale of fees?
    I am not able to do this at the current time.
  • How do I pay?
    I have found the easiest way these days is via BACs transfer, made 48 hrs in advance of your session.

Frequently Asked Questions

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