Stress is an emotion which can often be dismissed as a 'given' in our lives and many endure it because they feel they have to or because they feel it is somehow part of their daily existence. This need not be the case.
It is important to understand the different types of stress we experience and the ways in which they are affecting you personally. A healthy adrenalin rush? or paralysed with fear and despair?. Understanding your stress limitations is crucial to preventing you from being consumed by it. Perhaps you are encountering problems in your work, health, relationships, sex life or are struggling financially; whatever the reason may be, addressing it and owning it is the first step to beating it. Many struggle alone with stress which very often serves to exacerbate it. Sharing your concerns and learning ways in which to manage your problems can help you to gain persepective and think beyond the feelings that overwhelm you. - Purus Therapy
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When we consider the term 'addiction', gambling addiction is perhaps the last addiction that may come to mind.
Whilst the impact of a gambling addiction may not always be as rapid or obvious as other better known addictions, the scars it can leave behind may be equally devastating. In today's society, with the accessibility to online gambling increasing all the time, the problem is escalating and it is not only the gambler who is suffering. I work not only with the gamblers themselves but with the 'affected others'; the friends, the family of the gambling client who are living with the daily consequences of the destructive behaviour. Often these people are the forgotten ones but this doesn't need to be the case. Gambling affects not only the gambler, the ripples can extend much further. - Purus Therapy For most people, our relationships say a lot about who we are and how we feel, and an inability to form a healthy and nurturing relationship can have profound implictions upon our emotional health.
Difficulty in relationships can be for a number of reasons. Perhaps there have been issues forming attachments as a child or during adolescence, experience of abandonment, abuse of trust, sexual or physical abuse, low self-esteem. Taking steps to confront your fears around relationships is not easy but is necessary if you wish to establish and maintain a mutually respectful and trusting reationship. In a therapeutic alliance, the relationship is key to success and as such, can serve as the reparative relationship that is needed where before this has not been experienced by the client. The therapy room can be the forum for looking at the role we take on in relationships and what this says about us. We can look at what needs changing and what perhaps needs leaving behind. - Purus Therapy How we define ourselves sexually can have a major impact on our lives in lots of different ways and for some, to deny who we feel we really are, can have distressing consequences.
Whatever your sexual orientation, whether Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgender, it is important that it is met with acceptance and tolerance; be it by ourselves or others. Very often we find this is not always achievable. I will work with you in a non-judgmental and safe way to explore your feelings towards your sexuality and what it means for you. My aim is to help you to arrive at a place where self-acceptance and confidence can enable you to embrace the person you are and the person you want to be. - Purus Therapy Depression comes in many guises. It may by characterised by an all-encompassing low mood, low self-steem or a loss of interest in activities or day to day living which would normally give you pleasure. There will be varying degrees to which you may find yourself impacted by depression and the extent to which it is impinging upon different areas of your everyday funtioning.
You may experience problematic changes in your sleeping and eating habits, work or school life functioning, sexual functioning, relationships and general health. Depression can become a vicious circle. It may be extremely difficult to find motivation to do anything and this can in itself lead you back to feeling more depressed or seeking to withdraw. One of the keys to beating depression is to take steps to break this cycle. Therapy can help to free you from the overwhelming sense of feeling 'stuck' and hopeless. Feeling heard, understood and supported can provide you with a framework in which you can begin to face up to what is happening to you and give you the impetus to challenge your depression. - Purus Therapy Often referred to as OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), is a disorder typified by intrusive thoughts which induce anxiety. This anxiety may then cause you to engage in behaviour intended to reduce or combat the anxiety, which can result in often more heightened and intense anxiety.
OCD or phobias can be very debilitating physically and emotionally and can often result in social alienation. Significant time-consumption and extreme distress can also be consequences. Implementing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) when working with people living with OCD or behavioural issues, can be helpful in managing the day to day symptoms of this disorder. Applying these techniques whilst simultaneously seeking to understand the root causes of the behaviour, can help to reduce or eradicate the cycles of erroneous behaviour. For more information on CBT and its application, please refer to the page entitled CBT. - Purus Therapy PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder which can come about as a consequence of exposure to or experience of of a traumatic event/s, which can result in a severe psychological trauma.
Often a person's response to such an event or events can feel utterly overwhelming and we may feel powerless to help ourselves. PTSD can manifest itself in a variety of different ways such as a reliving of experiences through flashbacks, nightmares or a feeling of hypervigilance amongst other affected areas of functioning, just to name a few.You may find you are experiencing difficulties in your close relationships and/or sexual and everyday life. You may feel depressed and worthless or consumed by fear. Cognitive therapy can be highly successful in the treatment of PTSD by helping clients to confront what terrorises and paralyses them. Avoidance of our fears will often serve to feed them. Our attempts to try and block our thoughts and feelings out can help us only in the short term but ultimately compound the problem for ourselves later on. I can help you to confront whatever trauma you have experienced and lived through at a gentle pace of your choosing. In the safety of a boundaried therapy framework, we can work together to confront and overcome your feelings of trauma and stress, helping you to move forward to a positive future. - Purus Therapy Bereavement is our emotional and often multi-layered response to the loss of someone or something we have formed an attachment with.
Personal responses to loss can be overwhelming and all consuming, impacting us physically, socially, and behaviourally, leaving us feeling unable to cope with what has happened to us. By sharing with me your experience of pain and loss, I will work with you and alongside you, to help you come to terms with what has happened to you. I will support you in your journey of grief to come to a place of acceptance which, allows you to move on with your life and let go of the painful emotions which are holding you back and preventing you from moving forward. - Purus Therapy |
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