Our approach

We use the human givens approach. This means that we start from the premise that every living organism can only expect to be healthy if it draws the things it needs from its environment. Consider a simple plant - if it is struggling, then helping it to obtain its innate needs in balance (water, light, nourishment from the soil) will have a beneficial effect. In fact you often do not need to “fix the plant” at all.

Plant metaphor for health Although human beings are considerably more complex, the same applies. People only tend to develop illness or destructive habits (e.g. anxiety, depression, addictions, obsessive behaviour) when their innate needs as a human being are not met through their current situation or lifestyle.

We help clients to identify which needs are not met and then work with them to find practical ways to address these issues.

During therapy sessions we use a combination of listening, instruction, advice, relaxation techniques, guided imagery, imaginal exposure, identifying and setting practical goals, and positive rehearsal of future success to help clients to improve their emotional health and well being. We also use specific techniques to remove the effects of trauma wherever appropriate. We also use metaphor and story a great deal because the human brain works by relating to patterns.

There are elements in our approach which are common to other therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).