I am a skilled and experienced CBT therapist (BABCP accredited) and Forensic Psychologist (HCPC registered). I have a wide range of experience in mental health, having worked with clients across the age range and various settings. I have outlined the modalities that I use within session below.
I aim to equip individuals with a greater understanding of themselves and the necessary skills to overcome past difficulties and current challenges.
Therapy can be offered in individual sessions or as part of a group.
The number of sessions you need depends on the difficulty you need help with. Often this will be between six to twenty weekly or fortnightly sessions lasting between 60 and 90 minutes each.
We start by discussing your specific difficulty and set goals for you to achieve.
Therapy is not a quick fix. It involves you actively engaging with therapy during and between sessions.
Although I will not tell you what to do, I can help you decide what difficulties you want to work on in order to help you improve your situation. By the end of the therapy you will know what therapy techniques work for you and have created your own toolbox, so you essentially become your own therapist.
Kelly uses the models below to inform her work
ACT encourages people to embrace their thoughts and feelings rather than fighting or feeling guilty for them. It may seem confusing at first, but ACT paired with mindfulness-based therapy offers clinically effective treatment. After all, running away from any problem only increases the distance from the solution. The easiest way to escape from the problem is to solve it.
This is an experiential method that is based on the belief that it is healing and transformative for people to speak from their inner voices, parts, or selves and for them to enact or re-enact scenes with others and themselves from the past, the present, or the future.
CBT is a type of talking therapy, which focuses on how your thoughts and beliefs affect your physical sensations, emotions and behaviour, and teaches you coping skills for dealing with different problems. CBT can help you manage your problems by changing the way you feel, think and behave. It combines cognitive therapy (examining the things you think) and behaviour therapy (examining the things you do).
CFT aims to help promote mental and emotional healing by encouraging people in treatment to be compassionate toward themselves and other people. Compassion, both toward the self and toward others, is an emotional response believed by many to be an essential aspect of well-being. Its development may often have the benefit of improved mental and emotional health.
DBT is a talking therapy, based on CBT, but it’s specially adapted for people who feel emotions very intensely. DBT helps you understand and accept your difficult feelings learn skills to manage them, become able to make positive changes in your life. ‘Dialectical’ means trying to understand how two things that seem opposite could both be true. For example, accepting yourself and changing your behaviour might feel contradictory. But DBT teaches that it’s possible for you to achieve both these goals together.
is a therapeutic, secular perspective it is a conscious awareness of our present moment. This includes openness and non-judgment about the experience. Mindfulness is not concerned with relaxation, though that might be a result of certain practices. The focus is on increasing our awareness of the thoughts, feelings, and actions that hinder our progress. When we are better able to do that, we can engage with those aspects of ourselves, learn to tweak our language, and choose how to respond.
MBT is a long-term psychotherapy. Mentalization is the ability to think about thinking. It helps to make sense of our thoughts, beliefs, wishes and feelings and to link these to our actions and behaviours. Mentalization is a normal capacity that we all use in everyday life. It underpins all human relationships. However, some people find it more difficult to mentalise in certain situations than others. MBT aims to improve a person’s capacity to mentalise. We focus on what is going on in your mind and in the minds of others and link this to understand and alleviate problematic behaviours.
This is a treatment for lifelong patterns This cognitive-development model is based on the assumption that many negative thoughts have their roots in past experiences. The model proposes an integrative systematic model of treatment for a wide spectrum of chronic, difficult and characterological problems. Combining theory and techniques from previously existing therapies, including cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoanalytic object relations theory, attachment theory, and Gestalt therapy.
TF-CBT addresses the specific emotional and mental health needs of children, adolescents and adult survivors, who are struggling to overcome the effects of early trauma or traumatic experiences. TF-CBT is especially sensitive to the unique problems with post- traumatic stress and mood disorders resulting from abuse, violence, or grief.
“Having a personality disorder, I was told by so many therapists that they couldn’t work with me, I felt judged and alone but with Kelly I just felt support and listened too. We worked at a pace that was suitable for me but Kelly knew when to push me to try that little bit harder. I cannot thank Kelly enough for her patience and kindness and making me feel like me again”
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Kelly covers the following topics in individual and group sessions:
As well as individual therapy Kelly works with couples, although many of the reasons couples choose to start therapy are similar to individuals there are a range of additional difficulties such as:
We tend to have routine checks on our physical health but we often forget about our mental health.
At your mental health MOT, you will discuss your current wellbeing and have a comprehensive mental health assessment with a qualified psychologist.
We will explore what is going on for you and get quickly to the root of any imbalance or difficulties, identify positive choices you’ve overlooked, and suggest the best ways for you to move forward.
By taking the time to complete a mental health MOT you could benefit from improved focus, increased self-esteem, a motivation boost, less stress or anxiety, a renewed sense of purpose and overall, just feel better.
At the end of the MOT you will be provided with a bespoke package of handouts and/or ebooks to support you in moving forward, improve your mental wellness and living the life you want and deserve.
Kelly develops and delivers a wide range of workshops locally and virtually. These are tailored to the each individual, group or organisation. Some of the previous topics have including reducing burnout, anxiety management, improving self-esteem, incorporating mindfulness, understanding and managing Irritable Bowel Syndrome, resilience building and much more. She has been invited to share her knowledge at international events and retreats in Canada, Spain and Switzerland as well as in the United Kingdom.
Kelly is able to offer practical mental health and wellbeing services to support businesses. It is widely accepted that employers need to ensure that their teams are getting the best support for their mental wellbeing and understand what activities that can incorporate into their working day to enhance their mental wellbeing.
Kelly is keen to continue to share her psychological skills and knowledge so please contact her to find out how she could develop a tailored package for your next event, workshop, retreat or programme.
“Coming to therapy with my wife was a culture shock, I didn’t know what to expect, but we are so glad we did we were able to improve our communication and be us again without the arguments and negativity”
Resources available to purchase for continued development on your journey to becoming the best version of yourself.
If you have a question or enquiry, please complete the form below, we will aim to get back to you as soon as we can.
©KELLY WATKINS 2022. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
