Anger Management Therapy

What is Anger Management?

Is anger the first thing you feel in response to far too many situations? Losing your temper at the tiniest provocation? Are angry feelings beginning to take over your life? Whether you’ve suddenly noticed that anger is your default position – or whether you’ve had it pointed out by well-meaning family and friends – you may begin to wonder how to take stock, begin to understand why you’re so angry, and work to take control of those overwhelming rages. That’s exactly the point when anger management therapy can help.

While rational anger affects us all at some point, it often stays within a healthy range of expression. Irrational anger and rage can sometimes erupt and spill out in inappropriate and destructive ways. The after-effects of intense and uncontrolled anger can affect you both physically and psychologically. Anger that goes unchecked can run riot with your wellbeing. Physically, anger can cause all sorts of heart and digestive problems, as the risks from high blood pressure storm your system. Emotionally, the effects of an angry outburst can provoke anxiety, shame, more rage, possible depression, abuse, self-harm and a cycle of sheer exhaustion. Then it all starts again the next day with the next provocation! It can feel like you’re stuck in a loop you can’t get out of.

Signs that you need anger management therapy:

You’re angry and frustrated at work, becoming irritable with clients and colleagues, and your boss has asked you to tone it down.
You’re angry and rageful within a romantic relationship because your partner isn’t doing what you want, when, how and how often you want it. Taken to extremes, anger towards a partner can lead to a destructive pattern of emotional, verbal and physical abuse.
You lose your temper with your children after the second time of asking them to do something. You don’t mean to, but you’re suddenly screaming, shouting and swearing. The children are scared. You don’t know how to stop.
Behind the wheel, you are intolerant of other drivers and can be inclined to ‘road rage’. Volatile reactions on the road, taken to extremes, could lead to some difficult legal situations that you may live to regret.
Drinking and drug-taking can exaggerate the mood you’re in. Alcohol, in particular, can exacerbate your angry behaviour to a point that it’s beyond control = and you’re possibly left feeling contrite the morning after.
Strangers irritate you. People in a street, shop, bar or restaurant can annoy you to the point at which you become verbally or physically abusive – or both.

Talk to someone today

Do you need support with your anger?

How anger management therapy can help you:

Our therapists specialising in anger, and how to manage it, can help you identify and understand the triggers for your angry outbursts, create coping mechanisms for your anger, and work on the issues that may be underlying your anger. Our therapists can help you to:

Understand your anger, explore when it started, and why.
Learn when and how to be assertive.
Understand when you’re being passive-aggressive, and how that can fuel your anger with yourself and others.
Learn how to walk away from situations and/or change the course of conversation until you calm down.
Identify the relationship dynamics that trigger your anger.
Develop an anger plan and how to keep an anger journal.
Learn how to channel your angry energy through exercise and relaxation techniques, to develop a healthier lifestyle and calmer way of thinking.
Explore how to let go of hurts and resentments without feeling as though you’ve compromised your values and principles.

Fee:

Low Cost Counselling: £20-£35, if you’re on benefits or a low income.
Private Therapy: £50-£130. Some therapists are a private healthcare provider)

Make an Appointment

To make an appointment to see one of our counsellors, please call the reception team on 020 8673 4545 or email our Clapham Branch clapham@theawarenesscentre.com or Tooting Branch tooting@theawarenesscentre.com. We are open seven days a week. Some therapists work from other consulting rooms in South London, including Balham, Battersea, Borough, London Bridge, Pimlico, Mitcham, Streatham, Southfields, West Norwood and Wimbledon.

The Awareness Centre also offers Addiction Counselling, Bereavement Counselling, Child & Adolescent Counselling, Eating Disorders Therapy, LGBT Counselling and Multilingual Counselling.

Alessia Ranieri
Alessia Ranieri
Languages: English, Italian

Works with: Individuals

Specialisms:
Depression
Guilt & Shame
Isolation & Loneliness
Workplace Issues
Alessia Ranieri offers a supportive space where individuals can explore their thoughts and emotions without fear of judgement. Far from seeking to ‘fix’ people, Alessia strongly believes that each individual person is unique, and that uniqueness must be nurtured and valued. She sees therapy not just as a place to overcome difficulties but also as an opportunity for clients to get to know their selves better, discover their ways and purposes in life and enrich their potential. Her main approach is Constructivist Psychotherapy and she uses the dialogue as a way to comprehend the underlying reasons of the client’s choices and to reconsider together different perspectives and alternatives.

With a background in work related disorders and an ongoing doctoral research in Coaching, Alessia has an interest in workplace issues, management development and conflict resolution. She understands the pressures people can put on themselves and that often cause anxiety and depression. Alessia can help individuals identify new ways of managing emotions such as sadness, fear, anger, guilt, loneliness, grief, panic and threat. She has experience with IBD and personality disorders..

Alessia works on an open-ended basis within The Awareness Centre’s low cost counselling service in Clapham. She is an Italian and English-speaking Counselling Psychologist, currently working towards an advance diploma in Constructivist Psychotherapy.
PROFILE

Christine Blake

Accredited:	UKCP
Languages:	English
Works with:	Individuals
Individuals:	£70-£85/hr
Specialisms:	Addiction Bereavement & Loss Family & Relationships Trauma
Skype:	christine.blake5

Christine Blake is trained as an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist, which gives her an in depth understanding of the importance of relationships in helping to shape our experiences in early childhood and throughout our lives. She currently works in private practice with individuals at The Awareness Centre.

As an attachment-based practitioner, she aims to work in a relational way to support you to build a sense of security in yourself and your relationships with others in order to develop the internal resources to cope with the many challenges life brings. Through a psychoanalytic approach she aims to support you to make sense of and find strategies to address unconscious thoughts that can lead to frustrating and repetitive behavioural patterns that can keep you stuck and prevent you from achieving your full potential.

Her practice is underpinned by knowledge of trauma, abuse, bereavement and loss with a background of twenty five years of working with people in the community. This includes working with the sometimes hidden and sometimes overwhelming feelings of anger that can result as a way of managing pain and loss. She also has knowledge and experience of working with addictions and other compulsive or repetitive behaviours that individuals can develop as survival strategies to defend against painful feelings that have never been fully addressed, understood or supported.

Christine says through working with a diverse range of people it has helped her to appreciate the importance of loving relationships and how much people struggle with feeling abandoned and alone, sometimes in the face of terrible depression, anxiety and loss. Her aim is to work through painful or difficult experiences with kindness and warmth to provide a secure base in which it is possible to slowly build trust in an ongoing therapeutic relationship and be empowered to engage in the world in a new way. Christine sees counselling and psychotherapy as a joint venture in which each therapeutic relationship is unique. You are your own expert and she aims to bring her skills and experience to facilitate and empower you to get in touch with your own meaning and purpose.

PROFILE

Dr Antonella Tomasin

Accredited:	BPS, HCPC, BPC
Languages:	English, Italian
Works with:	Individuals
Individuals:	£100
Private Healthcare:	Aviva, AXA PPP, Bupa, Cigna
Specialisms:	Anger Management Communication & Workplace Issues Depression Family & Relationships

Dr Antonella Tomasin, DPsych/MA Criminology is a Clinical Psychologist chartered with the BPS (British Psychological Society), registered with the HCPC (Health and Care Profession Council) and accredited with the BPC (British Psychoanalytic Council). She obtained her doctoral degree in 2002 in Italy and did the Statement of Equivalence in the UK to be recognised in this country. Dr Tomasin has almost ten years of experience in working within the NHS, mostly IAPT.

Dr Tomasin aims at providing a confidential space where clients feel comfortable to talk about their difficulties. Her approach is client-centred and values greatly their feedback. Due to her integrative approach, she is able to adapt her way of working according to her client’s needs. Dr Tomasin is trained in CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), DIT (Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing), ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), Mindfulness, DBT (Dialectical Behavioural Therapy), NET (Narrative Exposure Therapy), Mentalization and Compassionate Mind. Dr Tomasin has experience of working with older adults, children, adolescents and couples; however, recently she has been specialising in working with adults.

Dr Tomasin has a particular interest in trauma and relationship problems and has years of experience in supervising junior clinicians. She has expertise in anxiety (worries, stress, panic, OCD etc.), post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, eating disorders, bereavement, health problems, self-confidence, sleep and relationship difficulties (both personal and within the work environment). She is able to offer therapy both in English and Italian.

PROFILE

Dr Francesco Bernardi

Accredited:	BPS, HCPC
Languages:	English, Italian
Works with:	Individuals
Individuals	£100/hr
Private Healthcare:	Aviva, AXA PPP, Cigna, Vitality Health
Specialisms	Addiction Anger Management Depression Sexuality

Dr Francesco Bernardi, DPsych/MSc Neuropsychology, is a Counselling Psychologist registered with the HCPC (Health and Care Professional Council). He has completed a specialisation training on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and has worked for in the NHS for the last 7 years.

He has worked in secondary care and primary care. He has experience in offering therapy to adults and older people suffering from anxiety and depression. His specialties are: obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), social anxiety, panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), specific phobias (such as, needle phobia, blood phobia, animal phobia, etc.), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression. He also works with anger, low self-esteem and relationship issues. Dr Bernardi has also a specialist interest in working with the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual Queer population (LBTQ) and has helped people addressing sexuality, coming out, and relationship issues.

Dr Bernardi’s approach to therapy is based on mutual respect and collaboration with his clients. He is able to use different psychotherapeutic approaches - such as CBT, Humanistic, Psychodynamic, Narrative Exposure Therapy, and Skills Training in Affect and Interpersonal Regulation - either in their pure form or by integrating them, depending on his clients’ needs.

He can offer therapy both in English and Italian.

PROFILE

Dr Jane Major

Accredited:	BPS, HCPC
Languages:	English
Works with:	Individuals, Couples
Individuals:	£120/hr
Couples:	£135/hr
Private Healthcare:	AXA PPP, Bupa, Vitality Health
Specialisms:	Anxiety Disorder Family & Relationships Trauma Workplace Issues

Dr Jane Major is an experienced clinical psychologist and relationship therapist working with individuals and couples. She is empathic and warm seeking to support clients to increase their awareness of their thoughts, feelings, and relationships. Jane enables clients to interact with themselves and others in a way that is personally meaningful and compassionate. She takes the approach that problems are not created within individuals but between people.

Jane takes a pluralistic approach to therapy which means that she has found that no one approach to therapy works for all. Therefore she adapts the approaches she uses to best meet her clients unique needs. She draws on four main approaches which include cognitive behaviour therapy, systemic family therapy, emotionally focussed therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Jane ensures that she develops a comfortable relationship with her clients so that they feel able to talk with her openly and regularly seeks feedback about how clients are experiencing their work with her.

Jane trained as a Clinical Psychologist at the University of Surrey. Prior to her training, and subsequently, she worked for many years in the National Health Service working with clients of all ages in many different environments. Jane is experienced in working with people affected by trauma and relationship issues and her interest in this area led her to undertake further training in couple and family therapy at the Institute of Family Therapy and at Tavistock Relationships. She is a keen student and regularly participates in further training courses. This year this includes undertaking a diploma in clinical sexology at the Contemporary Institute of Clinical Sexology and a 12 day professional training course in Somatic Trauma Therapy facilitated by Babette Rothschild. As well as working in private practice Jane also works on a voluntary basis offering consultancy to a psychotherapy charity in Sheffield which offers long-term reduced fee therapy to adults affected by emotional distress.

PROFILE

Julie Chivers
Julie Chivers
Accredited: BACP

Languages: English

Works with: Individuals

Individuals: £60/hr

Specialisms:
Anxiety Disorder
Bereavement & Loss
Life Transitions
Stress
Julie Chivers is a Psychotherapeutic Counsellor & Psychotherapist and is Accredited and Registered with full membership with BACP. Her diploma as a Psychotherapeutic Counsellor & Psychotherapist enables her to work using different methods depending on her client needs. Julie works as a private therapist at The Awareness Centre.

Julie will help to provide a safe and supportive environment in which to talk through and try to make sense of your emotions, thoughts and problems and reflect on past and present events with a knowledgeable, non-judgemental professional. She will give you a confidential place to explore and express your feelings. She will encourage you to take a look at why you are struggling. As therapy progresses she will help you to gain insights and find more helpful ways of coping with your problems and emotions. As well as talking about your emotions Julie may use CBT and Mindfulness relaxation exercises to help you as well as helping with coping techniques. She will help to find ways of managing overwhelming emotions in a way that will take you to a safer and more secure place. Therapy can provide an environment to understand and learn about yourself so that you can take control of and responsibility for your life.

With a background in the Armed Services and Education, Julie cares and understands that emotional wellbeing can enable a richer more productive way of being, she has also worked in the voluntary sector for Counselling services, NHS Support and IAPT services and has gained experience of working with: Abuse, Anger, Anxiety, Stress, Depression, Suicidal Thoughts, Bereavement & Loss, Life Transitions, Guilt & Shame, Relationship Issues, Self-Esteem & Self-Confidence, Trauma & PTSD. If your problem is not listed that does not mean she cannot help you.

PROFILE

Kelly Garrett

Accredited:	UKCP
Languages:	English, Spanish, Turkish
Works with:	Individuals, Couples
Individuals	£70/hr
Couples:	£90/hr
Private Healthcare:	Aviva, Cigna, Vitality Health and WPA
Specialisms:	Anxiety Disorder Depression Self-Harm Trauma

Kelly Garrett is a qualified, accredited and experienced psychotherapist, counsellor and clinical supervisor, specialising in the areas of depression, anxiety, trauma and relationships. Kelly has several years’ experience working with a wide range of psychological, emotional and mental health problems in the private, voluntary and NHS sectors. She is also a certified coach and has extensive experience working in corporate environments. Kelly currently works in private practice with individuals and couples in Clapham, South London. She is also Clinical Director at The Awareness Centre.

Kelly is an integrative practitioner, which means she has combined many theories of thought and has found her own style of working as a therapist. Her training was in existential and psychodynamic approaches, and she has a strong interest in attachment, separation and loss. Kelly works short-term and long-term with clients, and offers therapy in English, Spanish and Turkish.

Kelly’s specialist area is trauma therapy. Trauma is often the result of an overwhelming amount of stress that exceeds one’s ability to cope or to integrate the emotions involved with that experience. People can feel numb, disconnected, and unable to trust others. Kelly explores ways to manage and cope with those feelings. Whether the trauma happened years ago or yesterday, the work helps clients to heal and move on. Kelly is also an avid yoga practitioner. She believes her practice has allowed her to develop strong mental and physical strength, clarity of thought and a renewed sense of being, and she uses these strengths in her therapeutic approach.

Click here to read more

PROFILE

Léann Lavery
Léann Lavery
Languages: English

Works with: Individuals

Individuals £65/hr

Specialisms
Addiction
Anger
Bereavement & Loss
Depression
Léann Lavery is a qualified counsellor, supporting people dealing with depression, anxiety, trauma, relationship difficulties, anger, suicidal feelings, bereavement and loss. Believing that we all need human connection, she considers the relationship between client and therapist to be the most important aspect of counselling. Léann provides a non-judgemental, safe and confidential space where your healing is supported. She focuses on helping you to better understand your current and past feelings and behaviours, and to also recognise negative patterns that may be affecting how you live your life. This will support you as you find new ways of living and develop more fulfilling relationships.

As an integrative therapist Léann draws on a range of theories – including psychodynamic, existential, and humanistic – and she tailors how she works depending on your needs and aims. She believes our bodies often hold difficult and painful emotions, and she integrates the mind, body and soul in her approach to help facilitate change and work through these emotions. With a background in marketing and PR from different sectors such as charity, television, and higher education, Léann brings this experience into her therapeutic stance where she works creatively with her clients.

Léann has many years’ of experience of working long-term and short-term with clients in a variety of settings, including the NHS. She is a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and a divisional member of the British Psychological Society (BPS), she is working towards a Doctorate in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy.
PROFILE
Lenka Hamerska
Lenka Hamerska
Languages: English, Czech

Works with: Individuals

Specialisms:
Anxiety Disorder
Bereavement & Loss
Depression
Trauma
Lenka Hamerska offers a non-judgemental and authentic relationship for you to explore your feelings, thoughts and current life situation. Her aim is to provide supportive and empathic space. She believes that through exploring and clarifying specific personal situations or feelings, her clients can gain better understanding of themselves and their needs. As our awareness increases, we can open up to the possibility of experiencing and feeling compassion for the aspects of ourselves we try hardest to hide. As we befriend more of ourselves, we are likely to live our life more fully and creatively.

With a social work health care background, Lenka has an experience working in different services such as Care home, Day centre for youth, Sheltered housing for people with complex needs or mental health recovery houses. She works to help you with better understanding of your emotional and physical body with focusing on your well- being. She works with anxiety, depression, grief, personal development, relationships and has interest in trauma.

Lenka Hamerska is working towards MCs in Gestalt psychotherapy which will provide her with automatic registration with UKCP. She is registered with UKAGP. As a reflexive Gestalt therapist, she has an ability to integrate theory and practice and can work effectively in a variety of settings. She draws on the approaches that best suits the issues that clients bring into the therapy room. She works on an open-ended basis within The Awareness Centre´s low cost counselling service in Clapham.
PROFILE
Luke Williams
Luke Williams
Accredited: UKCP

Languages: English

Works with: Individuals

Individuals: £60/hr

Specialisms:
Anger Management
Anxiety
Depression
Self-Harm
Luke Williams is a professional person-centred psychotherapist who is registered with the UK Council of Psychotherapy. He holds a post graduate diploma in contemporary person-centred psychotherapy and applications and is currently completing a piece of research on “client’s shifts in therapy” which will give him a Masters qualification. Luke works privately and as a psychotherapist at one of worlds leading universities.

Luke provides an empathic and non-judgemental space that allows clients to explore the areas of their live they feel need attention. He helps clients deepen their understanding of their beliefs, values, decision-making processes and patterns of behaviour. This helps clients realise their potential and make the changes they want. Luke does this in a holistic way that takes embraces a person’s complete and unique experience of life; this helps clients see things in a clearer way and cultivates confidence, self-acceptance and the courage to move forward and make the changes they want for a more harmonious and fulfilling life.

With a background in operations management, training and then education Luke understands the pressures and complexity of commercial and academic institutions and helps clients discover practical ways to fulfil their goals in a way that also protects and nourishes them. He understands managing stress, and external demands and expectations in a busy time pressurised modern city like London can feel overwhelming and helps clients gain perspective, let go of unhelpful internal dialogues and focus on what is really important to them.

Luke has lived and worked in several continents and has worked with clients from diverse communities with a wide range of issues. He has extensive experience working with depression, anxiety, compulsive behaviours, perfectionism self-harm, relationship difficulties, attachment, trauma, abuse, confidence and existential anxiety. Luke is passionate about psychotherapy and continues to work as a researcher to uncover and support the latest developments in psychology and psychotherapy. He continues to train and keep up to date with the with the latest research, theoretical developments and psychological treatments.
PROFILE
Lydia-Mishelle Maurice-Gill
Lydia-Mishelle Maurice-Gill
Languages: English

Works with: Individuals

Specialisms:
Abuse
Communication Issues
Illness
Lydia-Mishelle Maurice-Gill creates a safe place where clients can explore in depth, the issues which may be contributing to the challenges in their lives. She works existentially, however, draws from a number of disciplines to creatively attend to the presenting needs of the clients, helping them to find meaning and purpose in their lives and their relationships. Her approach is based on respect, honesty and integrity when forging a therapeutic alliance with clients; after all, it is the relationship that heals.
Lydia-Mishelle has managed services and large teams in substance misuse, forensic mental health and criminal justice which has resulted in her gaining skills and knowledge in helping individuals to manage communication and work-related issues at all levels of the workforce. She currently manages a forensic unit in North London and provides clinical support to other managers within the organisation.

Her particular interests are trauma, chronic illnesses, abuse and challenging behaviours; and she hopes to continue her work in these areas with servicemen/women and criminal justice clients when she completes her studies. She has extensive experience working with addiction and mental health and has successfully worked with clients to achieve and sustain recovery.

Lydia-Mishelle is currently reading for her doctorate is Existential Psychotherapy and working towards her BACP registration. She is in her 4^th year of studies and is currently preparing for her thesis which will focus on the existential perspective of early onset Alzheimer’s. She has trained as an integrative addictions psychologist and works on an open-ended basis within the Awareness Centre’s low-cost counselling service. She worked as an HIV specialist nurse in Trinidad in the early 90’s and later as a paediatric trauma nurse at Kings College hospital in London.
PROFILE
Maria Galani
Maria Galani
Languages: English, Greek

Works with: Individuals

Specialisms:
Anger
Bereavement & Loss
Bullying
Life Transitions
Maria Galani is working towards the Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology and is a member of the British Psychological Society (MBPsS). As an existential-integrative therapist, she draws on the approaches that best suit the issues the clients bring into the therapy room. She works within the Awareness Centre’s NHS counselling service at a GP surgery in Wandsworth. She has worked therapeutically with adults, young people within an inpatient psychiatric ward, as well as in community therapeutic service and schools.

Maria aims to provide an emphatic, non-judgemental space where clients can open up and feel seen and heard for who they truly are. Her approach is existential and integrative. In existential therapy, emotional and psychological difficulties are viewed as inner conflict caused by an individual's confrontation with the givens of existence. Rather than delve into the past, the existential approach looks at the here and now, exploring the human condition as a whole and what it means for an individual. Whilst focusing on the existential approach, Maria is also integrative which means that she draws on the approaches that best suit the issues the clients bring in to the room. Therefore, Maria may use CBT to help clients identify patterns in their thoughts and behaviours or mindfulness based techniques in order to help clients work with the here and now and tame anxious responses. Transactional analysis or Psychodynamic approaches may be used to help clients manage their relationships in a healthier way and understand their own mechanisms and how that plays out in their relationships. Her approach as a whole, is tailored to the individual client.

Through her working life Maria has developed a significant amount of experience in working with bullying, and especially with how earlier experiences of bullying in childhood can influence adulthood and the individual’s self-esteem and sense of self. Maria has a special interest in work place bullying and conflict at workplaces and helping clients to identify healthy ways of managing the feelings that come out of that process. She also has an interest in working with trauma, depression, anxiety disorder, anger, isolation, and in life transitions and what those mean for the individual’s identity.
PROFILE

Marielle Albers

Accredited:	HCPC
Languages:	English, Dutch
Works with:	Individuals
Individuals:	£60/hr
Specialisms	Anger Management Communication Issues Gender & Identity Life Transitions

Marielle Albers is a qualified and accredited integrative psychotherapist. Her approach is based on using creativity, connection and careful attention. She sets out to provide a space that feels safe enough to explore what is holding people back or causing them pain. She adapts her way of working according to the individual’s personality and concerns, drawing on a variety of theories. She believes in the humanistic idea that all people are born with innate wisdom and creativity, that sometimes gets lost in protective barriers that have been built in our past. Marielle is also a qualified art therapist and offers the possibility to use art materials in sessions, to invite clients to explore deeper layers of feelings. This does not require any artistic skills: for some people, it can offer an extra channel of communicating to access those feelings that have no words. Using art materials is always a choice

Marielle has held psychotherapy positions in a number of NHS trusts and mental health charities. She developed a creative way of working which can be particularly useful for people who find it difficult to articulate their feelings in words, or perhaps conversely, those who find their words or intellect keeps them ‘stuck in their heads’ in repetitive thinking patterns. Marielle’s previous career in international marketing management in two different countries, has given her a deep appreciation of life challenges regarding transitioning between different cultures, careers and ways of life. One of her interests is working with issues around identity and self-esteem and how major life changes affect people in who they are and how they cope with things. Apart from the above, she is experienced in working with issues of parenting and infertility, as well as dealing with anger (either anger management or inability to express anger).

Marielle holds a Master’s Degree in Integrative Arts Psychotherapy. She is accredited through the HPCP and the BACP. She attends regular continued professional trainings to keep up to date with professional developments, with a special interest in neuroscience, psychoanalysis and embodied psychotherapy approaches.

PROFILE

Michaela McCarthy

Accredited:	MBACP Snr. Accred.
Registered:	UKRCP
Languages:	English
Works with:	Individuals, Couples, Groups
Individuals/Couples:	£100/hr
Groups (2 hrs/8 members):	£30/person
Private Healthcare:	Allianz, Aviva, BUPA, BUPA International, Cigna, Vitality Health, WPA
Specialisms:	Addiction Anger Management Eating Disorders Sex & Relationships
Phone:	07850 282 495
Skype:	michaela.mccarthy5

Michaela McCarthy is an experienced psychotherapist and psychosexual and relationship therapist. She has worked for 20 years as a therapist and has worked both in the public and private sector. Her achievements and contributions to psychological health are a credit to her drive and ambition to support clients wellbeing. Michaela is the Managing Director of The Awareness Centre (TAC), which runs the NHS Counselling Service in Lambeth, Brixton Prison Counselling Service and Low Cost and Private Counselling services.

Michaela has established her private practice in Clapham, South London after leaving her practice in Harley Street. She believes the most important process of therapy is the co-creation between therapist and client to achieve a solid professional relationship which allows space for trust and honesty to develop. Michaela’s intuitive approach enables clients to go on a journey of self-discovery which develops true awareness for personal growth. Michaela also works with other professionals especially with psychiatrists working with medication management.

Click here to read more

PROFILE

Pegah Houshmand
Pegah Houshmand
Languages: English

Works with: Individuals, Couples

Individuals: £80/hr

Couples: £90/hr

Specialisms:
Addiction
Anxiety
Depression
Family & Relationships
Pegah Houshmand is a fully qualified counsellor with over ten years of experience in the field and is currently completing her Doctorate in Counselling Psychology. She is registered with The British Psychological Society (BPS). As an integrative counsellor, she draws on the approaches that best suit the issues that clients bring into therapy and works on a short or long term basis, depending on the clients’ needs, working towards goals that are important to the client.

She aims to provide an empathic, supportive space where clients can open up and feel seen and heard for who they truly are. While counselling helps clients to process difficult or painful thoughts and feelings, she believes that therapy can also focus on the potential of her clients. She works with her clients to identify and draw on their inner resources to live a fuller, more satisfying life. She uses Person-Centred and CBT to identify patterns in their thoughts and behaviours; Psychodynamics to help clients to identify and address the root cause of their problems; Transactional Analysis to help clients manage their relationships in a healthier way; and Mindfulness to help tame anxious responses.

Pegah’s experience includes working with low mood, depression and anxiety, stress, self-harm, bereavement and loss, couples counselling, trauma, alcohol and drug misuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, abuse, agoraphobia, OCD, panic attacks, adjustment to difficult life events or illness, and many other issues. She understands the internal and external pressures people can put on themselves, which can lead to unhelpful or damaging coping strategies. She works with her clients to identify healthier ways of managing emotions and stress, and also has a special interest in eating disorders.

PROFILE
Robert Falkner
Robert Falkner
Languages: English, Portuguese

Works with: Individuals

Individuals: £65-£150/hr

Specialisms:
Anger Management
Family & Relationships
Sexuality
Robert Falkner has completed both an Advanced Diploma and a Masters in Integrative Psychotherapy, both of which are UKCP accredited courses. With a background of over ten years of working with vulnerable young people and their families across London, Rob has worked therapeutically through his training in a variety of settings including hospitals, prisons, GP clinics, schools, in the community and in private practice.

His aim is to provide an environment of curiosity, honesty and care, where a person can become more aware of their habitual patterns and learn to address them in new ways. With a relational and flexible approach, Rob will respect the differences between us, and the range of difficulties people come to therapy with. Rob believes that our emotional lives shape and lead the other parts of ourselves, and our job in therapy is to bring our feelings into clarity. He feels therapy is not about making a problem, fear, trauma or loss ‘go away’, but rather, learning to live with that problem in a new way.

Rob was schooled in the U.K. and Portugal. He has an Honours B.A. in Developmental Studies. His interest in different cultures and countries led him to work in Portugal, Costa Rica, Israel and Canada. He has travelled throughout Europe and North Africa. He is fluent in English and Portuguese. From all this Rob brings his sense of discovery to the one-to-one ‘adventure’ of psychotherapy.
PROFILE

Sahar Beg

Accredited:	BACP
Languages:	English, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu
Works with:	Individuals, Couples, Groups
Individuals:	£65/hr
Couples:	£95/hr
Groups:	£250/hr
Specialisms:	Abuse Depression Self-Esteem & Self-Confidence Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Trauma

Sahar Beg is an integrative counsellor and psychotherapist with over 20 years’ experience working in the field, she is accredited with BACP and has a Diploma in counselling. Sahar qualified in the mid 90’s and has a Certificate in EMDR for trauma based work and more recently a BA Hons in Theatre Studies and Humanities. Sahar works as a private practitioner at The Awareness Centre in Tooting. Sahar approaches all her work with empathy and confidentiality at the forefront. Her experience in supporting people of all backgrounds despite their status, mental health and wellbeing is an asset to the work she carries out. She is able to understand that every client's needs are different and she approaches this with care and sensitivity. She provides a supportive platform for her clients to work through their thoughts and feelings. Sahar also uses other techniques and tools within the sessions an example of one are, CBT worksheets to help clients work through anxiety issues which ultimately allows the client to manage this in a healthier and positive way. Sahar also works with complex trauma and uses EMDR within the sessions as an additional approach. Sahar has worked for many years in psychological services within a corporate environment which led her to write and present workshops on stress management and relationship coaching. She is keen for individuals to learn how to manage unresolved issues that affect their sense of being. Sahar specialises in abuse and trauma related issues and understands that this has a huge impact on client’s emotional health and wellbeing. Sahar is keen to help clients become empowered and to be able to self-manage their lives in a healthier and confident way. Sahar has a keen interest working with clients who have suffered domestic violence and trauma and currently runs women’s support groups within Wandsworth.

PROFILE

Tarynne Quirk

Languages:	English
Works with:	Individuals, Couples, Families
Individuals:	£65/hr
Couples:	£80/hr
Families:	£80/hr
Specialisms:	Anxiety Disorder Bereavement & Loss Depression Trauma

Dr Tarynne Quirk is a Counselling Psychologist who completed her Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology (DPsych) at City, University of London. Registered with the Health Care and Professions Council (HCPC), the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), her approach is integrative. This approach allows her to customise therapy, creating a bespoke treatment plan for each individual, with their own set of unique issues.

Tarynne aims to provide an empathic, non-judgemental, transparent and supportive space where clients feel safe enough to open up about their various issues, in a trusting environment, where clients feel they are truly being heard. While therapy helps clients to process and understand difficult or painful thoughts, and feelings, Tarynne also believes that through individual therapy one can spend the necessary time identifying and understanding maladaptive behavioural patterns and coping mechanisms.

Coming from South Africa, Tarynne understands diversity, multi-cultural environments and the range of difficulties living in a cosmopolitan hub can bring. She understands the internal and external pressures people can put on themselves, as well as the extraneous pressures and stressors people feel they are subjected to in this fast-paced city – all of which can lead to unhelpful or damaging coping strategies. Tarynne works with you to identify healthier ways of managing difficult emotions and stress. She is particularly interested in depression, anxiety disorders (phobias, panic attacks), anger, trauma, addictions, couples work and eating disorders.

PROFILE

Venaifa D’costa
Venaifa D’costa
Languages: English, Hindi

Works with: Individuals

Specialisms:
Anger Management
Bereavement & Loss
Bullying
Workplace Issues
Venaifa D’costa is an integrative counsellor working towards a Master’s Degree in Therapeutic Counselling. She has a background in Psychology with Bachelors in Psychology and a Masters in Industrial Psychology. She currently works short-term with NHS patients at a GP surgery in Lambeth.

She uses a combined approach to psychotherapy that brings together different elements of specific therapies. She takes a view that there is no single approach that can treat each client in all situations. She believes that each person needs to be considered as whole and counselling techniques must be tailored to their individual needs and personal circumstances. Working integratively Venaifa draws on Person Centred Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Cognitive behaviour therapy and Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. Taking on a person centred approach and understanding that the client has with in him or herself vast resources for self-growth and development, she tries to tap on these resources by providing an appropriate therapeutic climate .She is non-judgemental, warm, empathetic, genuine, understanding and accepting toward clients, giving emphasis to the quality of relationship between the client and counsellor. She helps clients get in touch with their automatic thinking patterns and reframe any thoughts or behaviours to function more effectively in life. She uses Gestalt to assist individuals become aware of how they think, feel and act in the present moment, providing insight into ways in which they can alleviate their current issues and distress in order to aspire to their maximum potential.

Venaifa has the experience of working in the industrial sector where she grew in her understanding of practical work related issues and pressures that people face in life due to work, this experience along with her counselling experience with young adults has given her a fair understanding of the issues faced by people as they prepare for the world of work and progress into it. Venaifa greatly enjoys having the opportunity to make a real difference to someone’s life by helping them to resolve and cope with problems and various issues. She is able to understand each individual’s unique requirement so that they can be assisted to reach to their highest potential and live a more meaningful life
PROFILE
Viktoria Szabo
Viktoria Szabo
Languages: English, Hungarian

Works with: Individuals

Specialisms:
Illness
Life Transitions
Self-Esteem & Confidence
Stress
Viktoria Szabo is an integrative psychologist, working with person-centred, CBT and psychodynamic modalities. She is currently working towards her registration with the BACP. She is trained to a postgraduate level as a Health Psychologist and has experience working in Psychiatry and Neurological Departments of hospitals alongside working in her private practice. She is a member of the BPS and offers therapy at the Paxton Green Clinic for NHS patients. She is a motivated practitioner who considers her profession a vocation.

Viktoria provides a space where clients can feel safe to open up and feel valued for who they are. She creates an environment where one can freely explore themselves, connect with their feelings, and realise their potentials. She tailors the therapies to the client’s needs, presenting issue, and personality. She accepts that the client is the person who knows their needs the best, and the therapist is there to support her to explore them and accompanies them on this journey, which means In this way her approach is essentially person-centred. On the other hand she realises that certain clients can benefit more from a CBT approach, to explore how their thoughts can trigger feelings and behaviours and learn to change their dysfunctional patterns. Other clients might feel the need to explore and make peace with their past in order to open up the doors to their future and would benefit more from a psychodynamic approach. Viktoria believes everyone is capable of growth if they are in an environment where they can freely be who they are. She believes real self-esteem originates from self-exploration, which is getting to know and accepting ourselves.

Having worked in hospitals with patients living with chronic illnesses, Viktoria understands what it means to grieve the loss of health and abilities, get used to a new state of being, and grow from your experience, She has been working in her own practice for the past six years where she has gained experience with a variety of issues, including anxiety, self-confidence, chronic illnesses, depression, bereavement, relationships, abuse with an interest in addictions and personality disorders.

PROFILE