Therapeutic Services
Problems treated
Dr Hart can work with a range of presenting problems including but not limited to:
Stress
Anxiety
Anger Management
Depression, Low mood and Low Self-esteem
Panic
Phobia
Obsessive Compulsive disorder (OCD)
Malaise and loss of life direction
PTSD
Personal development
Difficult life transitions
Addictions and Compulsive behaviour such as gambling addiction and sex addiction
How the service works:
The first appointment with any Clinical Psychologist is always
assessment. Whilst clients are often keen to start treatment as
soon as possible, before treatment can begin it is essential that
Dr Hart has a good understanding of the issue that you are
struggling with. Therefore, the first session with Dr Hart will
always be an assessment session. This, like other therapeutic
sessions will last 50 minutes. During this session the terms of
your confidentiality agreement with Dr Hart will be outlined
and you will have an opportunity to discuss in more detail with
Dr Hart the nature of the difficulties that you are experiencing
and what your goals from therapy are.
At this stage Dr Hart will ask you questions about your difficulties
and their origins or ask for recent examples of them. Dr Hart will
then form and share a preliminary opinion about your difficulties
with some thoughts about the treatment that can be offered and an approximate number of sessions.
As a rough guide, Dr Hart will typically recommend between 10 and 14, sessions, including assessment for most difficulties, although longer or shorter therapy may be appropriate. You are under no obligation to take up sessions beyond assessment should you not wish to, nor do you have to use all the sessions recommended.
You are free to terminate your therapy contract with Dr Hart at any time. Therapy of a longer duration is available dependent upon your individual needs and Dr Hart will discuss this with you at your request.
If you do take up more sessions, it is likely that Dr Hart would spend the next 1-2 sessions undertaking further assessment with you, in order to build a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of you problems.
Therapeutic Intervention:
Dr Hart will design a bespoke and individually tailored intervention for you based on the nature and severity of your presenting difficulty. It is important to Dr Hart that his work with you is collaborative and he will talk you through the treatment plan and what it will entail. Your progress will be reviewed as an ongoing process through therapy.
Dr Hart primarily utilises Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness based approaches as well
as traditional Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) encourages people to embrace their thoughts and feelings rather than fighting, avoiding or feeling guilty for having them. Rather that spending energy avoiding thoughts and feelings, ACT encourages people to accept them and then devote that energy instead to identifying and living inline with ones values.
ACT asks the question of "If you could have your life stand for and mean anything, what would that be?" Dr Hart, will help you answer that question, help identify the barriers to moving in that direction and helping make you to do so.
