What is CBT?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a short-term, evidence-based therapy that helps children and adults understand the link between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and developing healthier ways to respond.

How can it help clients?

CBT gives people the tools to reduce overwhelming emotions, improve problem-solving and coping skills, build healthier relationships, increase confidence and self-esteem, and feel more in control in daily life. It is a flexible approach that can be adapted for both adults and children. As a short-term therapy, it provides practical strategies and skills that can lead to long-term resilience.

What do CBT therapy sessions involve?

Therapists work collaboratively with clients to begin identifying recurring negative thought patterns. Clients then learn practical strategies to challenge and reframe these thoughts. With practice, they use the tools to reduce stress and improve mood, while any barriers to progress are discussed with the therapist. As sessions continue, skills are applied to real-life situations, helping clients to make sustainable and lasting changes.

Why choose CBT at Compassionate Minds Clinic?

At Compassionate Minds Clinic, our therapists are highly skilled in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and experienced in working with both children and adults. We use CBT as a time-limited and goal-focused approach with a strong evidence base worldwide for many psychological difficulties. Choosing CBT with us means choosing a therapeutic journey that values your humanity, honours your struggles, and helps you to move forward with courage and care.

What is ACT?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based psychological approach grounded in research. It is designed to help clients increase psychological flexibility, which means being open to difficult inner experiences while continuing to move towards meaningful actions. Rather than focusing on eliminating unwanted thoughts and feelings, ACT helps people to change the way they relate to them, so they no longer hold as much power. The aim is to create space for living a fuller, values-led life while reducing the struggle against internal experiences.

How can it help clients?

ACT supports clients to accept emotions and thoughts with greater openness, loosen the grip of unhelpful thinking, and engage in behaviour that aligns with their values. This helps reduce avoidance, build resilience, and promote a sense of purpose and wellbeing. ACT has been shown to be helpful for clients experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, chronic pain, stress, or difficulties with self-criticism, as it encourages a compassionate stance towards the self while supporting meaningful change.

What do ACT therapy sessions involve?

Therapists work collaboratively with clients to explore areas where they feel stuck and to clarify what matters most in their lives. Sessions involve learning strategies to accept and make space for challenging thoughts and emotions, while also practising ways of stepping back from them so they are less overwhelming. Clients are guided to develop mindfulness and awareness of the present moment, alongside identifying their values and committing to actions that align with these values. Over time, this process helps clients feel more grounded, empowered, and able to pursue life with clarity and purpose.

Why choose ACT at Compassionate Minds Clinic?

At Compassionate Minds Clinic, our therapists are trained in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and experienced in supporting both children and adults. ACT offers a compassionate and practical approach that helps clients embrace their inner experiences while committing to change that enhances wellbeing. Choosing ACT with us means choosing a therapeutic journey that values your humanity, honours your struggles, and helps you to move forward with courage and care.

What is Person-Centred Therapy?

Person-Centred Therapy is a humanistic form of talking therapy, with decades of supportive research. The relationship between client and therapist is central: when the therapist offers acceptance and non-judgement, clients can begin to explore their experiences, thoughts, and feelings more openly.

How can it help clients?

The person-centred approach supports clients in exploring their self-concept — how they see and value themselves. It highlights how conditions of worth, the drive towards fulfilment (actualising tendency), and reliance on either internal or external evaluation can affect wellbeing. By working with these areas, clients can identify changes they wish to make and find healthier ways of relating to themselves. This approach can be especially helpful for those experiencing bereavement, trauma, difficult relationships, low self-esteem, anxiety, or other mental health challenges, enabling clients to reconnect with their authentic self.

What do Person-Centred Therapy sessions involve?

Therapy begins with discussing goals, such as why a client has chosen therapy or what they hope to achieve. The therapist works to understand the client’s frame of reference by listening carefully, reflecting, and creating a safe space.

As sessions progress, the therapist explores concepts in more detail, helping the client question long-held beliefs and develop awareness of their self-concept. With trust and safety, clients become more accepting of themselves, more connected to their actualising tendency, and better able to navigate choices. Over time, they strengthen their decision-making abilities, rely less on external approval, and adopt a more confident and positive self-view.

Why choose Person-Centred Therapy at Compassionate Minds Clinic?

At Compassionate Minds Clinic, our therapists are trained in the person-centred approach, an internationally recognised and evidence-based form of therapy. It is particularly suitable for clients who want to explore interconnected issues at their own pace, including survivors of trauma or abuse who may need gentle, supportive processing. The approach has been shown to provide long-lasting results and meaningful change. Choosing Person-Centred Therapy with us means choosing a therapeutic journey that values your humanity, honours your struggles, and helps you to move forward with courage and care.

What is Exposure Therapy and ERP?

Exposure Therapy is a type of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) that helps clients of all ages face fears or situations that cause anxiety, rather than avoiding them. By gradually and safely confronting feared situations and thoughts, anxiety can reduce over time. This is because avoidance maintains anxiety, or rather, fear is kept alive by avoidance.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is a specialist form of exposure therapy often used to treat OCD or tics. It involves exposing clients to the situation, thought, image, or urge that triggers anxiety or tics, while supporting them to resist the temptation to engage in compulsive behaviours or rituals that would normally provide temporary relief.

How can it help clients?

Exposure Therapy and ERP help reduce anxiety and distress by breaking the cycle of avoidance and compulsion. Through repeated practice, clients learn that anxiety and urges rise and fall naturally, without needing to avoid or rely on rituals. This strengthens confidence in coping with uncertainty, discomfort, and intrusive urges, leading to greater resilience across daily life.

What do Exposure Therapy and ERP sessions involve?

Therapists work collaboratively with clients to identify specific triggers that cause anxiety or distress. Together, they create a hierarchy of feared situations and approach these step by step, beginning with the least distressing and gradually progressing to more challenging ones. Clients practise facing triggers regularly, with therapist support to review progress and build confidence before moving forward. Over time, anxiety and urges naturally reduce, and coping skills strengthen.

Why choose Exposure Therapy and ERP at Compassionate Minds Clinic?

At Compassionate Minds Clinic, our therapists are skilled in delivering Exposure Therapy and ERP with clients of all ages. We provide a safe, structured, and evidence-based approach that helps clients face fears, reduce anxiety, and build long-term resilience. Choosing Exposure Therapy and ERP with us means choosing a therapeutic journey that values your humanity, honours your struggles, and helps you to move forward with courage and care.

What is EMDR?

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based therapy that helps children and young people process overwhelming feelings and difficult experiences. It uses gentle techniques such as eye movements, tapping, or sounds, while recalling past or future events. This allows the brain to “file away” upsetting experiences so they no longer interfere with daily life and wellbeing.

How can it help children and adolescents?

While EMDR was first developed to support trauma recovery, research has shown it to be effective for a much wider range of difficulties. These include anxiety, low self-esteem, phobias, nightmares, intense emotions or meltdowns, and challenging life events such as bullying, loss, or family changes. EMDR helps young people reduce distress, regain balance, and strengthen their confidence in managing difficult situations.

What do EMDR therapy sessions involve?

Therapists work collaboratively with children and their families to build trust and create a safe foundation for therapy. Sessions begin by exploring strengths, concerns, and what helps the child feel secure. From there, children are introduced to calming tools they can use both during reprocessing and in daily life, giving them greater confidence in managing tricky feelings. When ready, the child processes difficult memories using bilateral stimulation. As sessions progress, positive connections are strengthened to build resilience, emotional regulation, and self-confidence.

Why choose EMDR at Compassionate Minds Clinic?

At Compassionate Minds Clinic, EMDR is delivered by trained clinical psychologists who specialise in working with children and adolescents. We tailor each programme to meet the individual needs of young people, offering a safe, supportive, and evidence-based approach. EMDR not only helps process past experiences but also equips children with the coping skills and resilience they need for the future.

What is DBT?

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based psychological approach adapted from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). It was developed specifically to support people who experience emotions very intensely. The aim of DBT is to help clients understand and accept difficult feelings, learn practical skills to manage them, and make positive changes in their lives.

The word dialectical refers to bringing together two ideas that may seem opposite, but can both be true. For example, clients can both accept themselves as they are and work towards meaningful change. DBT supports clients in achieving both acceptance and growth.

How can it help clients?

DBT is particularly effective for people who struggle with strong emotions, difficulties in relationships, impulsive behaviours, or patterns of self-criticism. It provides clients with practical skills in mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. These skills help clients reduce distress, manage intense emotions, and build healthier ways of relating to themselves and others. DBT can support children, adolescents, and adults to create more balance, resilience, and fulfilment in their lives.

What do DBT therapy sessions involve?

Therapists work collaboratively with clients to identify the areas where they are struggling and introduce skills to support change. Sessions typically focus on building practical strategies that clients can practise both in therapy and in daily life. Over time, clients learn to regulate their emotions more effectively, tolerate distress without resorting to unhelpful behaviours, and improve communication in relationships. The pace is supportive and structured, helping clients feel safe while building confidence in using new skills.

Why choose DBT at Compassionate Minds Clinic?

At Compassionate Minds Clinic, our therapists are trained in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and experienced in applying it with clients of all ages. DBT is a science-based, skills-focused therapy that builds coping strategies and resilience for both present and future challenges. Choosing DBT with us means choosing a therapeutic journey that values your humanity, honours your struggles, and helps you to move forward with courage and care.