This wasn’t part of the plan…
We know that living with a life-changing condition, such as brain injury, stroke or spinal cord injury can be….
- challenging
- surprising
- lonely
- transformative
- frightening
- painful
- frustrating
- an opportunity to grow as a person
We are with you for all of it
We can help you make sense of what has happened and to find a way to make a life that is really worth living. As Clinical Psychologists, our expertise comes from years of training and experience of treating hundreds of people faced with life-changing conditions.
We’ll be wanting to find out what matters to you most – what is your priority right now and what is important to you in the long-term. We know that everyone is different, and everyone’s recovery will look different, so we will work with you to build a recovery that works for you.
By you, we mean all of you… you and whoever is important to you…. we know that life-changing conditions happen to a whole family
Some of the things we can do
- Listen to your story without judging you or telling you what to do
- Help you to understand what has happened to you and what this could mean for your future
- Treat depression, anxiety and post-traumatic symptoms using the latest evidence-based therapies, tailored to fit you as an individual.
- Help you to make sense of medical reports and formulate the right questions to ask your doctors
- Think about going back to work … or changing direction
The Right Help, Right When (and Where) You Need It
Life with a health condition can be exhausting and unpredictable – it can be hard to travel to an appointment or even commit to attending a session at the same time every week. We are flexible – we carry out sessions online, in your own home or anywhere else that works for you
We want to help you get back to living a life that you value – not to keep you coming to endless therapy sessions – so we keep our focus on what matters most. We offer pay-as-you-go sessions and packages starting from just three sessions. We know that a lot of change happens outside the sessions – sometimes even a single conversation is enough to unlock a new direction for you to explore. We also offer longer term work if that is what you need.
We believe in post-traumatic growth
We are brain specialists…
If your condition has affected your brain (eg brain injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis etc) we might suggest you see one of our neuropsychologists. Neuro is a Greek word which means ‘nerve’. Neuropsychologists are Clinical Psychologists who have undertaken additional advanced training in brain functioning.
Sometimes it can be hard to make sense of things if your brain is working differently from before. Whilst some effects of damage to the brain can be very obvious (for example, if you can no longer move one leg) others can be more subtle. You might be asking yourself ‘am I feeling exhausted all the time because of my stroke or do I feel like this because I’m depressed?’ or ‘something’s different about me from before – but I can’t put my finger on what it is – or how to feel like me again’.
We will work with you to create a map of what is going on with you (we call this a formulation) so that we can understand what is causing what and, importantly, how to improve the way you are feeling and functioning.
What is a neuropsychological assessment and why would I need one?
A neuropsychological assessment is a series of pen-and-paper tests (or rather stylus-to-ipad tests!) which help you and those around you to understand strengths and weaknesses in the way your brain is functioning.
A neuropsychological assessment involves time and expense. We don’t believe in doing anything unnecessary, so we would only recommend that you have one if the results could make a significant difference to your recovery. We often carry out assessments when people are considering going back to complex roles at work so that we can advise of effective self-management strategies and reasonable adjustments. A neuropsychological assessment can also be very helpful if you or your family family members are finding your symptoms confusing or hard to cope with.
Knowledge is power and having clarity about exactly how things are going wrong can help you to put them right
Family and friends
A stroke or brain injury happens in one person’s brain, but it happens to a whole family. We are here for all of you and offer psychological support packages for friends and family.