Karen Thirtle BA (Hons) MSc CPsychol

Abuse, Addiction to Love and Sex, Addictions, Anger, Anxiety, Assertiveness, Bereavement, Bulimia Nervosa, Bullying, Cancer, Career Issues, Childhood Issues, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) (ME), Codependence, Confidence Issues, Couple Relationships, Creativity, Cultural Issues, Depression, Diabetes, Disability, Dissociation, Divorce, Domestic Violence, Faith Issues, Fear, Grief, History of Mental Illness, Hysteria, Identity, Impotency, Inhibitions, Integration of Experience, Lack of Meaning in Life, Loneliness, Loss, Marriage (Marital relations), Midlife Crisis, Mixed Race Issues, Mother and Baby Issues, Obsessions, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Attacks, Parenting Issues, Personal Growth, Personal Relationships, Personality Difficulties, Phobias, Physical Illness, Post Natal Depression (PND), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Pregnancy, Psychosexual Issues, Psychosomatic Symptoms, Racial Abuse, Rape, Redundancy, Self Development, Self Esteem, Self Harm, Sexual Abuse, Sleeping Problems, Social Phobia, Spirituality, Stage Fright, Stress, Transitions, Trauma, Trichotillomania, Unresolved Issues, Work Issues and Relationships

Existential Therapy, Humanistic Therapy, Integrative Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy

Female

I qualified as a counsellor in 1996 and have worked with many clients and a wide range of issues in private practice as well as in a Clinical Health Psychology Department of the NHS.

I have acquired most of my experience in the treatment of depression, self-issues, anxiety disorders and relationship issues.

In 2005, I attained chartership as a counselling psychologist and since then have also been specialising in Physical Health Psychology, working with the psychological impact of chronic illnesses and medically unexplained physical symptoms.

I offer a first session as an assessment session which either informs a decision to offer therapy myself, or a recommendation for an alternative form of help.

My core model is an integration of humanistic values, psychodynamic formulation and integrative practice. I try to maintain my knowledge of recent research into the most effective approaches however, my actual approach for any given client, is based primarily on what I consider is best suited to that person at that time, rather than on the NICE recommended approach for a given issue.

Much of my NHS work is in brief therapies, but for some clients a longer-term and open-ended therapy is offered as the treatment of choice, and this is only possible for me to provide through my private practice.

Generally, in brief therapies, the approach taken is more active and psycho-educational whereas in longer-term work the approach is more exploratory and insight-oriented than symptom or goal-focused.

In the first appointment the various options will be thoroughly discussed so that an informed decision can be made as to the most effective form of help that could be offered.

I qualified as a counsellor at Northbrook College in 1996 after a two year Advanced Diploma in Counselling and Therapy, this was a postgraduate training following on from a BA Hons in Social Psychology from the University of Sussex. In 2004 I completed a Masters in Counselling Psychology, also at Sussex and in 2005 was awarded Chartership as a Counselling Psychologist by the British Psychological Society (BPS), a qualification at doctoral level.

I am particularly interested in the study of health, subjective well-being and happiness. I am currently running Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy groups within the NHS and I am involved in ongoing research in these areas.