David Jones MA MSc Dip Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Abuse, Addictions, Anxiety, Assertiveness, Bereavement, Childhood Issues, Confidence Issues, Creativity, Depression, Dissociation, Fear, History of Mental Illness, Hysteria, Identity, Inhibitions, Lack of Meaning in Life, Obsessions, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Attacks, Personal Growth, Personal Relationships, Phobias, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Self Development, Self Esteem, Self Harm, Sexual Abuse, Sexuality, Sleeping Problems, Social Phobia, Stress, Suicidal Thoughts, Transitions, Trauma, Work Issues and Relationships

Interpersonal Therapy, Psychoanalytic Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy, Relational Therapy

Male

I work from my private practice in Brockley London SE4 and as an Associate Psychotherapist at a practice near the City. People I see come feeling unhappy and stuck. They may have begun to see patterns of behaviour, often in relationships such as recurring personal crises or periods of distance and separation, leaving them feeling alone, lost and let down or frustrated and angry. They may question or distrust their own feelings or lack of them and look to identify the causes of what comes across as mixed or mixed up emotional responses to other people.

It is often the resultant distress or the worry around isolation and unhappiness that spur the individual to seek help through counselling and therapy. For those who allow the anxiety or depression to build up or who have experienced some element of this all their lives, it becomes a major stumbling block and an embarrassment when they are not opening up to their full potential in life, making right choices, or taking up new opportunities or experiences. It can often be that they fear falling into despair or losing love in their life.

Many of these issues may stem from earlier childhood experiences and or the experience of trauma or abuse or even for whatever reason simply a lack of emotional content in their earlier lives. Lack of a real sense of identity may be an issue; that learnt behaviour and continued expectation from family, work and friends may not sit easily with the person that you feel you are; to move from a difficult and often painful balancing act to a sense of a more meaningful life and sense of well being can seem at times like a dangerous though yearned for option.

In therapy that more free sense of self can be opened up and developed while having support to test out needs and desires in life, in new relationships, with families and friends and in work life. It can offer a path to move through the often outmoded psychological defences against change towards a broader understanding and appreciation of ourselves and our personal life, taking account of culture, gender, age, sexuality, disability and feelings of difference.

Obsessive thoughts or behaviour and different forms of self harm often are linked to the pain of feeling at odds with oneself and a deep frustration that the world is not a place where personal concerns and emotions can easily be shared, understood or accepted, even by yourself. Equally difficulties can arise around managing food, misuse of drugs and alcohol, or simply a tendency to sadness, isolation and anxiety. Beginning to identify the level of the problem, and meet the psychological need expressed is the first step to recovery

Therapy provides a safe space where you can begin to express your concerns, anxieties and fears. These can then be addressed in the relationship that begins to be established with the therapist. It allows unmet needs to be known and deeper feelings and affections expressed, a process which helps to mould a more complete sense of personal well being and openness to relationship and life.

My method of working is known as psychoanalytic or sometimes psychodynamic. Overall it is a simple notion that what we feel and experience day to day has deeper connection to less familiar sentiments and attachments, which are the residue of past and early experience. Our earlier relationships, particularly those with our parents and carers are the building bocks of who we are and affect how we feel about ourselves and how we act and respond in our relationships and the social groups and communities to which we belong.

To secure our transition into adulthood we rely upon those earlier foundations to take us through the unfamiliar and demanding terrain of relationships in a complex world. This can be both beautiful and exciting yet that earlier strength will be the basis of securing a place in the world that offers up meaning to life, and value to our ambitions and what we do and achieve. Within all this process of development problems, usually within important relationships, they curtail the possibilities for a feeling of full belonging and self confidence in managing life.

The frustrations attached to this are combined with the difficult emotional feelings attached to those earlier experiences; these have become hidden to ourselves as revealing them would produce mixed feelings towards loved ones and associated feelings of shame and defensiveness. Yet it is these earlier difficulties that are getting in the way. That these difficult and often negative feelings then get tied into our present relationships and activities results in that feeling of being trapped.

To understand the deeper feelings with the therapist defuses their power and can provide an understanding and resolution to those earlier difficulties, giving a greater sense of engagement in the here and now and feeling of personal choice and direction. Therapy provides a safe and supportive space where those deeper connections can become known and where they can be talked through.

The theorists I consider in my work come from the British School of psychoanalysis, including thinkers on early child development and attachment such as Winnicott, Stern and Bowlby; also Bion, Freud, Juliet Mitchell, Bolas and others around significant processes that are realised to achieve transformation into mental well being. Equally Stephen Mitchell on the significance of involvement in relationship for therapeutic change.

There are few expectations from the therapist apart from those of 1) Agreeing the boundaries; these are the time of the session and the fee, the regularity (a minimum of once per week), the place, which is my consulting room in Brockley. 2 ) An initial assessment session where we meet so you can say what brings you to therapy and to agree a way forward. This is a chance for me to say how my approach can apply to the issues you are bringing. 3) A wish to give new meaning to deeper issues which are affecting your life through understanding their connection to earlier life experience.

My training was spread over eight years. Initially an MA in Psychotherapy with dissertation distinction at Goldsmiths College, University of London, supporting my work managing counselling services. Then a five year training with the Institute of Psychotherapy and Social Studies (IPSS) resulting in a Diploma in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and a further MA in Psychotherapy and Social Studies from LMU. The training was recognised and overseen by the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), which gave me the title of psychoanalytic psychotherapist and membership of the UKCP’s College of Psychoanalysts and Jungian Therapists (CPJA).

People come to therapy for many reasons but mainly with some pain, frustration or anger that at times can overwhelm them. A decision to approach a therapist is not taken lightly when at a critical point where emotions are high, or where life feels flat if many areas of life are too difficult to address alone or with friends and family. Some points of difficulty are more easily identifiable such as losing someone you love, others are not. Therapy gives you the space to look at this.