Judith Robertson - Individual Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Consulting Rooms (by appointment)
76 Crawthew Grove | East Dulwich | London | SE22 9AB | UK

General Availability

Weekday Daytimes, Weekday Evenings

UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) Registered Psychotherapist - Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist

I provide Face to Face Psychotherapy in East Dulwich, London

I offer fees on a sliding scale depending on your financial situation (no proof required).
Individuals: first session set at £45.00, subsequent appointments between £35.00 and £55.00 - 50 minutes.
Approximate length of therapy: ongoing
Languages: English

I offer Private Psychotherapy Services for these Issues

Abuse, Addiction to Love and Sex, Addictions, Alcohol Dependence, Anger, Anorexia Nervosa, Anxiety, Assertiveness, Bereavement, Bisexual Issues, Bulimia Nervosa, Bullying, Childhood Issues, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) (ME), Codependency, Couple Relationships, Creativity, Cultural Issues, Debt, Depression, Disability, Divorce, Domestic Violence, Drug Abuse, Eating Disorders, Fear, Gambling, Gay Issues, Grief, History of Mental Health Problems, HIV and AIDS, Hysteria, Identity, Impotency, Infertility, Inhibitions, Integration of Experience, Lack of Meaning in Life, Lesbian Issues, Loss, Low Self Confidence, Low Self Esteem, Men's Issues, Mixed Race Issues, Mother and Baby Issues, Obsessions, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Attacks, Parenting, Personal Growth, Personal Relationships, Personality Difficulties, Personality Disorders (PD), Phobias, Physical Illness, Post Natal Depression (PND), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Pregnancy, Psychosexual Issues, Psychosomatic Symptoms, Racial Abuse, Rape, Redundancy, Same Sex Relationships, Self Development, Self Harm, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Behaviour, Sexuality, Sleep Problems, Social Phobia, Spirituality, Stress, Suicidal Thoughts, Transitions, Trauma, Workplace Issues and Work Relationship Problems

My Psychotherapy Therapeutic Approaches

Psychoanalytic Therapy, Relational Therapy

Gender

Female

Clinical Experience in Psychotherapy

I have had a long and varied career working in mental health within the NHS, where I became involved in counselling and psychotherapy, including experience with various groups, anxiety management and family therapy. I also worked as an honorary psychotherapist at the Maudsley Hospital. Now, and for the last nine years, I work as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice in East Dulwich. I see up to ten clients twice or three times a week. They come from a diversity of backgrounds and cultures. People refer themselves with such issues as failing relationships, an inability to form relationships, whether in their personal lives or at work, or a feeling of stuckness, where they seem unable to move on from their past. I find it satisfying exploring issues with them in ways that they can relate to, often overcoming shame, and using language and metaphor that gives them a better understanding.

What to Expect during Psychotherapy

Counselling or psychotherapy? We all have times when we feel out of control of a situation or we don’t know where to turn. At such times it is useful to consider finding someone who will help us unravel the situation, take some of the emotion out of it. This may be a counsellor, but if the problems keep recurring, then a psychoanalytic psychotherapist will help you look more deeply at the situation, considering some of the unconscious as well as the conscious issues.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is particularly valuable for those people who feel uncomfortable within themselves. They may suffer from low self-esteem or a lack of confidence, perhaps as a result of childhood difficulties; these difficulties may seem minor now but were not so to the child, or may have a cumulative effect. A person may be aware of unsuccessful patterns of behaviour yet continue to repeat them, seeming unable to break them. Other people come to psychotherapy because of vague, more diffuse but very real distress, which may have been around for years. Some come because they wish to know themselves better.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is based on the belief that we are all moulded by our upbringing, and that the very earliest years of childhood affect how we cope with our adult life. Patterns are set up in our childhood and we tend to repeat those patterns in our subsequent relationships, which may lead to emotional problems and conflict. These patterns will probably be repeated with the therapist, too.

I use object relations theory as a basis for formulating what may be happening in the sessions; this is a diverse collection of theories but which holds that we all need to form relationships, rather than seeing human behaviour as satisfying instinctive needs, as Freud tended to. Object relations considers the person as having relationships both to external and internal 'objects', the people we relate to and our internal representation of people, past and present. I am informed by the writings of Winnicott and Klein mainly, with some Bowlby and Fairbairn.

Through working together with the psychotherapist, emotional problems, conflicts and personal difficulties can be explored, as are their possible links with the past. The psychotherapist provides a confidential, neutral place where feelings, conflicts and dilemmas can be explored through the client talking freely, including bringing dreams to the session. Most people feel some apprehension at first, but there is no right or wrong thing to say. It is very much a place for you to learn more about yourself.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is hard work! It needs to be incorporated into your routine, and involves between one and three sessions per week, probably for eighteen months or more.

Clinical Qualifications in Psychotherapy

UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) Registered Psychotherapist - Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist since 1999
MA Individual Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy - Institute of Psychotherapy and Social Studies (IPSS) London (UK) 1999

I am committed to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in Psychotherapy. I abide by the Code of Ethics of the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and the Code of Ethics of the Institute of Psychotherapy and Social Studies (IPSS) London.

Additional Information

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Thank you. Judith Robertson.

Consulting Rooms (by appointment)
76 Crawthew Grove | East Dulwich | London | SE22 9AB | UK

My Consulting Address is in easy reach of: East Dulwich, Dulwich, Nunhead, Herne Hill, Herne Hill , Camberwell, New Cross Gate, Peckham, Brockley, Forest Hill, Honor Oak Park, Brixton, West Dulwich, Tulse Hill, Walworth, New Cross, Stockwell, South Bermonsey, Elephant And Castle, Oval

Nearest Train Stations: East Dulwich, Peckham Rye, North Dulwich, Nunhead, Denmark Hill, Queens Road (Peckham), Loughborough Junction, Herne Hill, Honor Oak Park, West Dulwich

Nearest London Underground Tube Stations: New Cross Gate, Brixton, New Cross, Oval, Stockwell

Wheelchair access: Yes