Researching therapy can be confusing. There are so many abbreviations – CBT, CFT, EMDR – and modalities you may never have heard of. Once you’ve deciphered what everything means, how do you know which approach is right for you?
The good news is you don’t need to have all the answers before coming to therapy – we’ll figure out the best approach together. But if you want to arrive at your first session with a clear idea of what’s available, this article is for you.
Below, you’ll find a brief overview of the modalities I offer, links to more information, and some insight into how I decide which approach (or approaches) to use in your treatment.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
What is CBT?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a practical, goal-oriented therapy designed to help people identify and change thought patterns and behaviours that are contributing to distress and keeping them stuck.
How It Works
CBT tends to be structured and skills focused. It helps people recognise the links between their thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. This involves developing a formulation of how problems have developed and how they are currently being maintained.
The formulation then guides treatment. It is essentially a roadmap that highlights where changes can be made. From here, I’ll help you undermine the strength of negative thinking patterns and encourage you to start experimenting with new ways of approaching things.
Who Can Benefit from CBT?
CBT has a vast evidence base and is recommended by The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) as the treatment of choice for a wide range of difficulties. I have personally found it to be most effective for treating health anxiety, panic attacks, OCD and phobias.
Read What is CBT and How Does Work? to learn more.
Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)
What is CFT?
Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) is an approach designed to help people work through difficult emotions, particularly shame, self-criticism, and low self-esteem. It integrates principles from cognitive-behavioural therapy, neuroscience, and evolutionary psychology to create a holistic approach that leads to healing and growth.
How It Works
CFT harnesses our understanding of the mind to rewire how we respond to distress. It helps people notice when primitive parts of the brain are taking over (which they often do when we feel vulnerable) and replace self-criticism with more positive, nurturing responses to themselves.
Who Can Benefit from CFT?
This therapy is very beneficial for people who struggle with shame, guilt, and self-criticism. Thess things frequently underlie many of the difficulties I see in the therapy room, including perfectionism, anxiety problems, low-confidence, trauma or burnout.
Read Self-Compassion – The Missing Ingredient When You’re Running on Empty to learn more
Schema Therapy
What is Schema Therapy?
Schema therapy goes deeper than CBT, looking at the long-standing patterns, called schemas, that developed in childhood in response to unmet emotional needs. Schemas are beliefs we hold about ourselves and the world (‘I’m not good enough’, ‘I have to be perfect to be loved’, or ‘I can’t trust people’). Although these beliefs were once protective, they now drive unhelpful patterns in our adult relationships, work, and emotional lives.
How It Works
A schema therapist may use experiential techniques, imagery, and limited reparenting as part of your treatment, setting this modality apart from CBT.
Who Can Benefit from Schema Therapy?
This approach is ideal for people who find themselves stuck in unhelpful relationship patterns or who struggle with unresolved trauma, low self-worth, and difficulties trusting people.
I’ve found this approach also works well for clients who have tried therapy in the past but still feel stuck and unsure about why they keep doing certain things. Schema therapy is often the missing piece, helping to heal past wounds, build healthier relationships, and develop a greater sense of self-worth.
Read How Schema Therapy Enhances CBT to learn more
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)
What is EMDR Therapy?
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) can sound unusual when you first hear about it, but its evidence base is now substantial. In my experience, it can produce shifts that feel almost remarkable in the treatment of trauma.
How It Works
EMDR works by using bilateral stimulation (side-to-side eye movements) while you briefly bring a distressing memory to mind. This process mimics what the brain does naturally during REM sleep, helping it ‘reprocess’ memories that have become ‘stuck’ and are being stored with their original distress intact rather than integrated as past events.
Unlike talking therapies, EMDR doesn’t require you to describe your trauma in detail which many clients find a relief. Rather than talking through what happened, you process it at a neurological level.
Who Can Benefit from EMDR Therapy?
EMDR is primarily used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It’s effective for single-incident trauma like accidents or assaults and complex trauma from repeated experiences.
There is also growing evidence that it can be used as part of the treatment for other difficulties such as panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, phobias and depression – particularly when these issues are linked to traumatic or adverse life experiences.
Read EMDR Therapy Explained to learn more.
How Do I Decide Which Approach to Use?
This is a collaborative process that begins at our very first session. I’ll be listening for several things – what’s brought you to therapy now, how long you’ve been struggling, what’s already been tried, and how you relate to yourself. We’ll also explore your answers to the following questions:
How acute is the distress? If you’re in the grip of a panic disorder that’s affecting daily life, we may start with practical CBT skills to stabilise things before going deeper. While CBT can be very symptom focused, sometimes this is exactly what’s needed. In times of distress, strategies and concepts that are easy to retain can be super helpful.
Is there trauma present? Even when trauma isn’t the presenting issue, it’s often part of the picture. EMDR becomes relevant when distressing memories feel raw, intrusive, or ‘stuck’.
How much self-criticism is present? For clients with a particularly harsh inner critic (often high achievers who hold themselves to relentless standards), CFT provides a framework that CBT alone doesn’t fully address.
Are the patterns long-standing? When someone describes a lifelong sense of not being good enough, or recurring relationship difficulties they can’t quite explain, schema therapy gives us a map for understanding where those patterns began.
I also pay attention to what resonates with you as a person. Some clients want practical tools and a structured approach. Others need something that feels more exploratory and relational.
Can We Combine Modalities?
Yes! Therapy isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula. In practice, I rarely work from a single modality. Most of the work I do is schema-informed and compassion-focused at its core, with elements of CBT woven in when practical tools are needed and EMDR when trauma processing is required.
For example, a client presenting with burnout and anxiety might work on schema patterns around overcompensation and self-sacrifice (Schema Therapy), develop a more compassionate relationship with their own needs (CFT), and use structured techniques to interrupt the anxiety cycle day-to-day (CBT). If there’s a history of difficult experiences that still feel live and distressing, EMDR Therapy might also become part of the work.
This integrated approach means therapy isn’t just about symptom management – it’s about understanding yourself more fully, shifting patterns that are keeping you stuck, and building a different relationship with yourself from the inside out.
Therapy to Help You Heal
With more than 18 years’ experience in the field of mental health, I help clients understand the patterns of thinking and behaving that have been driving their actions for decades. By connecting past experiences to your present struggles, we create lasting transformation.
I regularly support people experiencing specific psychological difficulties such as PTSD, OCD, panic attacks, and depression. I also help clients struggling with low confidence, excessive worry, burnout, and the sense that the same painful patterns keep repeating. If these things sound familiar, please get in touch. I also share mental health education via Instagram.
