CBT with Andrea Carroll

I am a fully accredited Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist (CBT Therapist for short!) My aim is to provide a supportive, therapeutic service for people who are funding their own Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or who have had CBT authorised through an insurance company.

I have a long history of working in the caring professions with both a general and mental health nursing background. I qualified as a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist from Oxford University in 2010. Whilst I enjoy treating a wide range of disorders (depression; postnatal depression; anxiety; health anxiety; social anxiety; phobias; low self- esteem; obsessive compulsive disorder; post-traumatic stress disorder; bereavement) I have a special interest in the psychological difficulties that can affect women in pregnancy, birth and the year after birth. This includes birth trauma and loss.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is recommended by NICE (The Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) as an evidence-based talking therapy for a wide range of emotional and physical health conditions.

It provides a unique framework for you and your therapist to establish a shared understanding of your current difficulties and acknowledge the good reasons for why your problems may have begun. It is possible that you may have been trying your best to cope for some time and it can feel very hard to give an open and honest account of how things really are. This is very important for you and your therapist to acknowledge and regular feedback about how you are finding the sessions is part of the ‘open’ nature of CBT. Therapy is designed to help you look at the wider picture and be curious about whether the way you think about certain things (the cognitive part) and what you do in response to your thoughts (the behavioural bit) have a role to play in the things you are struggling with and if so, whether there are alternative strategies you could explore with your therapist that might lead to an improvement in how you feel. Regular reviews of personal therapy goals will help you to reflect on your new learning and help you decide what might be helpful to continue to practice when therapy ends.

Whilst I prefer to meet with clients face to face for individual CBT, I am able to provide some telephone sessions in certain circumstances.

For an informal chat or to book an appointment, please contact me on 07787 820824

Alternatively you can e-mail me at andrea.carroll@chilterncbt.com