Mental Health Problems We Can Help With

Abuse

Abuse can take many forms, physical, sexual, emotional/psychological.  All have a devastating effect on the victim.

Addiction

An addiction is an uncontrollable urge to engage in a behaviour that is either physically, emotionally, socially and/or financially harmful. Addictions include substance misuse (e.g. alcohol and drugs), gambling, sex, pornography, food, self harm, exercise, shopping, playing videos.

ADHD

ADHD can have a significant effect on many aspects of life. School, higher education, work and careers, home life and family and relationships are all likely to be affected by ADHD.

Alcohol Problems

Alcohol is a very common way of coping with life problems and the negative emotions that they trigger.  In the short term alcohol is very effective in numbing the pain of distress and depression but over the longer term it has a negative impact on our physical and mental health, relationships, work and general ability to fulfil our potential and lead a happy and fulfilling life.

Anger

Anger is an emotion that we all feel and one that serves a very important protective function, it alerts us to the mistreatment of ourselves and others.  In this sense anger is very important for our survival however, anger is a powerful emotion and can sometimes overwhelm us leading us to behave in very (self) destructive ways.

Anxiety

Anxiety can be a very normal and necessary response to life events, it allows us to be alert to threats, motivates us to act and improves our performance e.g. revising before an exam or preparing before an important meeting. However sometimes anxiety occurs in the absence of an impending event that would generally be considered ‘anxiety provoking’ and starts to interfere with your ability to do the things that you should or would like to be doing.

Behavioural Problems

People of any age can struggle with a behavioural problem, when we talk about behavioural problems in adults we are usually referring to unhealthy behaviours like smoking, alcohol, substance misuse or gambling.  This page deals with behavioural problems seen in children and teenagers.

Bereavement

Grief is a natural and necessary process following the death of a loved one, it draws our focus inwards and allows us to reconfigure our lives in the absence of the person that has died and move forward without them, whilst still holding them in our mind. Despite its necessity grief can be painful beyond words, it reminds us how fragile life is and how vulnerable we are and can make life seem meaningless.

Cancer

A diagnosis of cancer presents us with a multitude of emotional challenges that are sometimes easy to overlook when we are faced with such devastating physical ones.  However, addressing the emotional and psychological challenges that accompany a diagnosis of cancer will make a significant difference to how you are able to manage the physical ones.

Carers

Caring for someone, especially someone that you love, can be both physically and emotionally challenging.  It is therefore often the case that carers need support themselves, often in the form of counselling in order to continue to provide care to their loved one without that care having a detrimental impact on their own physical and mental health.

Child & Education Services – Stamford, Oakham, Uppingham, and Oundle

We provide a full range of educational and behavioural support for your child and family through their education career and beyond.

Children & Teenagers

Teenagers face many challenges, not only must they adapt to significant physical changes in their bodies but also to the increasing demands and expectations of society.  This makes adolescence and early adulthood a common time for the emergence of mental health problems including anxiety, depression, eating disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

There is no blood test or brain scan that can be used to diagnose Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) so diagnosis is based on the presence of persistent mental and physical fatigue that is not due to ongoing exertion or another medical condition and is not relieved by rest.

Chronic Migraines

A migraine is a moderate to severe headache that is accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light and sound and lasts for between 2 and 72 hours. In addition, some sufferers report experiencing a disturbance to vision, hearing, speech and/or physical movement prior to the onset of a migraine. Migraines are classed as chronic if the sufferers experiencing symptoms for more than 15 days of the month. Women are three times more likely to suffer from migraines than men.

Depression & Low Mood

By 2020 depression will be the second most disabling condition in the World after heart disease. A significant number of sufferers will go undiagnosed and therefore untreated.

Doctors & Healthcare Professionals

The professional responsibility of caring for others presents both intellectual and emotional challenges and these are sometimes hard to balance with the demands of a personal life.

Eating Disorders

An Eating Disorder is a way of coping with uncomfortable emotions triggered by, amongst other things, difficult or distressing experiences, overwhelming pressure/expectations and low self-esteem.  A focus on controlling eating and weight gives the sufferer a goal that takes them away from problems in life, or within themselves that feel unmanageable and inescapable, and provides them with a sense of control and potential achievement in the face of fear or failure and negative evaluation by others (and themselves).

Types of Eating Disorders Include:

Elite Athletes

Many professional sports men and women are reluctant to seek help due the stigma attached to mental health problems, a lack of information about how such problems can interfere with their performance and a perception that getting help is a sign of weakness.
We offer Confidential Mental Health Services both face to face in one of our many clinics as well as via Skype, so no matter where in the world you are, you have access to our confidential services.

We have helped a number of professional sports men and women from a variety of sports including (but not limited to):

Families

Family dynamics have a pivotal role to play in the problems of individual family members and to collective family unhappiness and distress.  Often is it not sufficient to just focus on the individual member of a family (e.g. the child or adolescent) who is overtly struggling with a particular emotion (anxiety, depression) or behavioural problem (bed wetting, child refusing to go to school).  Instead of seeing the individual’s symptoms as an expression of an internal conflict it can be more useful to see it as serving a function in balancing or unbalancing relationships within the family.

Gambling

Compulsive gambling is the uncontrollable urge to gamble despite the negative impact that it has on you, your life, your friends and family. Compulsive gambling is generally a way of coping with other seemingly unsolvable problems, past or present. The ‘buzz’ of placing a bet creates a short term distraction from the unsolvable problem which quickly dissipates and must be repeated over and over in order to maintain the distraction.

Infertility

Becoming a parent is one of the major transitions in adult life for both men and women and the stress of not being able to experience this has been associated with a range of psychological problems including anger, depression, anxiety, feelings of defectiveness and incompetence, relationship problems, sexual dysfunction and social isolation.

Jealousy & Insecurity

If we feel insecure we are more likely to feel jealous, whether this is within a relationship or just of what others have that we have not. Either way jealousy can be a very destructive emotion and one that can have an extremely negative impact on us, our lives and those around us.

Life Changes & General Dissatisfaction

Do you feel dissatisfied with your life?  Do you feel like you need to make a change but you aren’t quite sure what that change should be?  Do you rarely feel content or at peace?  Do you look at other people’s life and think that they are better off than you?  Do you feel that you should have achieved more than you have?  Did you envisage a different life for yourself than the one you are living?

Low Self Esteem

Low self-esteem is at the root of many of our problems.  It can sabotage relationships and careers, cause self- destructive behaviours and hold us back from achieving our full potential.  It is a key feature of many mental health problems including depression, anxiety and eating disorders.

Miscarriage

Sadly, for many women miscarriage is a part of having a family.  With 1 in 3 pregnancies ending in miscarriage most women who have had 2 or more children will have experienced at least one.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder with two essential characteristics:

• Recurrent and persistent thoughts ideas and feelings (referred to as obsessive thoughts)
• Repetitive, ritualised behaviours (referred to as compulsions or compulsive behaviours)

Attempts to resist a compulsive behaviour produces mounting tension and anxiety, which are relieved immediately by giving in and carrying out the behaviour.  The term is not properly used for behaviours like excessive drinking, gambling, eating etc. on the grounds that the ‘compulsive gambler’ for example, actually derives considerable pleasure from gambling (it’s the losing that hurts); one burdened with a true Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) derives no pleasure from it other than the release of tension.

Overseas Students

Studying overseas can be both exciting and challenging. Faced with meeting new people, adapting to a new culture, improving your language skills and studying whilst being away from home, friends, family and everything that is familiar it is easy to feel overwhelmed.

Panic Attacks

A Panic Attack is a distinct episode of anxiety, the onset of which is sudden, and the duration relatively short.  During a panic attack symptoms of anxiety are severe, intense and overwhelming, so much so that many people end up in A&E fearing that they are having a heart attack.  Repeated Panic Attacks, where an individual’s biggest fear is having another Panic Attack and where this fear is interfering with their ability to do everyday things, is called Panic Disorder.

Paranoia

Being constantly suspicious and distrustful of others can have a seriously detrimental impact on your life, relationships and ability to meet your commitment and responsibilities. 

Parents

As parents we are the architects of our children’s personalities and the single biggest influence in their lives.  This is a responsibility for which we receive no training and more often than not little guidance and support.

Physical Pain

The experience of chronic or persistent physical pain is not simply the result of the underlying physiological cause but a combination of the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that accompany it. This explains why it if often not sufficient to treat only the physical aspects of pain (e.g. via analgesics).

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychological disorder associated with a serious traumatic event e.g. car crash, personal assaults, life threatening experiences. Children may also exhibit physical symptoms including stomach aches and headaches.

Professional Footballers

We provide discrete and fully confidential services to elite footballers in the Premier League, playing overseas, and in the Middle East.

Rape Victims

Rape and sexual assault is physically and psychologically traumatising and can have a devastating impact on the lives of those effected.

Relationship Problems

You may be finding it increasingly difficult to talk to each other, maybe you cannot agree on anything and are constantly bickering and arguing. Maybe you are finding it difficult to trust each other or just feel that there is no longer any warmth or closeness in your relationship. Maybe you have children and are concerned about the impact that your relationship is having on them?

Couples Counselling is for couples wanting to resolve their difficulties, improve their relationship and recapture what existed between them when they first met.

Self Harm

Self harm involves a person injuring themselves in some way.  Self harm has two forms, the first involves a discrete episode where the individual hurts themselves by cutting, burning, hitting or poisoning.  The second type of Self Harm involves ongoing mistreatment that has become part of an almost daily routine for example alcohol abuse or an eating disorder.

Sleep Therapy

A Sleep Problem or Insomnia is a chronic inability to sleep normally. A Sleep Problem/Insomnia will usually involve one of the following: difficulty falling asleep, frequent waking in the night, early morning waking or difficulty falling back to sleep once awake.

Stress

Stress is a pressure that we cannot cope with or that is overwhelming us.  Stress has an impact on every aspect of our lives; it disrupts our thinking patterns making it harder for us to consider things in a calm, clear and measured way, it effects how we feel leaving us physically tense and emotionally volatile, intolerant and exhausted and it interferes with normal patterns of behaviours including sleeping, eating and sex drive.