Psychological Assessment

Whatever the circumstances, thoughts and emotions can become overwhelming and difficult to understand and manage, particularly when we reflect upon them alone.

The behaviours we demonstrate when overwhelmed may have a negative impact upon ourselves and those around us, therefore increasing our stress and distress. For example, we may feel unhappy in our relationships, relationships may breakdown, we may have extreme perfectionism or a need for control, we may experience chronic pain or other physical health problems. Past events and on going life challenges impact upon our physical and emotional well-being, for example feeling unhappy as we reflect upon ourselves as not good enough, the grief, anger and regret we feel for the bereaved, the loss of relationships, opportunities, jobs and sometimes, time.

We offer an opportunity to talk about what happened, what is happening and your hopes for the future. Together, we will listen, reflect and make sense of your experiences with compassion and curiosity. This supports you to facilitate change, enables you to understand your emotional distress, whilst effectively maintaining your well being. We will map this in a “formulation”. A formulation is our shared understanding, which can and often does, change over time, as our understanding of our experiences grows and develops. This formulation allows us to cultivate very personal strategies that utilise your skills and strengths to develop additional strategies to make different choices when faced with future challenges. We can also help others to understand your distress or challenges, so that they can support you better, for example, we can share the formulation, with consent, with family members, school, etc to enable them to make the necessary changes. A shared understanding of your previous life experiences and ongoing life experiences, leads towards a path of hope, acceptance, adjustment and facilitates change.