John’s depression, is not the same as Jack’s depression, Jim’s depression, Jo’s depression, Jenny’s depression or Janet’s depression.

Depression is one of the commonest reasons why people seek therapy, but we find that this it has become word commonly used to describe common feelings like loneliness, grief, boredom and even sadness.

Statistics tell us that depression affects 1 in 5 of us but statistics tend to ignore the individual nature of your problem. Bereavement, stress, guilt, financial difficulties, break ups, retirement, perceived failures, simple changes in our lives – there are so many causes for depression, we find it pointless to think about it in generic terms. Each individual requires personal attention, so our approach is to guide you to your own understanding of your depression.

If you are having trouble getting out of bed in the morning, finding a reason to do anything apart from scrolling on your phone or you find yourself in tears and you’re not sure why, then we can work with you to explore what might be the underlying cause.

Anxiety can be thought of as fear of something that has already happened.

We can show our anxieties through our tempers, with stomach ulcers or psoriasis and by punishing our bodies with excessive drinking or obsessive exercise regimes. The same question always applies – why am I doing this to myself?

We find the answer is frequently related to fear – fear that may be translated into anger or derived from shame, fear that relates to a non-existent risk or to a long-gone danger, fear that is a trepidation that has spiralled into terror.

Just as we sometimes needed someone to turn on the light to check for monsters under the bed, it can be a relief to talk about your feelings with another person. We are there to help you to think about how you feel and make sure that your behaviour is led by thoughts rather than your emotions.

With our assistance, you can check to see if you really need to be as anxious as you are.

Life may be hard to do on your own, but it’s harder to do it with someone else.

"Where do I fit in?" "Nobody likes me." "Why do I hate my mother?" "Am I normal?" We are all born of parents, and we are led to assume that the prime reason for living is to find a partner and become parents in our own right. Our identities are defined by the groups that we belong to, by the gangs, teams, bands and families that we are part of. And by shared political views, common beliefs, ethics, sense of nationality and our relationships with our planet.

With the importance that we put on our relationships with others, there is little wonder how much distress is caused when they don't run according to plan. But when there is more than one person involved, whose plans are we talking about?

It is when things go wrong that an independent perspective is so useful. It may be to find a compromise that enables the relationship to continue or to accept that your identity no long fits in – a change in how you feel about yourself needs to be navigated. If you are a balance between how you see yourself and how you feel others see you, then you are going to an independent, no judgemental other help you to rebalance yourself.

Negotiating endings and the beginnings of life after loss.

Therapy invariably involves working with change – either a change that we did not want, forced upon us or feeling stuck in a rut and needing a helping hand to enable a change.

No matter how familiar we are with losing, every so often, we need someone to help us with the change between before the loss and after -that sense of emptiness when someone or something that we once had is no longer with us. Be it the death of a loved one or a someone that we admired, or the end of a part of your life, a marriage, a retirement or moving house, we need to adjust both our aspirations to accommodate the new future and our memories to update the past.

It is much easier to make these changes with someone who can hold your sense of who you were and who you thought you would be while you work out what is lost and what can be kept.