Evidence-based therapy, thoughtfully tailored to you.
There are many different types of psychological therapy, and understanding the names and acronyms can sometimes feel overwhelming. You don’t need to know which approach you need before getting in touch.
At Food For Thought Therapy, I draw from a range of evidence-based psychological therapies, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT), Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT-E), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for ARFID (CBT-AR), EMDR, Schema Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT) and Integrative Psychotherapy.
Rather than choosing a therapy simply because of a diagnosis or following the same protocol with everyone, we’ll begin by developing a shared understanding of what you’re experiencing, how it developed and what may be keeping it going. From there, we can consider which therapeutic approach, or combination of approaches, is most likely to be helpful.
Sometimes one therapy provides a clear framework for our work. At other times, drawing thoughtfully from several approaches allows us to respond to the complexity of the person rather than trying to fit the person into a particular model.
Therapy That Understands the Person, Not Just the Problem
Two people can experience the same difficulty for very different reasons.
Your experiences are shaped not only by symptoms or diagnoses, but by your relationships, learning history, culture, identity, neurodivergence, environment, values and what has happened in your life. Effective therapy needs to make room for that context.
This doesn’t mean simply combining techniques. Integration should always have a clinical rationale. The approaches we use will be guided by your individual formulation, the available evidence and what we understand together about the processes contributing to your difficulties.
Therapy is also collaborative. I’ll bring psychological knowledge, clinical experience and evidence-based approaches, whilst you bring something equally important: your experience of being you.
Together, we’ll decide what makes sense.
Explore the Therapies I Offer
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Understanding the relationships between thoughts, emotions, behaviours and experiences, and developing new ways of responding to the patterns that keep difficulties going.
Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT)
A specialist cognitive approach to OCD that focuses on how obsessional doubt develops and why imagined possibilities can begin to feel more convincing than information from the senses and reality.
CBT-E
A specialist form of CBT developed for eating disorders, focusing on the processes that maintain difficulties with eating, weight and shape.
CBT-AR
A specialist CBT approach for ARFID that helps us understand and address sensory sensitivity, fear of consequences and/or low interest in eating.
EMDR
An evidence-based therapy that helps the brain process distressing memories and experiences that continue to feel emotionally present.
EMDR Intensives
Longer, focused EMDR sessions offering more time for preparation and processing where an intensive format is clinically appropriate.
Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT)
An evidence-based therapy that helps people process traumatic memories, update painful meanings and beliefs, and reduce patterns of avoidance and threat that keep the past affecting the present.
Schema Therapy
Exploring deeper patterns and emotional needs that developed through our experiences and continue to influence how we see ourselves, other people and relationships.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Helping you develop a different relationship with difficult thoughts and emotions whilst building a life guided by your values rather than organised around avoiding discomfort.
Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)
Understanding shame and self-criticism through the lens of our evolved emotional systems and developing a more compassionate relationship with ourselves.
Integrative Psychotherapy
A relational and flexible approach that brings together different therapeutic perspectives to understand you within the wider context of your experiences, relationships and life.
Which Therapy Is Right for Me?
You don’t need to decide this yourself.
Some people come to therapy already knowing they would like to explore a particular approach, whilst others simply know that something isn’t working and want help understanding why. Both are completely valid starting points.
During assessment, we’ll begin developing a shared map of what you’re experiencing and discuss the approaches that may be most helpful. Recommendations will always be collaborative, and I’ll explain why I think a particular approach may fit rather than simply giving you another therapy acronym to navigate.
How Do We Start?
If you’re considering therapy but aren’t sure which approach might be right for you, you’re welcome to book a free 15-minute discovery call or arrange.
We can talk briefly about what you’re looking for support with, what you hope might change and whether the therapies I offer are likely to be a good fit. If we decide to work together, we’ll develop our understanding from there rather than expecting you to arrive already knowing what kind of therapy you need.
You don’t need to choose the right therapy before you begin. We start by understanding you, and decide on the approach together.