What I offer

Call 07504 269 855 or click on email address contact@ianpittawaytherapy.uk

Feeling stuck in life can be distressing and overwhelming. Sometimes we can feel helpless, not knowing how to move forward. This is where counselling or psychotherapy can help. What is most important to me is to offer a safe, non-judgemental space, to hear your story and value your experience. My role as therapist is to work with you supportively. Together, we will seek to understand what brought you to where you are. We will notice your patterns of thought, behaviour and emotional processes. With the support of a caring therapist, once emotional and cognitive patterns are understood, we can understand what is blocking you and what you need to move forward.

I work with all presentations of emotional distress, and specialise in personal trauma, including post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression and bereavement.

I have been involved in self-development and creative insight my whole adult life, working in educational, artistic and psychotherapeutic contexts. My psychotherapeutic practise is integrative, which means I use a mix of approaches (including transactional analysis, object relations, person centred therapy and self-psychology). This gives me a broad range of therapeutic viewpoints to draw on, as is appropriate at any given time with any individual person.

This can only be done well in a welcoming, safe, caring, confidential environment, and so we meet in a dedicated therapy room. Often insights emerge and the way forward grows just by talking openly and exploring emotions, at the same time noticing our physical responses, since emotions are carried in the body. For those who need or prefer additional ways of expression, I use charts, photographs, postcards, objects such as Russian dolls, music, and any creative suggestions emerging from client work.

I try, as much as possible, to be available when clients are free. I can therefore offer some evening appointments. Anyone over 16 years old is welcome. We begin with a brief phone consultation to find out what your hopes are for therapy. We then meet for 60 minute weekly sessions, usually in person in Stourbridge, with secure online video or phone sessions also possible. The first one or two sessions are an initial assessment, during which I gain an overall picture of your story and your therapeutic needs. The rest of the sessions are shaped by your needs.

The following is not an exhaustive list, but issues that clients frequently present include:

• abuse – emotional and physical
• anger (article here)
• anxiety, stress and trauma (articles here and here)
• bereavement and loss (articles here and here)
• depression (article here)
• family dynamics (article here)
• infertility and its emotional impact
• low self-confidence or self-esteem
• relationship issues (articles here and here)
• sexual issues, such as sex addiction or non-organic sexual dysfunction (i.e. with an emotional rather than biological cause)
• emotional trauma (articles here, here and here)
• work-related stress

If you have further questions, you may find the answer on the Frequently Asked Questions page. You may also find an article helpful, Is counselling or psychotherapy for me?, available by clicking here. If you have further questions, please be in touch through the contact page.