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Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist in London
Marina Christoforidou, BSc MA
Is the demanding pace of modern life leaving you drained and dissatisfied? Are you finding it hard to move on from a traumatic event? Do unhelpful thoughts hold you back?
Therapy is providing you with a safe space to think, explore and find ways to cope with your emotional difficulties.
Psychotherapy
The hectic pace and demands of modern life can leave us feeling drained and disillusioned. Sometimes we slip into unhelpful ways of thinking that hinder our ability to cope with everyday challenges.
What is Psychoanalytic-Psychodynamic Psychotherapy?
Psychoanalytic-Psychodynamic Psychotherapy is an effective therapeutic approach that helps people make sense of and deal with emotional difficulties.
Freud, who recognised the importance of the unconscious during everyday encounters, developed this therapeutic approach.
Psychoanalysis has vastly developed since Freud’s era, but continues to keep the unconscious mind at its core.
What’s the unconscious mind?
How many times have you promised yourself not to repeat the same mistakes or had those same unhelpful thoughts that make you feel deflated and stuck in a vicious cycle? These are moments your unconscious takes over.
The unconscious is the part of your mind that’s less accessible to the conscious, rational mind. But it’s the more hidden part of your mind that contributes to important decision-making – often without the consent of your conscious mind.
Wondering ‘what was I really thinking?’ or ‘was I even thinking?’”
How can Psychoanalytic- Psychodynamic Psychotherapy help me?
Psychoanalytic-Psychodynamic Psychotherapy encourages you to become aware of your unconscious mind, putting you in touch with the inner world that influences your behaviour, thoughts and feelings.
This type of psychotherapy involves talking to someone who is trained to listen and think in a sensitive way. Your relationship with your therapist is crucial to the success of psychotherapy.
It’s important to have a confidential and private setting where you feel comfortable sharing difficult thoughts and feelings, so you can start exploring ways of healing and enriching your relationship with yourself and others.
Services
Do you suffer from depression or anxiety? Are emotional difficulties dragging you down? Do you feel hopeless? Will your relationship with your child give them the best start?
These are all challenges I’ve helped people manage over the years, by encouraging them to understand themselves so they can they live more fulfilled.
For You
In an ever-rushed and demanding world, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to understand, think and communicate in ways that help others and ourselves.
These difficulties are expressed in many different forms, including:
- Anxiety and an inability to focus or cope with everyday tasks.
- Emptiness, sadness and depression.
- Extreme mood swings or angry outbursts.
- Low self-esteem or lack of confidence, linked with feelings of worthlessness and self-loathing.
- Difficulties making or sustaining relationships, or repeating unsatisfying, destructive or violent relationships.
- Sexual problems.
- Isolation and loneliness.
- Addictive or obsessive behaviour, perhaps related to alcohol, drugs, sex or gambling.
- Instant and long-term difficulties coping following a major event such as bereavement, divorce, job loss, miscarriage, motherhood.
- Sleep problems like insomnia or excessive fatigue.
- Panic attacks.
- Eating disorders.
- Psychosomatic illnesses… and much more.
For You and Your Infant
How your child is raised has a profound influence on their future, so it’s important to build a solid relationship from the start.
The first years of a baby’s life are crucial for their future development. The firmer the foundations in the early stages, the better prepared they are for the future.
Your child’s brain develops rapidly during these first years, so it’s important they have a nurturing environment to help them fulfil their potential, as they grow from a toddler through to adolescence and adulthood.
The pace of infant’s brain development during the early years is dramatic. At birth the baby’s brain is 25% of its adult weight and by the time the baby is two years old it has increased to 75% of adult weight. At birth, the human brain is in a remarkably unfinished state. Most of its 100 billion neurons are not yet connected in networks
While their speech develops, infants primarily use body language to communicate their needs and feelings. As they adapt to their environment, they are very receptive to your emotional state and body language.
To help you adapt to and understand each other, I provide private sessions to enrich communication between you both in a safe and comfortable environment. The main aim is to help you understand your child’s body language better, so you can feel more confident fulfilling their needs. This helps develop a deeper bond that will benefit you both.
For Practitioners
Are you a mental health professional needing clinical supervision so you can take your service to the next level?
I work with social workers, counsellors, psychotherapists and a host of other mental health professionals who practice within a psychodynamic framework.
An initial consultation meeting would be arranged to discuss the frequency of the supervision sessions that is needed.
Online Therapy
Should a disability, working commitments or distance make it hard for you to visit my consultation room in London, I offer online therapy.
Sessions take place online, so you can be based anywhere in the UK or abroad.
A thorough initial consultation would be arranged to decide if online therapy is the type of therapy that suits you and your needs.
It’s also possible to provide clinical supervision to qualified practitioners in this same way.
About our sessions
They generally last 50 minutes and fees vary between £80 to £100, depending on the frequency of the sessions. A low-fee scheme and other concessions might also be possible for your situation.
During our initial consultation, we’ll agree a regular day and time for the sessions to take place.
About me
Offering over 15 years’ experience in NHS and private care roles and full Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist training, my aim is helping people understand themselves so they can lead a more fulfilled life.
How I help others
Depression, anxiety, eating disorders, lack of excitement and meaning, relationship difficulties, helplessness, hopelessness, diaspora and migration – these are all challenges I help my clients think about and manage.
Why people trust me
In addition to my work experience, which has seen me work in different roles across the NHS, Family County Courts, residential homes and privately, I’m a fully trained practitioner.
Qualified as a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist by the British Psychotherapy Foundation (BPF), I’m also trained in Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT) by the Anna Freud Centre and attended the Parental Embodied Mentalizing training also at the Anna Freud Centre.
Alongside my private practice, I hold the position of Associate Lecturer at the Tavistock and Portman NHS trust.
I’m registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) and practice under the BPC ethical framework.