What can a psychologist help with?
Psychologists work with everyday people to provide a forum for goal setting, problem-solving, improving and maintaining quality of life.
The Psychologist's role is to provide support using evidence-based strategies and provide information that helps people to deal with issues that affect their well-being and relationships with others, which can as a result impact on their routines, and completion of important activities of daily living.
Our Psychologists are trained in a number of person and family-centred therapies including traditional therapies, and contemporary styles for clients of all ages and stages. He has experience working with depression, anxiety, self-esteem, adjustment disorders, sensory processing disorders, conduct disorder, panic attacks, anger management, behavioural issues, relationship difficulties, communication issues within a school and the workplace and many other common psychological issues. Trent aims to work with people toward what is most important to them.
Some of the things we can work with you on are listed below:
Depression
Depression is common. A simple way to define it is ongoing low mood which gets in the way of things you would normally do.
It is treatable, and with a bit of effort it doesnt need to hang around for long. There can be many reasons why people can become depressed but the most important thing to know is that there is help.
There are common symptoms associated with depression including:
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Loss of interest in food or eating too much, leading to weight loss or gain
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Trouble sleeping
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Feeling tired, a lack of energy or motivation
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Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
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Feeling worthless or guilty a lot of the time
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Feeling that things are 'too hard'
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Having thoughts of not wanting to be alive
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Sometimes people with depression might have other mental or physical health problems eg. anxiety, alcohol use
Anger/ Frustration
Feeling angry or frustrated lets us know when things just don’t feel right. Anger is normal, constant or uncontrollable anger is not.
When we are angry we often do or say things that we can regret later. Having increased control around anger can be useful to stay out of trouble, to give people the right impression of your intentions and to reduce the chance that you may upset or hurt someone that you love.
Often angry people are quickly judged by others, or they can let their anger build inside.
If you think you have been getting frustrated or angry more than normal let us know. Working on anger and frustration levels is really important as it can often affect our relationships, mood and future.
Perhaps there is a reason you feel angry or frustrated, perhaps there is not, we aim to help you control it when it arises by working with you to develop effective strategies to feel calmer and sort through your options.
Self-Harm
Self-harming is when people cut or injure themselves often without the intent of ending their lives. Self-harming is often not understood by others.
Some describe it as a way to have control around emotion or a way to easy emotional tension. Self-harming can be a symptom of depressed mood and associated with other mental health diagnosis.
Self-harming is sometimes a way people feel in control of their emotion. The reasons for self-harm are different for people that do it, it is safe to not speculate as to why. Many people wrongly assume that self-harming is for attention. This can be a dangerous assumption.
If someone you know is self-harming, or if you suspect they are self-harming it is important to be supportive. To help the person dress their wounds, take them to the GP if necessary and to link them in with support.
Self-harming can come in different forms, some people cut others can injure themselves by abusing substances or even burning themselves. Often self-harming is a coping strategy for unwanted feelings.
It is important to know that if you are self-harming or someone you love is self-harming there are more long term and less risky ways to manage your emotion.
At Harpers Health our priority is to know you are feeling safe and to help you manage your emotions if you are self-harming. We can also help you to discuss your self-harming with others that can help to keep you safe.
Sensory Processing Issues
Some people can find it very difficult to relax, to be comfortable with a new textures, with a change within their environment, sometimes interpretation of emotion can also be difficult.
Often when we are little people we develop and ability to interact with and interpret the outside world. For some this is difficult.
We see people with a range of sensory processing difficulties including, Autism, previously diagnosed Aspergers Syndrome and other classifiable sensory processing difficulties.
Alex our occupational therapist has a passion for working with people who have sensory issues. Trent also has experience helping teens and adults self sooth and can help develop specific methods for relaxation which are tailored to the individual.
We understand the importance of learning skills to cope with differences you or a young one you love may have. Our goal is for the people we see with sensory processing issues is to work with them toward them having a more relaxing and enjoyable life.
Self-Esteem
Feeling good about yourself is important. We all have a perception of ourself that is sometimes fragile. Low self esteem can often contribute to making us worry about ourselves and can sometimes dramatically reduce our mood.
Developing a strong sense of self esteem can help people to have the confidence to do things within their life that they sometimes may not have.
An excellent by product of good self esteem is often good relationships, confidence and an elevated mood.
If you notice you are putting yourself down due to things happening within your life it could be useful to work on your self esteem.
You deserve to be happy with who you are, you are important and sometimes it is nice to be reminded of this.
If you are struggling with self esteem and want to feel better about yourself please let us know so we can work with you toward you feeling better about yourself.
Anxiety
Anxiety is cousins with ‘worry’, it’s an emotion often experienced prior to partaking in stressful activities. Anxiety acts like a warning system in our body letting us know when things aren’t quite right.
Anxiety is common, it is treatable and there are some great ways to manage it.
Anxiety can have lots of physical symptoms including things like a racing heart, fast breathing, shaky legs or hands, sweaty hands, tension in the muscles.
Some common symptoms of anxiety can include:
-feeling like you cannot relax
-experience of the physical symptoms listed above
-feeling like you are separated from or isolated from others
-avoiding things that you would like to do or once did
-disruptions with sleep, finding it hard to fall to sleep or waking up during the night worrying about things
-asking yourself a lot of ‘what if’ type questions which get in the way of what you would like to be doing
As part of anxiety some people can experience ‘Panic Attacks’ or bouts of feeling very worried. In these moments people can feel like there is no escape to their worrying feelings, and physical symptoms of anxiety can feel very intense.
Sometimes people can be diagnosed with an anxiety related disorder such as:
-General Anxiety disorder- charactorised by excessive worry about general everyday events that you may normally not worry about
-Social Anxiety Disorder- worry about social situations and avoidance of situations with others
-Panic Disorder- continued bouts of ‘Panic Attacks’
-Phobias- specific phobias related to specific items or events.
There are so many ways to work through anxiety if you are experiencing it. If you feel you have been feeling worried more than normal and would like to learn some ways to cope with it please let us know.
Relationship Changes
In our lives we will experiences many relationship changes, some may be easier to cope with than others.
We may experience changes through a break-up, divorce or perhaps a love one has moved away or even passed away.
Relationships are often core to our lives, the people within our relationships often contribute to a significant part of who we are. They are important. When changes happen this can be hard. The adjustment can often take time and strengthened support.
If you are finding it difficult to adjust after a change within your relationship a few things are important including spending more time with friends and family and increasing activities to care for yourself.
If you are finding it difficult to adjust, or would just like to talk through some of the recent events within your life give us a call.
