Improving the wellbeing of others is the foundation in which my career in psychology is based upon. My aim as a therapist is to create a safe, caring and collaborative therapeutic environment as an anchor to explore and understand difficult experiences.
I’m from the UK, where I was trained in several psychological therapies including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy and Schema Therapy. I also have further training in psychodynamic models of therapy. I have over 10 years clinical experience in the UK and Dubai. I have also worked in academic settings in Dubai as a lecturer in Psychology.
My special interest lies within Compassion Focused Therapy and as such, I support clients to better understand themselves and their history and how sometimes given the context of our lives, certain thoughts, feelings and behaviours make sense. When we can make sense of our suffering and the different parts of ourselves, we start to become more compassionate and caring to ourselves, and others.
I work in a holistic way considering an individual’s unique early life experiences, family and relationships. I also work in the present; exploring thoughts, feelings and behaviours and subsequent ways to implement change. I’m open to short term or long-term therapeutic work. Longer term therapy leans more on relational and psychodynamic models to help people feel differently. I have a huge interest in using experiential methods in therapy (chairwork, imagery, bodywork). These methods are about bringing about more heartfelt ‘feeling’ change rather than relying on reason alone.
I specialise in working with the anxiety disorders, particularly panic disorder and social anxiety disorder. I also specialise in working with individuals who are highly self-critical and experience problems related to feeling shame.
Branching out from using compassion in therapy; I’m interested in how compassion can be utilised in the workplace. I have written articles, spoke at conferences and supervised graduate and postgraduate research in the UAE on how to embed compassion into the workplace.
I’ve recently become a new mum, so outside of work you’ll find me in the park or at the beach with coffee.
I welcome clients aged 18 plus. I also offer clinical supervision and training to other colleagues and clinicians.
Lydia is supervised by Dr Tobyn Bell a UK trained Psychotherapist and specialist in Compassion Focused Therapy. Dr Tobyn Bell is a Compassion Focused Therapy Trainer, Supervisor and Psychotherapist. He is also an accredited Schema Therapist and Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist, as well as a fully trained Voice- Dialogue facilitator. He is a co-founder of Chairwork ( www.chairwork.co.uk) and a co-author of the book ‘ Compassion Focused Therapy from the Inside Out: A Self- practice/ Self- reflection Workbook for Therapists’. Tobyn regularly provides national and international training on compassion and chairwork, and is actively involved in ongoing research within these areas. He currently works as a lecturer and operational lead at The University of Manchester, UK.
Email info@thefsc.earth to get in touch with me.
