CBT for Depression in London

I fell ill in the 1980s as a teenager with what we now know as chronic fatigue syndrome. At the time, however, this condition was poorly understood by the medical profession, so I didn’t have a diagnosis. This was a very traumatic period for me, exacerbated by the distressing treatment I received from my doctor and the educational psychologists. They wrongly attributed my illness to anxiety and claimed I was simply avoiding school, placing the blame squarely on me.

Fast forward nearly 40 years, and life has been incredibly challenging. My illness prevented me from completing my education or working. Having lost faith in the medical profession, it was only after experiencing extreme depression and anxiety following topical steroid withdrawal that I felt compelled to consult psychiatrists.

Thankfully, the medical understanding of chronic fatigue syndrome seems to have progressed. I found an excellent psychiatrist who recommended psychotherapy. I was initially hesitant about more therapy, as my previous experience with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on the NHS, while somewhat helpful, hadn’t addressed the underlying causes of my problems.

Searching online, KlearMinds was the first result for chronic fatigue syndrome therapists. I was assigned Judy Harrison as my therapist, and we began weekly Zoom sessions, gradually building a strong therapeutic relationship. She possessed a deep understanding of the somatic aspects of the nervous system and how to work with these to alleviate anxiety.After a few sessions, Judy recognized that Internal Family Systems (IFS), often called parts therapy would be particularly beneficial for me. We engaged in sessions where I dialogued with my traumatized parts; which helped to strengthen my adult self and develop self-leadership.

This process was incredibly powerful, and I noticed significant positive changes in my relationship with anxiety. I am now able to guide myself out of anxious states by communicating with my different parts and making more conscious decisions.

Recently, my spiritual teacher invited my wife and me on a trip to India. Initially, I declined due to my health concerns. However, within 24 hours, I decided to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I hadn’t traveled or been on holiday for 22 years. With three months to prepare, Judy continued to support me with weekly sessions, helping me to overcome any mental obstacles.

My trip to India was a great success, and I am deeply grateful to Judy for her invaluable support in helping me reclaim my life. For my final session with Judy, I traveled into central London by train and also enjoyed a five-hour outing in the city – something completely unthinkable just a year prior.

Jess was a tremendous help to me during a very difficult period. I’d never felt the need for therapy in the past, so wasn’t sure what to expect, but Jess helped me to understand my feelings, and provided excellent techniques to recognise when I was beginning to feel overwhelmed, how to rationalise my thoughts, and how to prevent negative feelings from spiralling. These techniques quickly helped me return to feelings of normality,and be better equipped for any potential future struggles.

I had therapy with Amanda for one year. I began the sessions when I was very unwell with Long Covid/ ME/CFS. Initially I didn’t even know if I would manage to talk for one hour. I remember our first session vividly, I was lay in bed crying and didn’t put the camera on. Amanda reached through to me during that call, in my darkest hour. I felt her warmth and empathy and her ability to look deeper into what was happening with me.

Fast forward a year and I’ve got my life back. I’ve just been for a run, am a Mum to my boys again and am loving life. Amanda was a huge part of my recovery. I believe that she helped to save my life. I will never forget her.

The connection between my mental health and physical health were much more entwined than I had realised. Amanda helped me to make this connection. She also helped me connect how past traumas and stressors had impacted to my decline in health. Amanda worked through past traumas with me at a pace that I was happy with. She never pushed me to go deeper into things than I felt able to do. She helped me release blame and shame from myself, by realising that certain things that had happened were not my fault.

Amanda helped me to become more confident to make the decisions that are right for my life. I was able to reflect on people pleasing qualities within myself that had lead me in directions that weren’t right for me.

Amanda showed me compassion, understanding and validation. She validated that what I had felt wasn’t wrong and that helped me enormously. She is kind, caring and so knowledgeable. I’ll hold her in my heart forever. I’m finished the sessions as I was ready to get on with my life. This just happened naturally. Thank you to KlearMinds for taking such care in matching me with the right therapist for me.

I first came to see Maggie when every area of my life seemed to be going wrong, and I felt I wanted to take control and turn things around. Maggie helped me to do that. She helped me to realise that its all about the way you react to something, and that you can change your thought processes.

I now realise that you have options, and that it is within your own power to change things around. I am very grateful to Maggie for helping me to see things a different way, and giving me the tools to be a better, calmer, more confident version of myself. I can honestly say I now feel happy the majority of the time and if I don’t, I know how to deal with it.

Thanks again Maggie for everything!

I didn’t really know whether counselling would help when I first went to see Maggie. All I knew was that I was feeling increasingly isolated and unhappy, anxious about the future and fed up with the way my life was going. All that changed over the next few months as Maggie helped me on my journey towards understanding myself and why I reacted to people and situations in the way I did. Eventually, as I began to feel reconnected to people again, I learned to value myself, be proud of my achievements and even feel excited about the future! I saw that it was possible to be alone but not be lonely, to be sad without being depressed, and discovered that many people feel afraid, they just deal with their fear in different ways.

Maggie was patient, perceptive and incredibly supportive throughout and each week I grew stronger, more empowered and liberated thanks to her skill and expertise. She has made a big difference to my life and for that I will always be grateful.

I decided to embark on therapy in order to address long-term issues with depression and insecurity in my personal life. Maggie has enabled me to reflect more clear-sightedly on situations rather than blaming myself for everything. She is a very sympathetic person with an extraordinary skill for reading body language! She has encouraged me out of feeling stuck in a ‘coping’ strategy that was really about disguising rather than recognising and addressing my feelings. As a consequence I am a more emotionally robust and confident and feel better able to exercise judgement and integrity in my relationships with others.

When I came to see Maggie I was very depressed, but also very cynical about the benefits of seeing a therapist. I was working as a sales director for a large city firm, which I thought was what I wanted, but I had very little confidence in my abilities, and no idea why. I also had very bad relationships with my partner and family, finding it almost impossible to talk about my feelings. Over the course of the last 10 months Maggie has helped me to understand why I was feeling and behaving as I was, and help me to turn things around so that I am now very happy with my lot in life.

At first there appeared to be little structure to our sessions and I did question why I was spending the money “just talking” to a stranger. But after a few months the pieces of the jigsaw started to fit together and a lot of things started to make sense to me.

I have now left the industry that I was in – Maggie helped me discover that I basically hated what I had been doing for the past 8 years, driven by a desire to have an “impressive” job rather than one which I enjoyed. My relationship with my partner is now fantastic, as are my relationships with my family. And I am much more comfortable talking to them about my feelings. I am also no longer a cynic about the power of the subconscious mind and the value of spending time with a first class therapist like Maggie. It’s not easy, and sometimes I dreaded going to our sessions, but the results are definitely worth the effort.

Maggie, thank you so much for all of your work with me this year. I really don’t know where I would be now if it hadn’t been for your help. I am so much happier now than I have been in many, many, years and am looking forward to the next stage of my life!

When I first started seeing Maggie I felt very unmotivated, lonely and exhausted. It seemed the more I tried to fix things myself, the worse they got. I sought counselling as a last resort, when I simply didn’t know what else to do.

Our sessions were hard work at first. Maggie was very good at challenging the negative way I thought about myself. But she was also a brilliant listener and our sessions were incredibly motivating. She was very good at explaining why I felt the way I did. She made me see that I wasn’t “crazy” or even unusual, which made me feel less isolated. Aside from being someone understanding to talk to, Maggie taught me through exercises to help me practice thinking about myself and my life in a more positive light.

Maggie helped me get to know myself better. She helped me identify things about life that I enjoy, and taught me to feel good about those things! She also helped me identify the things that I didn’t like, and to find the strength to get rid of them! My relationships with my friends and family have greatly improved. I have gone from tolerating life to loving it, including the bumpy bits. I cannot recommend Maggie enough. I will be forever grateful to her.

I found my time in therapy with Judy a very positive experience. I had therapy with Judy for about a year and a half. I suffer from generalised anxiety, social anxiety, depression and porn addiction. I tried therapy about ten years ago and it helped me considerably, but I had fallen back into old thinking patterns and forgotten many of the tools I learned.

I tried other therapists a couple of times for several months which didn’t help, but I could tell in the first session Judy was likely to be able to help me. It’s important to find the right therapist for you.

The things I found most helpful about therapy with Judy were:

I felt comfortable talking about very personal things without feeling judged. Talking about my thoughts made me more conscious of them and enabled me to figure out why I felt anxious and/or depressed. With Judy’s help and a different perspective, I was able to challenge negative thoughts and break down problems or issues I faced and come up with a wide range of possible solutions. This process made me feel like a weight was lifted, helped me make much better life decisions and gave me more confidence to go through with things I wanted to do instead of being too scared.

I learned many techniques I could draw upon if I started to feel down or anxious. Having these tools made my emotions feel more manageable. I started to feel more in control and self-sufficient when dealing with negative thoughts and emotions, though this took time and practice.
Learning about the nervous system and how anxiety works helped me understand how I could interrupt the vicious cycle of anxiety. The extra support therapy gave me helped me to feel less isolated and alone with my problems.

The changes I’ve made in my life since starting therapy have made me feel more aligned with myself and significantly increased my levels of happiness. In addition to therapy, I’ve tried medication (sertraline) which I think has made a big difference too. The combination of these two approaches has worked well for me.

It’s not that everything is amazing all the time, I still have anxiety issues but nowhere near as intensely and when I do experience anxiety, it doesn’t bother me as much. I also don’t get the catastrophic lows that I frequently used to experience. I’m happier, more positive and optimistic, I have closer relationships with my family, my feelings of loneliness have almost gone entirely and I’m pursuing a career I feel passionate about. I’m able to look forward to things again and enjoy social situations with good friends. For these reasons, I would recommend therapy with Judy.

I’m still a work in progress but I’ve noticed a big improvement in my life and how I feel.

Working with Jess has been so helpful for my recovery journey. I was experiencing a worsening of my mental health during pregnancy and Jess really helped me to manage my anxiety better. I also learned an incredible amount about myself and gained new insights, even though I had been in therapy for years before with different therapists. The approach that Jess took allowed me to dig deeper and truly understand myself, my thoughts and my behaviours. I really appreciate her warm and supportive approach, which made talking about difficult topics so much easier. I feel that I have a new perspective on life and look forward to the future.

I reached out to KlearMinds due to a very intense feeling of anxiety and depression which had been going on for months. I was then working with Jess to help me overcome this, and I cannot speak highly of the care and tools I was given to move forward and positively. The sessions were very opening, as well as homework for me to practice and work on whilst not at a session – which I believe was pivotal in helping me overcome this down state. Jess’s experience and knowledge was very welcoming and she was very reassuring in helping me understand that this would all pass – which at sometimes I felt as though it would not. I always felt safe and unjudged, regardless of what my mind was thinking which helped me tremendously and gave comfort. I hope to use the tools provided by Jess throughout my life, but if things ever do take a turn again I would not hesitate to reach back out and continue with the support I was provided.

When I first got in touch with KlearMinds, I was looking for someone who was able to help me with stress, anxiety and depression and also act as an executive coach, as so much of my stress was coming from work and I was on the verge of burnout. Karen was, on paper, the ideal person to help me and I can testify that she’s every bit as great at what she does as I could have hoped.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Karen because she is patient and empathetic and everything that you could want in someone to talk to about problems; she also has a no-nonsense approach and is able to get to the core of matters, filtering the important from the less-so. She helps guide people to finding their own solutions to challenges, carefully offering just the right amount of support that, in future, they can feel more confident about finding their own solutions but providing more help and guidance when needed. She also knows business very well which, as a working professional and business owner, was of great benefit.

My journey with Karen lasted around 1 year. My aim from the start was to achieve balance in my life while looking after two young children, run a business that I was losing interest in, keep my relationship alive and battle my mental health challenges. Somehow, Karen gave me the tools, insight and challenges that I needed to help me achieve my goals and to help protect against similar struggles in the future. This is no small feat considering that, when we first started, despite knowing that I needed help, I was pretty closed to change. I am so very grateful to her and can’t recommend her services enough.