Psychotherapy & Analysis

I don't think it is enough simply to identify a symptom or diagnosis and then apply a treatment to it.

The same difficulty can have very different origins. Anxiety, for example, may be connected with trauma, loss, relationships, chronic stress or the ways you have learned to protect yourself. Relationship difficulties may reflect what other people have done to you, patterns you have developed yourself, or a combination of the two.

Sometimes a problem needs solution-focused, practical attention. Sometimes it calls for deeper exploration on the underlying causes. Sometimes another form of help may be more appropriate.

The first task is to understand your situation sufficiently well to decide what kind of help is likely to be useful.

Assessment allows us to understand what is happening before deciding what needs to change…

My training is in Integrative Psychotherapy and Existential Analysis, and my approach has continuously developed through nearly three decades of clinical work.

I work with the whole person’s deeper needs and hopes, rather than treating a diagnosis as though it determines what should happen in therapy.

This means considering your history, relationships, emotions, body, habits, ways of thinking, beliefs, values and circumstances. What appears to be one problem may be connected with something quite different beneath the surface.

Psychotherapy is not about producing an elaborate explanation of you. It is about understanding enough of what is happening to recognise what needs attention and what might need to change.

☞ Read about Change and Authenticity on the RESOURCES page

Our difficulties don’t exist separately from the people we have become or the lives we have lived.

We develop ways of protecting ourselves, managing fear, seeking approval, avoiding rejection and dealing with other people. These adaptations may have been necessary and important for our survival at one time, but can eventually become familiar self-defeating habits that restrict us or work against us.

Psychotherapy can provide an opportunity to examine these patterns honestly, including aspects of ourselves that are difficult to recognise or accept.

☞ Read about Change and Authenticity on the RESOURCES page

Much of what troubles us happens between people. You may find yourself repeatedly drawn into similar relationships, struggling to trust, becoming overly responsible for others, withdrawing from intimacy or tolerating behaviour you know is not acceptable.

We can explore what you have experienced in relationships, what you bring to them yourself, and how you might begin to relate differently. Understanding your contribution does not mean taking responsibility for another person's abuse.

☞ Read about Change and Authenticity on the RESOURCES page

We do not exist in isolation from the world around us.

Family, culture, work, social expectations, economic circumstances and wider events all shape how we understand ourselves and what we believe is possible.

Sometimes psychological difficulties arise largely from our own internal conflicts. Sometimes they are rooted in relationships. Sometimes the circumstances in which we live or work really are harmful.

Psychotherapy should not begin with the assumption that the individual is always the source of the problem.

Nor does recognising the influence of circumstances mean that we have no freedom or responsibility. Part of the work is learning to distinguish what needs to change, what needs to be accepted, what needs to be resisted, what needs to be grieved and what remains within our power to choose.

☞ Read about Authenticity on the RESOURCES page

Trauma can affect much more than the memory of what happened. It can influence how you experience yourself, your body, emotions and relationships, and how you respond to threat, intimacy, conflict and uncertainty.

Working with trauma involves understanding what happened, how you adapted to it, what those adaptations achieved at the time, and why some may no longer be serving you.

The work may be focused and practical, or it may lead into deeper psychotherapy. The appropriate approach depends on the person, not simply on a diagnosis or label.

☞ See the RESOURCES page for more on The Self, Relationships, and Trauma and Complex Trauma

Authenticity is one of the central principles running through my approach.

Human beings are capable of love, generosity, courage and compassion. We are also capable of envy, resentment, dishonesty, selfishness and cruelty.

We do not become psychologically healthier by pretending that only the acceptable parts of ourselves exist, or by simply trying to be positive.

Authenticity involves developing a more honest relationship with who we actually are, including our contradictions, defensive habits and self-deceptions. It also means questioning the assumptions we have inherited about what it means to be successful, acceptable, desirable or worthwhile.

We may have adapted our lives to other people's expectations without ever consciously examining whether those expectations fit us. We may be so accustomed to pleasing others, avoiding conflict or seeking approval that we have lost sight of what we genuinely need or value.

The question is not simply how to feel better, but whether the life we are living is genuinely our own.

☞ Read about Change and Authenticity on the RESOURCES page

I have worked as a psychotherapist for 27 years, including ten years full-time in NHS primary and tertiary mental health services, followed by private practice.

My clinical experience has routinely involved working with anxiety, depression, panic, bereavement and relationship difficulties, as well as serious and enduring mental health problems, PTSD, personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, psychosis, eating disorders and the effects of abuse and trauma.

My psychotherapy training extended over more than six years. I hold Master's degrees in Integrative Psychotherapy and Existential Psychotherapy, both awarded Distinction.

This experience has taught me that psychological difficulties rarely fit neatly into categories, and that understanding the individual person is often more important than deciding too quickly which category or technique applies.

My way of working is human, interactive and plain-speaking. It involves thinking together about what is happening, being willing to examine difficult questions, and deciding what kind of work is likely to be useful.

You may be looking for help with a particular problem, or you may have been struggling with something much less clearly defined for years.

You may have tried therapy before and feel that something important remained unresolved. You may be looking for more than advice, reassurance or a collection of techniques.

This work is likely to be most useful if you are willing to look carefully at your experience, including aspects that may be uncomfortable, and take an active part in understanding what happens in therapy.

You do not need to arrive with all the answers. You need only be willing to investigate the questions.

Stephen Forrest, Psychotherapist

BA (Hons) · MA (Integrative Psychotherapy) · MA (Existential Psychotherapy)

27 years' clinical experience · NHS and private practice

Glasgow and online internationally

The first step is to book an Introductory Meeting.

This is an opportunity to talk about what is happening, what has brought you to psychotherapy, what you would like to understand or change, and whether working together seems appropriate.

There is no expectation that you will commit to assessment or to psychotherapy simply because you have an introductory meeting. We both first have to feel able to relate to and understand one another and the direction you would like to take.

If I think another form of help would be more appropriate to your needs or expectations, I will tell you.

If what I offer does seem appropriate, we can then consider what kind of work is likely to be most useful for you.

But first, we must understand what is happening before deciding what needs to change…

☞ You can arrange an Introductory Meeting by clicking on the APPOINTMENTS button