About
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves
Viktor E. Frankl
Maria Kalinina
Psychotherapist, MBACP
Past traumas haunt us, while the unpredictable future worries us -living in the present becomes increasingly more difficult. The constant that we can rely on is change. As a psychotherapist, my aim is to help you take control of the change that you want to make, to claim the life you want for yourself, to find your meaning in your life and live it as fully as possible.
I am trained as a Humanistic Integrative practitioner with an influence of Existential/Stoic Philosophy. I work in a holistic way drawing from different skills/models I have acquired over the years during clinical practice and training, supporting with the top-down and bottom-up approach to processing and healing from traumatic events. This allows me to tailor a therapeutic approach unique to the individual's requirements.
Some of the therapeutic approaches/frameworks I work with include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Cognitive Processing Therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Gestalt, NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) Person Centred, STAIR Narrative Therapy, Transactional Analysis.
I particularly like to work using DBT skills as the core framework because I find that it allows for a safe exploration around your emotional world both cognitively and somatically, all the while learning specific skills and processing your past. You will learn how to feel and tolerate your emotions in your body; appropriate which emotions belong to the present or the past; learn how to resolve emotions in the present and heal those from the past; simultaneously learn how to communicate. Although specific target skills can be used on their own, the process of learning a specific skill automatically relates to and builds on other skills.
For example learning how to tip your body chemistry to lower the distress levels would be a specific target skill for distress tolerance. While doing this exercise, you will simultaneously be working with your emotions because you will learn how to read and understand your bodily responses (supporting with emotional regulation) and communicating this to me (supporting you with interpersonal effectiveness).
I specialise in complex trauma and some of the issues I work with include:
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Anxiety
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Depression
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Developmental Trauma
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Dissociative Disorders including DID
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Existential Crisis
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Identity Issues
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Impulsivity
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Interpersonal Issues
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Loss, Grief and Bereavement
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OCD
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Personality Disorders
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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
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Self-Esteem and Low Self-Worth
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Self-harm and Suicidal Ideation
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Self Sabotage
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Shock Trauma
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My experience includes counselling within the community for the NHS dealing with common mental health problems and offender care services dealing with complex trauma. This has expanded my empathic understanding to cover a diverse demographic and supported the development of both my professional and personal belief system of 'no problem is too great or too small'
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Initial Consultation (20 min) Free
Provides an opportunity to discuss current struggles, requirements and expectations of therapy.
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Full Therapeutic Assessment and Care Plan (1-2 hours)
A comprehensive therapeutic assessment to establish current mental health struggles. This includes exploration of symptoms, how this impacts your life, and what you hope your future to look like. It can be very stressful to recount historical context when safety and trust has not yet been established, therefore, it is not necessary, nor is it advisable to do so at this stage. It is important for current risk to be understood. The outcome is that a tailored mental health care plan package that is specific to your individual therapeutic needs is put in place.
As a result your sessions are focused and you are aware of the work required. You are enabled to track your own progress and resolve any setbacks or rupture.
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It is possible that some may have had a full assessment and diagnosis and therefore this is not needed. It is also possible that some wish to take this at a slower more flexible pace where these are explored within sessions and care plan gradually created.
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Face to Face and Remote Psychotherapy (50min)
Usually weekly sessions - day/evening with short term, long term or open ended contracts. Tailored to suit your requirements
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Please enquire for pricing or any further information
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What to expect from Three Phase Approach
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It is important to note that the phases are not linear and there is no specific time one needs to spend on each phase. At times we can go through the three phases in a linear way, while other times we can be working within Phase Two and something happens to destabilise you and we will return to Phase One until you are safer to continue. It is more than probable that while we are working slowly on processing and healing a specific traumatic experience, you will simultaneously branch out into other experiences that will have their own journey within the Three Phase Treatment.
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Phase One
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The focus here is on safety and stabilisation. I will use different models/skills that will be adapted to your individual needs and preferences. I will support you in resolving current struggles and developing on your natural resources to healing and resilience. You will learn how the brain works as a result of traumatic events to help you understand your symptoms . Depending on your needs, I will take you through the effects of developmental trauma and shock trauma on the brain and the body. You will learn how memory works and specifically how your memory has been affected as a result of your experiences. This will all go toward unshaming the debilitating shame that should have never been put on you and is not yours to carry. We will be working on expanding your window of tolerance and managing dissociation and risk factors. You will learn skills for emotional regulation and distress tolerance. By exploring your emotional world you will start to understand your authentic core needs; how these needs have been compromised; and you will naturally find your way of effectively communicating your needs in the present, while healing what belongs in the past. I will help you with managing your sleep/nightmares; panic and anxiety; mood alteration. Not all the specific skills work on everyone therefore I put importance on finding the right approach to suit your individual needs at the time. The skills you gain during this phase can add to already established resources or act as your foundation that you can continue to build on.
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Phase Two
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The focus here is on trauma processing and healing. I use a holistic approach, in accordance with arising research, I will use creative measures to process your trauma. This includes completing the cycle that your body needs to complete that has been stuck and frozen since your traumatic experience/s. You will feel safe enough to explore and face the unfaceable and rewrite your future. As a result of traumatic events an individual will have specific beliefs and safety seeking behaviours formed about themselves, others and the world. These beliefs/safety seeking behaviours are what helped you survive and get to where you are at currently. However, most will be counterproductive in the present and stand in the way of you forming healthy relationships. You will explore what happened to form your individual beliefs/behaviours and you will learn which to keep and which to amend to benefit your current circumstances. You will be able to understand your past and as a result place it where it belongs - in the past. You will learn that your past does not define you not just rationally but with your whole being.
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Phase Three
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The integration of all that has been worked through in therapy. You will have felt experience in a different way of living - gained control of the life that you want for yourself.
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What to expect
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage
Lucius Annaeus Seneca