Samuel Waumsley
M.A. Clin. Psych. (UCT)
Registered Clinical Psychologist | Cape Town
Enquiries: samuelwaumsley@gmail.com
Phone: 0843502102
Monday - Friday 8am - 5pm
Therapy in Cape Town
Therapy allows you to focus on core personal stories and the symptoms that they manifest in us. Our mental health depends on our conscious and unconscious appraisal of our position in the world and how we understand this. I often work with:
- Symptoms of anxiety: Anxiety is associated with the fight, flight, freeze, or friendly! reflex. As human beings we have a strong response to danger and stress that is highly attuned, automatic and that neurochemically is processed faster than we can register the stressor consciously. When one's anxious we can panic and really 'not remain calm' - freezing, rushing, becoming angry or agitated (with ourselves unhelpfully often or others) in high stress situations, sometimes that's chronically activated.
- Signs of depression: Depression is arguably at its core a feeling to do with hopelessness or meaninglessless -experience of the 'existential abyss' if you like. It can involve our sense of self in life and our experience in the world. It can be useful to consider depression as also clearly bringing a challenge to the self. Often there is something wrong in our life or in life before, that is felt deep down that bothers and depresses us. Sometimes -we could say, we all need help in some form to break free from negative conclusions and entrapments.
What is psychotherapy about?
Psychology is a language. Feelings and thoughts are like data we receive from our personally-callibrated sensing of the world. In recognising our patterns of behaviour and responses more , we seek to intuit ourselves more consciously, constructively and warmly. Sessions are psychodynamic in orientation, also drawing on relational, existential, narrative and gestalt therapy perspectives. In-session techniques employed include Socratic dialogue, free-association, intersubjectivity/ transference reflection, as well as dream interpretation.
Areas of experience:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Panic feeling
- Esteem
- Intergenerational narrative
- Attachment dynamic
- Metacognition
- Implicit relational awareness
- Dissociation
- Life narrative
- Subconscious reaction
- Existential reflection
- Calm assertiveness
- Adult child-parent sessions
- Online therapy
- Dream interpretation