Sam Waumsley
Registered Clinical Psychologist | Cape Town
>Therapy sessions in Cape Town:
Psychotherapy is a space to hear your authentic reflections openly and clearly. A focus can also be on one's core personal narrative and experience. In considering mental health matters we seek in psychotherapy to address what our authentic psychological-emotional needs are, what they may be associated with, and how we respond to them. 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 is 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 is chronically activated.
- Signs of depression: Depression is arguably at its core a feeling to do with hopelessness or of meaninglessless -experience of the 'existential abyss' if you like. It can involve our sense of self in life and our experience. It can be useful to consider depression as also faintly bringing a challenge to the self. Often there is something wrong in our life, or in our worlds or in our lives before, or in what we were told that is felt deep down that bothers and depresses us. Sometimes we all need help in some form to break free from negative conclusions, cycles and entrapments.
Seeking well-being in life:
Therapy is a place for hearing personal stories that people carry, and finding ways to answer personal wounds and address psychological experience clearly and authentically. How does one respond to life's ups and downs; to rawer or stark feeling? Perhaps we can respond with attunement; clarity. And we can seek this deep reflective capacity in life with the help of positive values -like equality and dignity. Sessions are psychodynamic in orientation, also drawing on existential perspectives.
>Therapy - what to expect:
1. Session one: Meeting, history-taking and describing issues at hand. Deciding on scope of therapy contact.
2. Session two to five: Building our understanding around symptoms and challenges.
3. Session five to ten: Deeply familiarising ourselves with this dynamic understanding of the issues at play. Discussion of progress and scope.
4. Session ten+: Sustained focus on day to day life contemplatively and on issues at play, while still seeking ways to positively shift outcomes meaningfully.
Experience & services:
- Attachment
- Anxiety
- Brief therapy
- Long-term
- Depression
- Panic attack
- Self-esteem
- Intergenerational
- Implicit relational
- Socratic dialogue
- Life narrative
- Reaction
- Existential
- Assertiveness
- Adult child and parent sessions
- Online therapy
- Dream interpretation
