Many people ask what is a Psychologist and what do they do? A thorough explanation is provided here.
People go to counselling with a wide variety of issues and are diverse in the way they view and deal with problems. For this reason I use a range of counselling approaches, including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), and supportive counselling or 'Therapy'. The sessions, in any case, are usually an hour in duration and the method used and how long the person needs to come for are determined by several factors including the nature of the issues. For example, some things are minor or situational and can be relieved in a few sessions. Other issues are deeper - sometimes older, such as from childhood, and require 'therapy' or longer term work.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is highly theory-driven modality. It is based upon an assumption that people form rigid and enduring thinking patterns, sometimes referred to as 'Core Beliefs'. It is thought that these have a pervasive impact on the way the person views the world, including the social world and relationships and significantly determines action. CBT enables the exploration of these, sometimes thinking errors, for example finding different ways to view a situation and hence discover new ways to approach it, causing different outcomes.
Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is a brief solution focussed approach emphasizing how a person's current social context, including relationships, cause symptoms. This tends to be a suitable modality when problems are situational and does not address deep-seated sources of symptoms. The goals are rapid symptom reduction and improved social adjustment.
Supportive counselling emphasizes listening and an exploration of the issues. There is a minimum of interruption with the therapist, at least initially, just asking questions and listening. As things progress, questions may become pointed so as to gently focus on particular areas. Clients very often relish the novel experience of being 'really listened to' by a neutral party - someone with no agenda regarding the problem. The therapist intervenes in a respectful, non-judgmental and non-invasive way such as via summarizing statements and clients tend to 'drill down' into issues and certain aspects become naturally amplified. Clients very often find clarity and resolution of issues this way. Clients often use the safe therapeutic environment to consider their options for example, playing out a conversation to 'see how it sounds' and discuss what the different consequences of different actions might be.
Deli provides a range of psychological assessments and reports for adults, and specializes in Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal (VOCAT) applications. The VOCAT website is a user friendly site with clear instructions and outlines for applicants including downloadable forms.
Deli has extensive experience as a supervisor. She has provided both operational and clinical supervision for other Psychologists, Social Workers and counsellors in a variety of sectors, including health, welfare, housing, disability support, education, forensic and Drug & Alcohol sectors.
Deli completed her training as a Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) clinician in 2001 and can provide a full range of critical incident responses including debriefing, consultation to agencies around responses, setting up CISM teams, training of debriefers and CISM policies & procedures.
Deli has an outstanding track record as a trainer across a range of areas including:
The feedback she usually gets is that she is down to earth and engaging presenter using humour, well informed / resourced presentations and well designed participant activities to promote learning and meaningful participation.
Please contact Deli if you have any questions or enquiries.