Client Stories

The client stories detailed below illustrate how common mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and traumatic experiences can be overcome with evidence-based approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy and EMDR Treatment.

You may find reading them helpful in understanding what it is like to experience these conditions, and perhaps clarify if your own experience resonates with any of the clients described in these stories. Most of all, I hope that reading them gives you some hope that it is possible to overcome a range of problems with effective psychological treatment.

Please note that these stories are composites created from real client experiences, and the images are for representative purposes only.

Overcoming Depression: Clare's Story

Clare came to therapy because she was feeling lonely and had lost purpose and meaning in her life. She often woke at night and couldn’t get back to sleep because her mind raced with thoughts about the past and worries about the future, including the day ahead and how she would cope with everything she had to do. Thinking about getting up and on with the day, seemed impossible. Her body felt so heavy, literally weighed down. “What’s wrong with me?”; “What kind of person am I?”; “Why can’t I just pull myself together and get on with things like everybody else?” She felt trapped, immobilised and depressed.

During therapy Clare was able to talk openly about her concerns without being judged. Initially, her therapist helped her to become more active and to start completing some outstanding tasks, and also encouraged her to re-engage with her family, friends and hobbies, which she had been neglecting. She learned how to limit her tendency to dwell (ruminate) on things, which only made things worse, and how to respond more mindfully and compassionately to her pessimistic and self-critical thoughts.

Gradually, Clare came to terms with and adjusted to the changing life circumstances that had contributed to her depression. She had learned how to take better care of herself and stay well. And also to focus on what really mattered to her regardless of what else was happening in her life. Life had changed but it also had new meaning and purpose.

Overcoming Trauma: Adam's Story

As a child, Adam was physically and emotionally abused by his father who had an alcohol problem. He suffered with anxiety and panic attacks throughout his life. A recent promotion had made his anxiety much worse. His boss was critical and he found him difficult to deal with, which made him feel vulnerable and powerless.

Adam’s work situation was triggering the underlying traumatic memories of childhood abuse and eliciting similar feelings of vulnerability and powerlessness.

The abuse he endured was too much for his young brain to handle and was stored in his memory in a way that meant that it remained very disturbing to him. Consequently, his ability to deal with his current situation was being undermined by the way these unprocessed memories were effecting him in the present.

EMDR treatment helped Adam to successfully process a number of disturbing memories, images, physical sensations, as well as anger, sadness and negative beliefs about himself such as, ‘I’m not good enough’, ‘I don’t matter’.

Adam was estranged from his father but after therapy he wrote to him about what had happened and explained how it had affected him. He was hoping for some acknowledgement and apology, but regrettably, he didn’t get it. Nonetheless, doing this helped him to move on. At work, he became more assertive and stopped taking his boss’s criticisms so personally. He had a sense of being empowered rather than powerless, which was having a positive impact in other areas of his life too.

Overcoming Social Anxiety: Paul's Story

Paul sought help because he was struggling to cope with anxiety, especially in social situations. Being in larger groups, meeting new people and speaking on the phone were particularly difficult for him. In these situations, he tended to perspire, blush and get ‘butterflies’ in his stomach. Paul worried that he would say or do something that would be embarrassing or show himself up in some way. He felt self-conscious when this happened and worried that other people would notice that he was anxious and think badly of him. He had thoughts like: 'Everyone is looking at me'; 'They'll notice I'm anxious and think I'm pathetic'; 'I'm losing control'; ‘I'm inadequate’; I’ll be humiliated.’

To cope with his anxiety, Paul avoided situations that made him feel anxious and used strategies like taking slow breaths, trying to control his thoughts, speaking as little as possible, rehearsing what to say, avoiding eye contact and distraction. Although these strategies helped he was exhausted by the constant battle to keep his anxiety under control.

During therapy, Paul learned new ways to manage the physical sensations of his anxiety and to identify and challenge unhelpful, negative thinking patterns. He learned how to re-focus his attention to reduce self-consciousness and took small steps to overcome his avoidance of situations. He still experienced anxiety on some occasions but he was able to accept and ‘work with’ feeling anxious and self-conscious and no longer let anxiety limit what he wanted to do.

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Client Stories