A Mother’s Testmonial

“As the mother of a young person with years of mental health problems, starting from early adolescence and going into adulthood and after having tried different therapies with no success, I was desperately trying to find the therapeutic help that my daughter needed.

I searched for a psychologist on the internet; I was very lucky to come across Kirsten.

After a telephone conversation Kirsten gave us the opportunity to meet up and have an introductory meeting.

Kirsten listened to us attentively, she explained her approach to work and gave us her professional opinion.

My daughter started having weekly therapy sessions. As a mother I had to trust that my daughter was in the right hands and she certainly was.

With time it was obvious that a new door had opened up for my daughter: A new way of being herself and managing her condition took place whilst working in therapy with Kirsten.

The progress that my daughter achieved in managing her life and condition has been remarkable

The tools and skills that my daughter developed through therapy with Kirsten are still very much useful and put into practice when managing her daily life.

Kirsten has always been very understanding and cooperative in every way. She made herself available to talk to me about my daughter’s condition whenever needed and made me feel understood and supported.

I am very grateful to Kirsten for her professionalism and humanity.

As a parent I would not hesitate to recommend her.

The positive impact she has had in my daughter’s healing process has been life changing and that in itself is invaluable.”

A Client with Post Traumatic Stress Symptoms wrote this:

“I was referred to Kirsten by my employer’s occupational health provider following my attendance at a major incident – I work within the emergency services. Following the incident I was experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. I guess at the time I didn’t really know what I was feeling other than that I wasn’t right. As time went by I felt less and less in control of my feelings and emotions to the point that I wondered if I’d ever feel “normal” again. It felt as though a dark cloud was hanging over me. I wasn’t sleeping well and had vivid traumatic dreams and sometimes woke up crying. I had a fear around me that something bad was going to happen to my family and even had what I can only describe as out of body experiences where I could visualize people around me dying. The anxiety around those experiences was terrifying. I felt scared, isolated and worried that I would never be able to do my job again.

I started seeing Kirsten, ready to do whatever it took to feel a sense of control again. Initially, all I wanted was to feel better. After the first few sessions I not only felt better I was confident that with Kirsten’s help I would recover and I would be able to get back to work. One of my symptoms was avoidance. I became very good at avoiding my feelings and emotions around the incident doing whatever I could to avoid thinking about the traumatic experiences I had. Kirsten was very good at making me face up to and accept these experiences and let them be part of me. I never looked forward to my sessions with Kirsten because there was nowhere to hide. Kirsten asked the difficult questions; told me the truths others avoided; put me back to the incident to allow me to express the emotions that I couldn’t when I was there.

I have no doubt that without the work Kirsten and I did together I would not have made the progress I’ve made. But my time spent with Kirsten was more than achieving recovery. It was about building resilience, learning skills to better face trauma in the future. Kirsten has given me the gift of inner awareness and emotional maturity. The ability to not only accept my emotional vulnerabilities but to embrace them and not be afraid to allow those close to me to see them.”

The Therapeutic Journey from Long-standing Depression & Anxiety to Becoming an Autonomous Happy Person

“I started seeing Kirsten for one-to-one sessions after having suffered with depression and anxiety for a number of years. From the first meeting, Kirsten was incredibly supportive and understanding, helping me dismantle my own internal demons one by one.

Having not had much success previously with other therapies, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), I was looking for someone who could help me dig deeper into the causes of my depression and anxiety in order to overcome them. With Kirsten’s guidance and encouragement, I was able to do just that.

Prior to our first meeting, for a long time I had struggled to engage with my emotions, but from the get-go Kirsten provided a safe environment in which I felt comfortable enough to open up and be vulnerable with those same emotions. Then, thanks to her keen insight (she manages to hit the nail on the head every time!), I began to understand what had led me to that point and how I could learn from it and move onward to better things.

After a year of one-to-one sessions with Kirsten, I joined a therapy group run by her. As someone who had always struggled to open up to others publicly, this was quite a daunting prospect, but Kirsten’s support along the way made the transition so much easier. With her facilitation, I was able to engage with others on a level I had never felt comfortable with before, and, very soon after joining, began to see the benefits. It was one of the most rewarding and valuable experiences of my life.

I spent two years attending group therapy with Kirsten and it would be impossible for me to count up all the ways in which it helped, but I know that I came out the other side stronger.

There aren’t enough words in the universe for me to describe how much Kirsten has helped me since we first met. I know I walked into our first session unemployed, financially dependent on others, feeling tired and overwhelmed by the world; and I left our last session as a happy independent individual ready to take on the world! I think that says it all.

I’ll be eternally grateful.”