Finder

Specialises in

• Behavioural Activation (BA)
• CBT with Exposure and Response Prevention (CBT with ERP)

• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)

• Solution Focused Brief Therapy
• Trauma focused CBT

Offers

• Face-to-face consultations
• Video and telephone consultations

About me

I completed initial post-graduate training in CBT at the University of Oxford in 2012. This has culminated in completing an MSc in CBT at the same institution in 2016. I continually update my learning with professional development.
Over the past 14 years, I have worked in a wide range of settings. These include Oxfordshire Mind and the NHS. I now work in private practice as well as with local educational institutions.
I work hard to understand the emotional distress people are experiencing. My practice is continually informed by up-to-date research. I help people to move to a new understanding of their situations and themselves by finding workable solutions to alleviate their distress.
My experience is always to work within a time-limited framework. I achieve this by using CBT protocol specific treatments, as well as using transdiagnostic methods. For example, this could involve, working with presentations of low self-esteem, perfectionism, shame or intolerance of uncertainty.
I am an accreditation EMDR practitioner (Eye-Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing), a therapy originally developed by Francine Shapiro in the 1980s and was used originally to work with PTSD but after much research is used successfully with many presentations of anxiety and depression.
EMDR is well supported by academic research and is now available via the NHS. It works in a similar way to REM sleep. With the rapid eye movement during our sleep, the brain processes the activities of the day, allowing us to remember what happened. An analogy for this process would be similar to filing papers and putting things in order.
When clients use EMDR in therapy, they are able to access worries and traumas and then reprocess them, enabling clients to move on with their lives.

Areas of interest

My experience includes:
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) using trauma focused CBT (TF - CBT) and EMDR. I am also trained to use of imagery in the treatment of trauma; Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD); panic; depression and low mood; Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD); Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD); low self-esteem; body image dysmorphia; perfectionism; anger; workplace issues; specific phobias, e.g. spiders, fear of flying and exam stress.
I am trained to work with clients 18 years of age and over, with a range of anxiety and depression presentations.

Specialist interests and expertise in the following physical conditions

• Psychophysiological disorders

Medical secretaries

• Shirley Heckles
• 44 St. Pauls Crescent Oxford OX2 9AG
• 07711 052902
• info@cbtconnect.co.uk