Isabella Watson

Therapy for longevity, health and wellbeing. We know the basics of how to live well - so why don’t we do it? Most of us are familiar with what we should be doing to increase our chances of living a long, healthy and fulfilled life: eat well, sleep well, reduce stress, exercise, and maintain good social relationships. And yet, we don’t do it. This is where therapy can help. Too often it can feel like something we don’t understand or can’t control is preventing us from living the lives we truly want. It is through understanding ourselves better that we can free ourselves from these constraints. In our weekly sessions we’ll talk about what’s on your mind and explore the patterns, beliefs, and past experiences that may be influencing current behaviours, emotions, and relationships. Whether you are struggling with anxiety, low mood, burn out, relationship challenges, feeling stuck, unfulfilled, or simply a bit off, therapy can help you reconnect with yourself and move towards a more meaningful and balanced life. My approach is based in psychodynamic therapy and attachment theory (meaning we explore how unconscious patterns - often rooted in early experiences - may be shaping your current life in ways you might not fully understand), but I also work in a relational way, meaning that our relationship will become a place to notice and understand these patterns as they come up in the present. My work is also informed by a parts-based understanding of the human mind (helping us imagine ourselves as being made up of different parts that sometimes have conflicting needs). By cultivating a curious and compassionate response to these different parts, we can reveal the underlying pain and unmet needs that cause the feelings of self-sabotage in the present. The mind and body are not separate things. Emotions are physiological states (e.g. when we are anxious our heart rate increases, our muscles tense, breathing becomes shallow; when we are sad our chests feel heavy, our posture might slump, we have no energy, etc.). I work with my clients to reconnect them with their bodies through helping them pay attention to how they feel in their bodies during our sessions, helping them to notice these physical sensations as important signals. The modern world encourages us to tune out of our bodies, but it is by paying greater attention to smaller signals earlier on that we can avoid feeling overwhelmed by our emotions later on when they inevitably build up and burst out of us. In this way we can better understand and regulate emotions, creating a deeper sense of balance and well-being, even when the external world continues to give us challenging situations. I am a qualified and experienced therapist, and am a member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists. I have a personal interest in longevity, health and fitness. The most important thing about finding a therapist is finding someone who fits with you and who you feel you could come to trust. If that sounds like something you’re interested in exploring please send me an email and we can set up an initial consultation. I look forward to meeting you.