A Bit About Me
My name is Nicole McGuinness and I am a qualified psychological therapist, specialising in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Counselling. I am registered with the BABCP and the BACP and I have many years of experience in delivering individual and group therapy for charity organisations, the NHS and in private practice.
Working virtually, via phone or video call, I work with clients of varying ages and am experienced in working with adolescents and adults alike, adapting to each individual’s needs. Further to these skills, I am also a mindfulness practitioner and use techniques to complement my therapy work as well as conducting mindfulness based stress reduction courses virtually.
Offered Therapy Services
How I Can Help
Depression
Depression can affect any kind of person at any stage of their life. You may be an introvert or an extrovert,
socially active or shy, youthful or elderly, male or female, wealthy or poor. Whoever you are, you can
become depressed.
Although you might feel alone in your struggle against low mood, the reality is that many people
experience these moods from time to time, or even regularly. In fact, it is estimated that 1 in every 4 persons
experience significantly depressed mood at some time in their life.
Using CBT we can look at the unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviours that you are stuck in which are fuelling the depression. I can help to teach you tools and techniques which can support you while you work to improve your mental health.
Anxiety Disorders
Feeling afraid is something we all experience from time to time. It occurs in response to anticipated
danger and therefore is a great survival tool because it initiates a whole series of physical and behavioural
changes that ultimately serve to protect us.
When we experience anxiety it is very similar to our experience of fear – the main difference is that anxiety occurs in the absence of real danger. You really believe there is danger, but in reality there is not.
Generalised Anxiety Disorder – Health Anxiety – Panic Disorder – Social Anxiety – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – Phobias – Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
These are just a few of the anxiety disorders I can support you with. Working together, we can identify thinking patterns and beliefs which are keeping you stuck in the anxiety loop and with exposure and cognitive restructuring we can start to decrease your symptoms.
Self Esteem
As human beings, we have the ability to place a value or a measure of worth to ourselves or aspects of ourselves. So, self esteem usually refers to how we view and think about ourselves and the value that we
place on ourselves as individuals.
Why is self esteem important? If you have a negative opinion of yourself; for example that you are not important, then you are more likely to be overly self-critical and to tolerate others treating you unfairly. This keeps you trapped in a cycle which ultimately can have a negative impact on your mental health.
Working together, we will look at how your low self esteem developed and what has perpetuated it. We will then look at methods to improve it and tools which you can use in the future to further build your resilience.
How We Can Work Together
We all lead far busier lives and making time to focus on yourself can feel impossible at times.
Prior to lockdown, I only worked face to face. But, since working remotely, I have found I am able to offer more flexibility in times of appointments while still providing the same standard of support to my clients.
Being able to access therapy without having to plan in travel time, or traffic issues, or stress about how you may feel trying to get home afterwards is important. Remote therapy allows you to have your session in a place where you can feel comfortable and with less interruption to your day.
Working with me should feel like a team effort – you bring your expertise in you and your life and I bring the expertise in psychology tools. This collaboration should help you to feel empowered and safe while you work on your mental health.
What my clients have said about me
You are an excellent therapist and our sessions were just what I needed. You let me work around my work commitments and calmed me when I was in distress. I have been able to go for the blood tests and examinations I need and I never thought I would have managed it, but I did. Thank you for everything.
Nicole, you gave me the confidence to get back on the motorway and start enjoying my freedom again. Thank you so much
I am really sad to be writing this because I am going to miss our sessions. I am really happy with the progress I have made. I never thought I would be able to feel the way I do and the toolkit you have prepared me with is invaluable. I have even been teaching my wife some of the techniques. Thank you so much for everything.
Hi Nicole, Thankyou for helping me, you have helped more than you know! It was a pleasure working with you.
I am writing to thank you for all the help you gave me last year. We had our final appointment early this year and since then my life has improved so much. I now have the confidence to do everything again and it is all thanks to you. I am no longer anxious all the time and I am sleeping well and looking forward to the future. I am taking plenty of exercise and finally enjoying being retired.
Hi Nicole I would like to take the time to say a huge thank you for all of your support over the last few months. Your support and advice has been invaluable and I feel a much stronger person better able to manage my emotions and feelings as a result.
I just wanted to send a quick email to thank you for the help you've given me over our sessions. All the information you gave me really played a huge part in changing my life. I have got my old self back and I can see life for exactly what it is now without the misty, negative, self-doubting cloud above my head. Your information has been absolutely priceless and you are an amazing professional with a fantastic way of explaining and teaching the values of counselling.