Areas I can help with in my practice include psychotherapy for anxiety and relationships, support for addiction, anxiety, stress, relationship difficulties, dating anxiety, limerence, abandonment issues, self esteem and couples therapy.
Addiction
Behind all addiction is need. There is an often an intense need to reduce emotional discomfort and to seek a form of emotional numbing. The substance or behaviour becomes the outsourced attempt to emotionally regulate but in an unhealthy way. See this article on Addiction: Disease or Choice for more information as to whether there is an allergy, or some form of genetic predisposition to addiction, or perhaps more environmental factors for the contributing factors for the causes of addiction.
I can help with gambling addiction and financial trading. I have worked for GamCare, the leading provider of information, advice, support and free counselling for the prevention and treatment of problem gambling. The GamCare Helpline provides confidential advice, information and emotional support throughout Great Britain to anyone experiencing problems with gambling, including family and friends of the problem gambler. I have been trained in using a telephone based service as well as assessing callers from Netline, the chat based part of the website. In this role I provided a signposting service to other services such as debt advice, counselling, having assessed the needs of the caller.
Learn more about addiction
Anxiety
I can help with persistent worry, overthinking, panic, stress and the difficulties managing anxious feelings.
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Stress
Support for dealing with the affects of stress. See my article on neuroscience that explains the impact of stress on the brain.
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Relationship difficulties
Explore recurring relationship patterns, communication difficulties, intimacy, boundaries and attachment. See article on co-dependency in therapy.
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Dating anxiety
Support with dating anxiety, fear of rejection, being ghosted, uncertainty, overthinking and difficulties forming relationships. The ideas of John Bowlby and Attachment Theory can offer very useful insights into how dating anxiety can manifest. Individuals can crave deep closeness but have relationships that contain a persistent fear of rejection and abandonment. Early caregiving had been inconsistent for anxiously attached people which could lead to a relational style of hypervigilance in the early stages of dating.
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Limerence
Understanding intense romantic preoccupation, uncertainty, idealisation and difficulty letting go of someone.
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Abandonment
Explore fears of rejection, abandonment and being left, and how these can affect relationships and emotional wellbeing. Attachment Theory can help to offer insights in therapy. See also Being The Other Woman: The other side of infidelity.
Learn more about abandonment issues
Self-esteem
Explore difficulties with self-worth, confidence, comparison, criticism and reliance on external validation.
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Couples therapy
Counselling and psychotherapy for couples experiencing recurring conflict, communication difficulties, intimacy problems or relationship distress.
Learn more about couples therapy
Noel Bell is a UKCP accredited psychotherapist and can be contacted on 07852407140