Louise Tiernan Psychotherapy

Persistent and uncontrollable worry, catastrophic thoughts and physical symptoms that feel hard to switch off.

You may worry about everything and everyone, or you may worry more specifically about certain topics such as your health and whether you have a serious illness, or social situations and feeling like you will embarrass yourself. You may worry about having panic attacks, or experience distressing intrusions and feel like you need to carry out compulsions to prevent your fears from coming true. You may have a debilitating phobia.

Whatever the focus of your anxious thoughts and feelings, together we can break the anxiety cycle to help you regain a sense of calm and control and break free from debilitating worry.

Low mood, loss of motivation or feeling disconnected from yourself and others. You may be feeling hopeless, worthless, lonely and sad. Depression usually makes people feel physically and mentally exhausted and depleted, and makes it harder to carry out your usual day to day activities. People often describe feeling very low in motivation and not wanting to see people or socialise, as they get no sense of enjoyment anymore and feel like a burden. Depression can feel like a very isolating and lonely condition.

In therapy, we gently explore what’s keeping you stuck in cycles of depression or low mood. I introduce strategies to support you to gradually move out of depression and become more active in your life. As your mood starts to improve, you should find that activities become more meaningful and purposeful, and energy levels begin to improve.

Using food to cope with difficult emotions, followed by guilt or self-criticism. Emotional eating is usually a coping tool that has been used for a long time, and serves a purpose. However it may become problematic when it is used as a main coping tool and is relied upon frequently. It can lead to weight concerns and health conditions, and a constant cycle of guilt, self-criticism and promises to stop emotionally eating, only to find yourself caught in the same cycles the following day. This can lead to low self -esteem and low self worth, which can begin to impact your relationship and your daily living.

In therapy, we develop healthier ways to regulate emotions and build a more compassionate, balanced relationship with yourself. We tackle the emotional eating cycle together, and explore where this relationship with food developed. We build alternative coping techniques to manage and soothe feelings, and gently move away from emotional eating so that this become much less frequent and used only when you consciously choose to.

Constant pressure, overwhelm and feeling like you can’t cope or manage. Feeling like you want to slow down but you don’t know how to. Maybe you have too much to juggle and life stressors are piling up. Stress can feel chronic if it persists for a long time without breaks and respite. Burnout can occur as a result of chronic stress, and people can feel low, detached, depleted and exhausted as a consequence.

During sessions, we identify the triggers for stress, and the patterns driving exhaustion and burnout. We look at your current healthy coping techniques and work together to develop a toolbox of additional coping strategies, and create sustainable realistic changes to restore balance.

Living with ongoing physical health issues can affect mood, confidence and daily functioning. Any type of health condition such as Diabetes, cardiac, or chronic pain can negatively impact your mood. You may be struggling with daily management of your condition and sticking to treatment plans, or trying to live your life whilst in constant pain or discomfort and struggling every day. You may be struggling to come to terms with having a health condition and fighting against it, or feel in denial about having it.

Whatever the source of the distress, therapy offers space for you to process the emotional impact of your physical health condition on your emotional and mental health. We work together to help you move more towards acceptance and to be able to confidently manage your condition.