FAQs

Please contact me at drkimkemp@protonmail.com if you can’t find an answer to your question.

How can a psychologist help me with I have a physical health condition?

The physical symptoms of different conditions and treatments all vary, but the impact on our psychological and social wellbeing can be similar.

Health problems, symptoms and treatments can lead us to feel shocked, scared and frustrated due to there being many extra things to think about and life feeling harder.

Changes in relationships, how we spend our time and feel about ourselves can also change when we are coping with health problems or medical treatments.

Managing a long-term health problem with no cure and daily health tasks also can be challenging and affect our wellbeing and functioning.

A psychologist can help with these issues; by making the links between body and mind, behaviours and thoughts. The symptoms or condition may not change, but the negative impact it has on a person’s psychological and social wellbeing can be managed or reduced.

Why see a Clinical Psychologist?

Clinical Psychologists are specialists in mental health who have trained across the lifespan in a number of talking therapies. They are regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). They can assist people with a range of everyday problems such as stress and relationship difficulties. They also provide counselling and therapy for diagnosed mental disorders, such as anxiety disorders or depression. They help people develop skills to cope and function better, and prevent ongoing problems.

Clinical psychologists do not typically prescribe medication. Their treatments are talking therapies, which are based on changing emotional responses and behaviours and without medication. There is a considerable amount of evidence showing psychological treatments are effective on their own, as well as in combination with medication.

What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)?

CBT is a popular talking therapy which focuses on your experience of difficulties in the here and now. It has a strong evidence base for treating anxiety and depression but can be useful for a wide range of other physical and mental health problems.

CBT focuses on the relationship between thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours. It focuses on thinking patterns that may be creating and maintaining problems, and identifies their links with emotions and behaviours. It is often the connections between these that can keep problems going.

The main techniques of CBT include learning how to notice and respond in different ways to problematic thinking styles, how to change patterns of behaviours and respond in more helpful ways, and how to manage the physiological aspects of distress.

CBT is a short-term focussed therapy, often lasting between 6-10 sessions. It focuses on clients learning techniques and skills they can then apply by themselves.

What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)?

ACT is a talking therapy which focuses on your experience of difficulties in the here and now. It is a short-term therapy, often lasting between 6-10 sessions. 

ACT helps people relate differently to their thoughts rather than challenge them like in CBT. It aims to help people live meaningful lives despite challenges and struggles. It acknowledges that struggles and challenges are a normal part of life, and supports people to learn ways to make room for difficult thoughts and feelings rather than fight, ignore or avoid them (which can cause additional distress). 

ACT also helps people clarify what they want from life, who they want to be, and support them to take steps to move closer to their values, even in challenging times. It aims to help people live a meaningful life whilst making space for difficult thoughts and emotions that they might experience along the way.

The main techniques used in ACT include mindfulness, defusion strategies, and values-based exercises.

What is Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT)?

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is a system of psychological techniques that retrains the brain to accurately interpret and respond to signals from the body, breaking the cycle of chronic pain. Although various treatments aim to manage pain, PRT stands apart as an evidence-based treatment to eliminate pain.

PRT is based on evidence that chronic back pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia symptoms, repetitive strain injury, headaches, and other forms of chronic pain are often not the result of structural causes, but of psychophysiologic processes that can be reversed. This is known as neuroplastic pain.

Pain is a danger signal. Normally when we injure ourselves, the body sends signals to the brain informing us of tissue damage, and we feel pain. But sometimes, the brain can make a mistake! Neuroplastic pain results from the brain misinterpreting safe messages from the body as if they were dangerous. In other words, neuroplastic pain is a false alarm.

Though the pain can be addressed psychologically, this does not imply that the pain is imaginary. In fact, brain imaging studies have demonstrated that the pain is quite real. Recent research has shown that pain is often the result of learned neural pathways in the brain. And just as pain can be learned, it can also be unlearned.

PRT sessions can include some or all of the following:

• Reviewing criteria to help assess for brain-generated/neuroplastic pain
• Somatic tracking, leaning into positive sensations, identifying and minimising preoccupation with pain and other sensations, other mindfulness and self-regulation exercises
• Graded exposure tasks to help with pain/activity associations and creating goals to improve quality of life

What is Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)?

EMDR is a therapy designed to duplicate the rapid eye movement (REM) process that occurs when we sleep. The REM process is thought to help deal with difficult or upsetting memories, allowing us to gradually come to terms with them. 

EMDR aims to reduce high levels of sensitivity to particular traumatic or difficult memories and beliefs in addition to ‘processing’ them. Processing memories basically means helping someone’s brain to store distressing and traumatic memories so they no longer interfere in their life as much.

EMDR helps process memories by asking someone to connect with something like a difficult memory or future fear while focusing on something they can feel, see or hear across both sides of their body. This can include watching the therapist’s fingers move back and forth, tapping the body in a particular way, or listening to alternating noises. 

Research has shown EMDR to be effective for a number of difficulties, including trauma reactions, anxiety, depression, pain, grief, addictions, and phobias. In some circumstances, however, for example where things are very complicated or someone struggles to manage things when they are distressed, EMDR may not be as suitable. In these circumstances I may suggest we take an alternative approach to EMDR.

How do I book an appointment?

Use the contact form or email me at drkimkemp@protonmail.com to arrange a free 15 minute consultation and begin the conversation about how I can help.