Peter De Santis

I am available for face-to-face and online appointments on Wednesdays and online appointments on Thursdays.

Hello and welcome to my profile. I’m an experienced, accredited, and trauma-informed psychotherapist working face-to-face and online. I help people with:

• anxiety,
• relationship and family issues,
• depression,
• anger problems,
• panic attacks,
• trauma, including PTSD and C-PTSD,
  
• loss or bereavement,
• low self-esteem or low self-confidence,
• social anxiety,
• feeling lost/lacking meaning/direction.

I aim to provide a secure, open, and trusting relationship so that through self-understanding you can discover effective ways of supporting yourself.

My client base is varied, and my clients often describe me as warm and attentive.

Therapeutic Approaches

I incorporate a wide variety of therapeutic approaches (Existential/Humanistic, EMDR, CBT, Psychodynamic, Schema Therapy, Attachment Theory, and Systems Theory) to accommodate each client and the problems they need help with. Each approach has its strengths and limitations for every client and the types of problems they need help with, and I collaborate with my clients to ensure the relevant approaches are used.

Training & Qualifications

• Counselling Foundation Certificate.
  
• Masters in Existential Psychotherapy/Counselling.
• Training in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), including training in imposter syndrome, perfectionism, guilt, social anxiety, working with anger problems, poor impulse control, and depression.
• Eye-Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapist.
  

In practice, my role is to facilitate a space so that you can become more self-aware, understand the nature of your problems, and help you to process and heal from them.

I aim to be present and interactive with you, helping you discover the relationship you have with yourself and others, the role you play in your current situation, and the difficulties you want to understand or resolve. I will also be reflecting on what I have observed and heard so that you can gain valuable insights, enabling and empowering you to see things from different perspectives, and opening up opportunities to make more informed and authentic decisions.

Additionally, I believe that therapy is essentially a learning opportunity, and so, if necessary, I will introduce you to psychological and biological theories and concepts that may enhance or support you in working towards your therapeutic goals.

Every individual processes things at different speeds, and so the work we do will accommodate the pace in which you feel most comfortable.

I offer both short and long-term limited work and we will discuss how appropriate whatever option would be best for you.

A major aspect of psychotherapy or counselling tends to be about facing uncomfortable feelings. Understandably, this can be overwhelming and distressing. My role is help you discover effective ways of approaching and coping with this, which is part of the therapeutic process.

The first session is essentially an opportunity for both of us to learn about each other. Afterwards, we can decide whether we are a "good fit", which is very important for therapy to work effectively.

You will have the chance to ask me any questions, and I will be specifically assessing what your therapeutic needs and goals are along with the difficulties you want to address.

Apart from your current problem(s), I may also be curious about aspects of your history, including your childhood, family dynamics, any adverse or traumatic events you've experienced or witnessed, along with any mental health problems that have consistently or acutely affected you.