Adriana Amorim

I have worked with couples and individuals suffering from a number of difficulties and challenges including anxiety, stress, panic attacks, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), learning disabilities, HIV, agoraphobia, bereavement & loss, relationship difficulties, suicide, addiction, eating disorders, sleep disorders, sexual abuse, cancer, obsessional behaviour, self-harm, amongst others.

I work integratively drawing from psychoanalytic and existential approaches. I have worked in the field of counselling and psychotherapy for several years in London and abroad for a number of organisations including Westminster Mind, Cruse Bereavement and the NHS IAPT service.

I have trained in Existential Counselling & Psychotherapy and in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Additionally I have done specialist training in Bereavement Counselling, Panic Attacks Treatment, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness. I enjoy continually expanding on my training and development.

Research has pointed out the main contributing factors for therapeutic effectiveness as the therapist skills and the quality of the therapeutic alliance (Corrie & Milton, 2000). The ability to adequately combine and use different approaches can help therapists to better serve their clients by looking beyond the restrictions of these models and seeing how clients can benefit from other perspectives.

I have a breadth of experience in working with life transitions such as young adulthood, motherhood, midlife, loss & bereavement and the anxiety, sense of despair and sometimes depression brought about from these changes in life.

My previous experience in the corporate world working for multinational organisations across the globe at a managerial level also informs her practice, as I understand the challenges of the corporate working environment and its impacts upon individuals.

I have been working with couples helping them to understand the patterns of their relationships and the conflicts that may arise from it. The idea is to give couples the opportunity to express their feelings and tell their stories and observe the mechanics of the relationship to then guide my interventions.  

 Coming from a psychoanalytical school of thought and from Emotional Focused Theray (EFT) I see my work as a way to assist couples to reflect and understand the dynamics and conflicts of their way of relating and connecting to each other. The work is progressive and sometimes painful. Trust is developed throughout the sessions where difficulties and emotions are explored in a safe and holding environment.

“Helping clients to find meaning, purpose and a stronger sense of self in their world is an important part of my work as a therapist. I consider a privilege to be part of the process of self-discovery and reconstruction in others, assisting them to identify ways to become more creative with their lives and moving to more sophisticated patterns of thinking, feeling and being”.