Lindsay Watson

Therapy for people who had to hide parts of themselves to survive.

My clients often grew up having to be the happy one, the strong one, or the easy one, so parts of who they were weren't welcome. They come with patterns of behaviour they keep repeating or with ‘symptoms’ like  anxiety and  low mood, or a sense of not showing up as their authentic self. Some are stuck in patterns they can see but can't change. I work with people ready for long term, real work: not a quick fix, but a slow process of grieving what was lost, reconnecting with buried parts of themselves, and finding their way back to who they are.

If you grew up having to be the happy one, the strong one or the easy one…and you're tired of not showing up in the world as your authentic self, I can help you find your way back to yourself.  

You probably grew up in a family where a significant part of who you were wasn't welcome.  Maybe you had to be happy so your parents didn't have to worry.  Maybe you had to be strong because there was no room for anyone else's fragility.  Maybe your sadness, your anger, your neediness, got met with silence, or worse, so you learned to stop bringing them.  Maybe an aspect of yourself, such as your sexuality, wasn't accepted or maybe you needed to keep quiet about something that happened to you.  

Now, as an adult, you know that things aren't working out as well as they could.  Maybe you have a sense of sleep walking through your life.  Maybe life feels out of control or you're repeating relationship patterns you know aren't good for you.  Maybe on the surface life looks good but underneath it you are struggling with feelings of anxiety or depression or using addictive behaviours to cope.  

What we might work with

• Patterns you keep repeating and can name, but can't seem to change
• Reconnecting with parts of yourself that got buried: your anger, your needs, your true wants, that young vibrant or vulnerable part of you that wasn't welcome
• Grief for what you lost, or for what you never had the chance to have
• Shame that sits underneath everything else, maybe you feel that you aren't good enough or that others are always judging you
• Dissociation, which you might recognise as zoning out, feeling disconnected from yourself or your body, the world feeling unreal or lack of memories…
• The reality of your life and/ or your childhood.  Often we need to pretend things are better than they are, especially so as children because we need to believe our caregivers are safe and loving.  Seeing through the pretence can open up the possibility of a fuller and more adult engagement with life.  

How we get to this work will vary week to week.  It might look like revisiting an episode from your past, or from what's happening currently in your life.  Sometimes you might just need support.  And occasionally it might even be exploring what's happening between us.  

I am in the sixth year of training as a Psychotherapist at Bath Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling (accredited by Middlesex University).  My training is humanistic and integrative and so I  draw on a range of theoretical perspectives including: person centred, relational, body based and eco therapy, alongside creative approaches like sandtray, drawing, dreams and storytelling. 

Individual: Weekly in person psychotherapy in Bath £50

Individual: Weekly in person psychotherapy in Bradford on Avon £45