Lisa Hitchen

Working hours:

8am - 8pm Monday - Wednesday (last session 8pm)

8am - 5pm Thursday - Friday (last session 5pm)

Closed - weekends and some school holidays

Do you feel anxious, depressed, have ruminating and negative thoughts, unhelpful habits that you can’t stop, compulsive behaviours that trap you in a cycle of repetition or fears and phobias that seem uncontrollable?

I am currently training to diploma level in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), a therapeutic approach that has a wide evidence base for being effective at treating these and many other common mental health problems.

What is CBT?

CBT is a talking therapy that helps you understand that your thoughts, feelings, behaviour and physical sensations are connected. In changing one, you can change the others. Sad feelings can sometime lead to negative thoughts and actions. In noticing and changing these unhelpful thoughts and actions, we can gradually feel better.

During my training period, I am offering this service at a discounted rate. Please contact me through BACP so we can set up an intro call to discuss your needs.

How else I can help?

In addition to CBT, I am trained to work in less directive and structured approaches – putting the client at the centre of the process, going at your pace and working with what you bring. In all my therapy work, I offer a truly empathetic connection, a safe and calm listening space, the time to learn about yourself and to explore what is happening for you present, past and future.

I provide confidential counselling to people of all ages and backgrounds and have helped clients with a range of different issues. Feeling overwhelmed, anxious or depressed are often reasons clients contact me. These might be compounded by relationship, family or work challenges. I will use my learning from different counselling approaches to find the best way we can work together to help you to manage these.

My counselling room in SE9 is a warm, calm space for in-person counselling. I also offer online therapy and telephone counselling during the day and some evenings.

For online CBT and EMDR, it is useful to have a visual connection for using visual models and tools and for trauma processing.

If working online, please ensure you have a private space for your sessions with good Wi-Fi connection and mobile to hand if there are any technical difficulties.

Testimonials

Adults

Client A ‘It’s helped me to recognise my triggers especially around anger and given me practical tools to work through this. It’s given me a safe space to discuss my anger, which is not easy to talk about.’

Client B: ‘It has helped me move from overwhelming grief to accepting my loss as part of me, being able to walk alongside it. Along the way I learnt how I tick, why I am like that and how to change.’

Couples

Client C: ‘I felt that voicing issues out to my partner in Lisa’s presence gave us both a sense of reassurance that the downs (and ups) that we are going through in life, is most of the time, completely normal. ’

Young people

Client D: 'I have learnt to care for myself through the things I love most and with the people I care about. I have learnt many useful techniques such as grounding myself and breathing methods.'

EMDR

Client E: ‘Lisa and EMDR has helped me to heal and enabled me to be more positive and confident about myself and my future. Understanding and rationalising past events has improved my relationship with those close to me.’

Client F: ‘EMDR is really helping. I have a lot less panic and around my past relationships, I feel nothing at all. I was upset and angry before and now, nothing. It is amazing.’

Experience

I have worked with diverse client groups including children and young people in schools, student counsellors for therapy and supervision, those who’ve lost loved ones, people living with HIV, those from diverse racial backgrounds, the LGBTQ+ community and people with neurodivergence. 

Working together we will assess your problems, consider how they affect you personally, and agree how to work on these. It can be useful to think about aims or goals for counselling that you may have. However, if you are new to the process, we can have an open, exploratory way of working. In the process of doing the counselling, this can mean that many different topics and feelings come into the session. It is always your choice what you want to share and we can work at your pace.

I will take some notes to clarify the different areas you bring and I can use this as the basis for further work. All notes and other personal information you supply remains confidential and is kept secure electronically and physically at my practice in accordance with GDPR.

In the CBT work, we will use the first few sessions to agree a treatment plan. I will help you learn evidence-based CBT techniques that you can use yourself. The techniques offered and how and why they can help you will be discussed in the therapy sessions. We will also set some specific goals for what you want to work on and use measuring tools to monitor changes. For CBT, you will need to commit to doing independent work outside sessions such as thought records and mood diaries. Ideally a weekly commitment is best for CBT so we can regularly monitor changes.

How long will it take?

The number of sessions varies depending on your needs. We will regularly review your progress and this will help work out the number of sessions you require.

Qualifications

I have a Psychology and English degree, a diploma in Therapeutic Counselling, a certificate in Therapeutic Supervision and a certificate in Counselling Couples. I am also trained to work with children and young people. I am an EMDR therapist and an accredited member of the BACP.

For more information, please see my website: www.talkdynamic.co.uk

Supervision is an essential part of the process of being a counsellor. I believe it should be a safe and supportive space that can build your confidence in your work with clients but also challenge and stimulate you to learn and grow.

I provide one to one and group supervision for trainee and qualified counsellors at my practice room in Lewisham, by telephone and online. We can openly consider what might be going on for your clients and explore this without judgement. I am open to working with the different ‘languages’ of different approaches and ways of working with clients.

I am interested in systems and how individuals interrelate to themselves, others and to their environment. Because of this, I find Hawkins and Shohet’s Seven-eyed supervision model helpful in my supervisory work. Most importantly, it puts the client at the centre and sets them within the context of the counselling and supervisory processes that are working to support them.

The Seven-eyed model also considers the relationships between client, counsellor and supervisor, the interventions used and the connections of each to the systems within which we all exist.

In addition, I hold in mind Proctor’s tasks of supervision to encourage, to teach and to manage. These are the functions of supervision but the doing is only a part. The being is crucial too. So my supervisory practice offers a place where your feelings and ideas around your clients and around your own personal processes can be explored without prejudice.

I have a CPCAB Certificate in Therapeutic Supervision and have supervised the work of trainee and qualified counsellors in charities and schools.

I am based in Grove Park. If you are interested in working with me, please get in touch.