DR MICHAEL MUNDAY

Therapeutic Approach

I consider that most people would like someone human, warm and competent to come and speak to in therapy and I hope my clients experience me in this way as a therapist. I place emphasis on treating you as a person, by which I mean thinking holistically about who you are as well as what brings you to therapy. 

Because I am a clinical psychologist I am trained and experienced in using a number of therapeutic approaches and I consider myself to be integrative in style; this means I am flexible in drawing on therapeutic models that I think will be of benefit to you as an individual. 

Below I set out in detail the models that most influence my practice.

Person-centred, Humanistic Therapy

The foundation of my therapy is person-centred, emphasising the importance of the therapeutic relationship between client and therapist to bring about change. Carl Rogers, an eminent American psychologist in the 1950s, talked about empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard on the part of the therapist towards her or his client as both necessary and sufficient for effective therapy. I strive to embody these principles in my work. Research shows that there is a general effectiveness to a number of different models of therapy and I believe it is the therapeutic relationship that underpins this finding.

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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

I am an experienced CBT therapist and I find it to be a highly useful model for understanding the links between our thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and behaviour. By making change in one area we can have a positive impact on the others. The core insight of CBT is that it is the meaning we give to situations that influences how we feel, rather than the situations themselves. So, whilst you might assume someone who obtains a promotion is happy, if they think they are going to struggle in the new role they may feel anxious and may not take the post. CBT helps us identify your style of thinking, to consider how this might have developed from your life experiences, and how to try taking different perspectives and behaving differently to lead to change. I particularly value its focus on working collaboratively with clients in therapy, with the aim of working towards hopes and goals set out by the client themselves. CBT has a strong evidence base for helping with anxiety problems (including OCD, post-traumatic stress, and panic), depression, and psychosis and is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) for treatment of these conditions. I completed a CBT for psychosis top-up training with University College London in 2016/2017.

Compassion Focussed Therapy

CFT aims to help clients nurture and develop their capacity to be more compassionate and understanding of themselves and others to help soothe feelings of threat and distress. It is often used when self-criticism, and feelings of shame and guilt are particularly problematic for the person. Mindfulness is a key component of CFT in being willing to approach one’s experiences, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant, in a spirit of kindness. Having attended training with Professor Paul Gilbert, who developed CFT, I became fascinated by the model and attempting to embody a compassionate mind set is an organising principle for my therapeutic approach.

Schema Therapy

Schemas are deeply held beliefs about the self and others that develop early in life and influence repeated patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. If someone, for example, is mistreated and develops a schema they are worthless, then they may fall into a pattern of repeating the mistreatment in future relationships. After qualifying I worked for three years under the supervision of a consultant psychologist and schema therapist using the model. It is an active model to therapy that privileges experiential techniques, such as imagery work, to help people break unhealthy patterns and address longstanding, problematic beliefs.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Having completed my specialist placement of my clinical psychology doctorate at Mile End Psychotherapy Department under the supervision of a consultant psychologist and psychoanalyst, psychodynamic therapy is a particular interest of mine. Psychodynamic thinking highlights the role of the unconscious in mental life, that certain feelings and ideas can be repressed that are painful, leading to anxiety, symptoms and acting out. By helping clients gain insight into their feelings it then gives them greater freedom to choose how to manage them. One’s earliest relationships are thought to influence how one relates to people now and that this will play out in the relationship with the therapist; I seek to explore a person’s patterns of relating within my therapeutic relationship with my client. I find a psychodynamic perspective to be particularly valuable in understanding relational difficulties. A psychodynamic approach pays close attention to process in therapy, that is the moment to moment flow of how a session begins, unfolds and ends, and how this relates to the internal world of the client.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT promotes psychological flexibility as the most helpful mind-set to manage one’s experience, whatever context one finds oneself in. It aims to help a client be open to her or his experience, aware and paying attention to the experiences she or he is having, and active in the way they engage with their life and the world around them. Again, it is a mindfulness based therapy, and I find it a helpful model for finding methods to encourage clients, and myself, to approach rather than avoid difficulties that arise in life.