About me
My name is David Shaw, I am a British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy BACP Accredited Therapist. I work primarily in Renfrewshire providing online and face-to-face therapy.
I support you by helping you overcome anxiety, stress, grief, and depression.
Each individual personal signature strengths I'll help you identify and use these to help you overcome difficulties.
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In addition to counselling services I also provide Clinical supervision to therapists. If you are looking for a Supervisor please contact me to discuss
My therapy & counselling specialties
Each of us have our own own unique perspectives on our life experience and difficulties. I collaborate with you to develop a therapeutic relationship and we work in partnership to address the issues you are finding hard to deal with on your own.
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We can take a creative approaches to help resolve your current difficulties.
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We work holistically to help you develop deeper self-awareness and skills to navigate through challenging situations.
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Counselling helps in changing and adapting giving you the confidence to communicate and have your needs met by others. Self assertiveness and self esteem can also improve thought the therapeutic process.
This in turn improve relationships with others by finding your voice.
Compassion Focused Therapy
We can define compassion as “A sensitivity to suffering in self and others with a commitment to try and alleviate and prevent it”
This therapeutic approach has at core the awareness of a need to nurture a caring kind and compassionate way to alleviate suffering in ourselves. Compassionate mind training helps you to treat yourself with kindness and change self-critical thinking, enabling you to cultivate empathy towards yourself.
Self-criticism is one of the barriers to living a contented, creative life connected to other through deeper self-awareness and acceptance.
I will support you to develop mindfulness practices based on this approach which can help you develop the qualities to improve your emotional wellbeing, self-beliefs, and help strengthen connections with others in your life.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
Cognitive behaviour Therapy (CBT) uses a wide range of tools to help you develop an understanding of how to manage difficult thoughts, emotions and challenging situations.
Change involves looking at situations differently and in shifting our perspective we are able to then modify our behaviour accordingly. We can learn to manage our emotions by understanding how our emotions increase and decrease according to the situation and how we feel about our ability to cope.
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We will use a wide range of creative exercises along with videos, information packages, and useful websites which will help you build a toolbox of useful skills and self-awareness.
Walk and Talk
A wealth of research has demonstrated the benefits of outdoor activities as part of an overall approach to improved mental and emotional health. We also know that psychical exercise helps in moderating our emotions and improving mood.
I offer 1 hour or 90 Minute walking sessions in the local Renfrewshire area where we can share the experience of walking in the countryside and discuss issues that are important to you.
While this is not formal counselling, it does provide a way to enjoy being around nature and establish different ways to enhance your wellbeing. From my experience people find the open spaces beneficial in opening up and thinking of solutions to problems in a creative way.
Walks will be guided and mapped out to ensure safety and take account of mobility, health and weather conditions.