About me
My name is David Shaw, I am BACP Accredited Therapist. I work primarily in the Paisley & Renfrewshire area providing online and face-to-face therapy.
I take a compassion focused approach to support you by helping you develop a set of strategies to overcome anxiety, stress, grief, and depression.
Each individual has their own personal signature strengths and I'll help you identify your own and explore the ways that you can use your strenghts to help you manage life's challenges.
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 unique perspectives on our life experience, personal qualities and difficulties. I collaborate with you to develop a therapeutic relationship working in partnership to address the issues you are finding hard to deal with on your own.
Together we can learn to adapt by taking a creative and solution focused approach towards resolving your current difficulties.
By working together to nurture deeper self-awareness we aim to build effective coping skills to help you to navigate through challenging situations.
Counselling helps by empowering you to build self confidence and improve self esteem to enhance your relationships with others.
Self assertiveness skills and boundary setting are important in changing the way that we see ourselves and we use a range of evidence based tools to support these changes.
In counselling you will become aware your signature strenghts and gain a deeper understanding of your needs values and beliefs , this in turn supports emotional wellbeing and good mental health.
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 others 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 behavior Therapy (CBT) is an established science based approach aimed at helping you develop an understanding of how to manage difficult thoughts, emotions and challenging situations.
Positive change involves thinking about situations differently and shifting perspective to promote our growth potential. We can learn to manage our emotions by understanding how our emotions change according to the situation and how confident we feel about our ability to cope.
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.