And we have come to another Q & A in our ‘Q & A with a therapist’ series. This week’s is with one of our accredited CBT therapists: Sarah Battye. Sarah has been kind enough to fit some time in her schedule to answer a few questions, see her answers below!
What does your role entail at BLT?
Hi, my name is Sarah, and I am a Children and Young People’s Cognitive Behavioural Therapist working with Brighter Life Therapy (BLT). I offer Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to young people suffering with a range of difficulties specialising in (but not limited too) Anxiety and Depression, including, OCD, GAD, Panic, Specific Phobia and Depression.
Do you do any other roles/training outside of Brighter Life Therapy?
Outside of BLT, I run my own private practice delivering CBT to both adults and young people. I currently provide clinical supervision to 7 Children and Wellbeing Practitioners completing their training degrees.
That’s great! Did you always want to work in mental health? What did you want to do as a child?
I often wonder about how my journey into mental health came about and why. I keenly remember enjoying studying Psychology at A Level. I wonder if my delving into this area and role was (and still is!) to help me gain an emotional understanding of my own internal world, which somehow turned into a career along the way. This also began my passion for helping others with unpicking their emotional worlds, and collate tools to enable them to live their lives to their fullest potential.
Being young is confusing. Life is confusing. Sometimes dedicating a bit of time to understanding what we do, why and how we can improve our experience of life can be incredibly beneficial, and help to create some sense of our internal experiences.
Absolutely, a bit of self-reflection is so important for our wellbeing. What advice would you give to those considering therapy?
Just go for it. It can seem daunting at first, but depression and anxiety can be very debilitating conditions and once that fog is lifted, the possibilities of life can really start to open up for you.
Us therapists are very hard to shock and most of us went into this line of work with a desire to help others, so let us help you to figure things out and ultimately become your own therapist for whatever life may present with next.
That’s some really good advice, and interesting to hear it from the therapists point of view too. What about specific mental health problems? Is there one in particular do you find most interesting to work with?
Through my career I have developed a special interest in working with a range of anxiety disorders. In particular, I have found working with OCD to be interesting. Helping people to break free of the ties that this disorder can cause, exacerbates my passion.
What is your one top tip for overcoming this problem?
Trust in the process, be patient and consistent.
And last but not least, can you name something interesting about you that we probably don’t know already?
I guess I would share the way I spend my downtime – during lockdown my family made the decision to purchase a camper van and it has been the best thing we have ever done. We now work hard during the week so we can live hard at the weekends. I have 2 toddlers which can be testing at times, but there is something about being able to take them to a beach most weekends that has been invaluable for us all and certainly benefited everyones’ wellbeing in times of adversity. So let me know if you would ever want to have a session by the sea!
How you can contact us
If you would like a session with Sarah or another member of the team for depression or anxiety based problems, feel free to contact us. We provide fast access to CBT and counselling treatment, which you can read about here.
Please do not hesitate to contact us on 0118 40 50 108, or by emailing info@brighterlifetherapy.co.uk.
You can also follow us on our Instagram and Facebook for more information about this topic and other mental health discussions.