Mental Health Challenges

Major Depressive Disorder is more than just feeling sad or low, it can affect your sleep, appetite, motivation, and relationships. You might feel stuck, exhausted, or like you're not yourself. The good news is, you're not alone, and help is available. Psychological support can offer a safe space to understand what’s going on and explore evidence-based approaches like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) while integrating other aspects of clinical practice, such as humanistic, attachment and existential approaches. Depression can strike for different reasons across different points in the lifespan. Depression is treatable in the vast majority of cases and psychological treatment does not come with physiological side effects like medication can do. 

Anxiety can show up as constant worry, panic attacks, unwanted thoughts, or intense fear about your health or safety. It can become overwhelming and hard to switch off. Whether you're struggling with generalised anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or health anxiety, psychological therapy can help you learn to manage distress, challenge unhelpful thought patterns, and build confidence in facing your fears in a supportive and structured way.

Many men face emotional struggles but feel pressure to ‘tough it out’ or avoid talking about it. Whether it’s stress, depression, anger, or feeling disconnected, mental health challenges can affect anyone. Therapy offers a confidential space to understand and address what's going on without judgement, helping you develop practical tools to cope and reconnect with what matters most in your life. Sometimes men do not feel comfortable talking about their difficulties to a female therapist. Dr Stubbings offers a professional male space to explore how your mental health maybe getting in the way of you living your best life. 

Adolescence and early adulthood can be a time of intense change, academically, socially, emotionally, and personally. You may feel lost, anxious, low in confidence, or unsure of your identity. You may be worried about the state of the world, your future, your career or how to improve your confidence. Therapy can help young people develop emotional resilience, understand their thoughts and behaviours, and build healthier ways of coping during this crucial stage of life. Many people live with mental health issues for decades before addressing it. Why wait till they/you are older, address the issues now to set them/you up for success into the future. Investing in the youth now can help set them up for life.  Dr Stubbings is professional, experienced and relatable to youth.  

Trauma can leave lasting effects, flashbacks, nightmares, numbness, or a sense that you’re always on edge. Whether it stems from violence, conflict, sexual assault, or sensitive occupational work, therapy can offer a respectful and trauma-informed space to process what happened, reduce symptoms, and begin healing at your own pace. Dr Stubbings has had over 13 years of working with various kinds of trauma and will be able to handle hearing whatever you have been through. 

Being a healthcare provider comes with unique stressors; burnout, compassion fatigue, moral injury, and sometimes trauma. It’s easy to prioritise others over yourself. Therapy offers a confidential space to offload, reflect, and care for your own wellbeing. You can explore identity, boundaries, stress, and emotional challenges with someone who understands the complexities of working in health and social care settings.

A diagnosis of cancer or facing end-of-life concerns can be emotionally overwhelming for both individuals and their families. You might experience fear, grief, sadness, or spiritual questioning. Therapy can support you in processing these experiences, finding meaning, and coping with uncertainty. Psychological approaches are gentle and paced to meet you wherever you are in your journey. Dr Stubbings is experienced in exploring and addressing existential issues at all stages of the life span. Sometimes people struggle at the point of diagnosis. Others struggle with treatment, Others struggle after treatment has ended. At whatever stage of the journey you maybe at support can be made available. 

Sometimes people have unusual or unexplained experiences that do not fit within many people's world-view of space-time/reality. Examples of anomalous experiences include exposure to unidentified anomalous phenomenon (historically called UFO's), or what the person believes to be contact experience with a non-human intelligence. Exposure to near-death experiences and other difficult to explain phenomenon is experienced by many but often not talked about. Dr Stubbings will not aim to prove or disprove your experience, but will non-judgementally support you to make sense of, explore and come to terms with what you have experienced. Some people may have active symptoms of psychosis/schizophrenia but most do not fit this diagnosis whatsoever, yet are left with profound experiences that they struggle to integrate psychologically. Dr Stubbings is one of the few practitioner psychologists in the UK knowledgeable about anomalous experiences and possible ways of addressing the distress associated with them. Hypnosis is not offered as the risk of false memories is too high. 

Mental health distress come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. If you are unsure what area you or your family member may be in need of help with, feel free to book an assessment session to explore what your options might be.