Matthew’s journey to becoming a psychotherapist…

Early days

I grew up Birmingham amongst a large and somewhat chaotic family. Growing up in a ‘rough round the edges’ area in the early 90’s did not allow much space or acceptance for talking about how you feel. At school, you learnt that being ‘emotional’ or talking about your emotions welcomed name calling and your ‘weaknesses’ prayed on. At home, I would see mental health and addiction problems and again, not a lot of space for opening a conversation about how I  felt.

Education

Aside from P.E and Art, I never found a subject in school that came easy to me but then I enrolled A Level psychology, I found myself curious about the mind and why it struggles with emotions and what causes people to act as they do. Aged 18, I decided to move to Kent, a fresh start, a new venture, to further fulfill my interest in Psychology. Three years later, I graduated with a University Degree.

Soon afterwards, I found myself in a career supporting people addicted to substances. The next five years further increased my knowledge around the lengths people go to avoid pain, the suffering behind the substance and the emotional toil they most likely carried for a long time. I wanted to play a part in seeing people make meaningful changes to improve their lives and their mental health.

In 2014 I was fortunate enough to be offered a place on an intense year long training course at University studying Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This year bought many a challenge but one of the biggest was the need to self-reflect, to ask myself ‘how am I?’. Receiving my certificate and graduating from this course was personally a massive achievement for me but greater was the lesson in being able to acknowledge my emotions matter and it’s not ‘weak’ to experience them.

Working in the community

I am a strong believer in no matter who you are, you should not suffer in silence and we should all attempt to break down the barriers and stigma of reaching out for help. I spent over 10 years in the NHS offering CBT to a vast number of people from various walks of life. As great of an experience as it was, I learnt that not all problems can be ‘fixed’ in the 6-12 week time frame the NHS typically offers. I therefore decided to set up my own private practice, allowing me to be more flexible and offer what each individual needs.

Outside of my work with clients, I supervise other qualified therapists as well as work for two universities, supporting trainee CBT Therapists in supervision. I love this side of my work as it allows me to share my knowledge and experience, helping train others to become effective therapists themselves.

I am extremely passionate about what I do and see the great benefits therapy can bring to peoples lives. If you would like start your own therapy journey and see what changes you can make, I would really like to hear from you.