Dr Matt Wardley

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a therapeutic approach that falls under the Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy (CBT) umbrella. We can develop unhelpful ways of reacting and responding to our thoughts and feelings, increasing our distress and being pushed around by them.

The Acceptance aspect of ACT involves developing Mindfulness-based skills to help us manage these unhelpful or distressing thoughts and feelings more effectively such that they have less impact and influence over our lives.Through this process of being more mindful and connected to our experiences, rather than being pushed around by them, we can become freer to connect what's truly important to us.

We all have the capacity to develop self-critical thinking, and so often fall in to criticising, blaming or doubting ourselves. This can particularly be the case when we hit our most difficult times in our lives, times when in fact we need the most support.

Sometimes helping others can come very easily to us, but the thought of being caring and compassionate towards ourselves can feel too self-indulgent or feel like we are letting ourselves off the hook.These patterns of relating to ourselves rather than helping us when we need it, can in fact contribute to keeping us stuck.

Below is a list of various Mindfulness tracks I have recorded. If you would like to read an introduction to mindfulness, see here, or for further resources relating to Mindfulness, go to my Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) or Approach to Physical Health pages. Also, Dr Chatterjee has a podcast with Michael Acton Smith, which is a helpful and accessible introduction to Mindfulness.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapeutic approach originally developed by Francine Shapiro, Ph. D. to address trauma and it has been shown to be effective not only for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but also all forms of anxiety as well as depression, grief and mourning, addiction, pain and physical health and many more issues.

I am grateful to have found Dr Matt. He is perceptive, knowledgeable, patient, understanding and above all has true empathy. With his help, I am overcoming decades of chronic trauma issues that have truly haunted me for my entire life. It can be a daunting decision to seek help but I can honestly say it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.