Athena explains how she works

Life has a lot of ups and downs. We all at some point have talked about getting help, but, for various reasons, we end up not doing so for quite some time. We sometimes might find it hard to share with people around us. Given the existing stigma, it can be difficult to know who to ask for help without fear of judgement.

I believe that everybody has resilience. It is just a question of how much and how well we put it to good use in our life. Resilience does not we will not feel the intensity of the event or problem. Instead, it just means that we found ways of dealing with it more quickly than others.

Resilience is something can be learnt. Just like any human skill, learning greater resilience is something that you can do at any age, from any background, no matter your education or family relationships. All you need to do in order to increase your resilience is have the willingness to do so. And that’s why I am here to help you.

Let me share more with you about the basic structured approach that I use (it is similar to the approach used by Dr. Dan):

Assessment

During our first meeting, I would like to understand more about you and what brings you to come and see me. If your child is the one who needs help, I would do the same by understand what are the main struggles that your child is having. I might ask you a lot of questions, and you just need to share the information that you feel comfortable to share. All the information will be crucial for me to develop a plan to help you solve your problems and improve your quality of life.

If necessary, I will use Psychometric tests, which are structured and standardised assessment procedures that enable me to measure different aspects of your functioning.

Formulation

Formulation is the process of making sense of your difficulties in the context of your relationships, social circumstances, life events, and the sense that you have made of them. This is an important process to help you to understand WHY you are reacting and feeling the way you are and help you to see what contributes to your difficulties. It is a bit like a personal story or narrative that as a psychologist I can draw up with you to help you understand yourself better.

Intervention

Once the formulation is developed, we will move on to taking action. I will help you learn skills which will help you manage your emotions, function better and increase your well-being. We may work on seeing situations differently, reducing self blame or learning new ways of responding to difficult thoughts or emotions. This is the “therapy” part that people always mentioned. I am able to to use a number of evidence-based treatments, including Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and Solution Focused Therapy.  

Evaluation

How do you feel about the process? Do you find it helpful? These are a couple of the questions that I will ask you from time to time. This is so we both understand the progress you have made and we can work out how we should proceed. I highly appreciate any feedback you can provide to help me improve your experience of the therapy process.

Arranging an appointment

If you would like to arrange an appointment to meet with me you can contact Kae (012 5089910 or info@resolve.my) for more information you can see the following page which explains how and when we can meet.