OUR APPROACH
Where insight meets compassion.
At Blue Door, no two courses of therapy look exactly alike. Each clinician brings their own training, sensibility, and way of working — and each client brings their own history, needs, and pace. What remains constant is a commitment to working thoughtfully, at depth, and within a therapeutic relationship that takes the whole person seriously.
The approaches described here are not used in isolation. They inform and enrich one another — held within a broader orientation toward meaning, relationship, and genuine understanding.
Our Approach
PSYCHODYNAMIC & RELATIONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY
The Foundation of Our Work
Psychodynamic psychotherapy begins with a simple but radical premise: that much of what drives our suffering lies beneath the surface of conscious awareness — in early experience, in relational patterns, in the stories we carry about who we are and what we deserve.
By attending carefully to both past and present — to what is said and what is left unsaid, to what repeats and what feels impossible to change — psychodynamic therapy creates the conditions for genuine insight. Not the kind of insight that remains intellectual, but the kind that actually shifts something.
Central to this work is the therapeutic relationship itself. The way a person relates to their therapist — the hopes, fears, and patterns that emerge in that room — becomes a living map of how they relate to the world. It is within that relationship, as much as within any technique, that healing becomes possible.
A key dimension of our relational approach is intersubjective theory — the understanding that both therapist and client are always influencing one another, and that the therapist’s own subjectivity is not something to be hidden but something to be used, carefully and ethically, in the service of the client’s growth.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is well-supported by research. The gains made in this kind of work tend to deepen over time — long after therapy has ended. For those interested in the evidence, we recommend the summary by Jonathan Shedler, PhD, which offers a clear and accessible overview.
COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY & RELATED APPROACHES
Other evidence based tools for change
Alongside the depth-oriented work described above, our clinicians draw on a range of evidence-based approaches where they are clinically indicated — including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Schema Therapy.
These approaches attend to the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, offering practical frameworks for understanding and shifting patterns that cause distress. At Blue Door they are not used as standalone treatments but integrated within a broader relational and depth-oriented frame — which means the tools are always held within a therapeutic relationship that gives them meaning and context.
THE GOTTMAN METHOD & EMOTION FOCUSED THERAPY (EFT) FOR COUPLES
For couples work
For couples therapy, our clinicians draw on these methods — both research-based approaches to understanding and improving relationship dynamics. They attend to the patterns of communication, conflict, and connection that shape a relationship over time, and offer both insight and practical tools for change.
The both methods are used within Blue Door’s broader relational framework, which means the focus is always on understanding what lies beneath the patterns — not only on managing them.
EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITISATION AND REPROCESSING (EMDR)
For trauma that words alone cannot reach
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured, evidence-based approach developed specifically for trauma. It works by supporting the brain’s natural capacity to process distressing memories that have become stuck — memories that continue to intrude on the present long after the events that caused them have passed.
EMDR is available at Blue Door through Sarah Hensley, our clinical psychologist. It is often used in conjunction with psychodynamic work, which attends to the relational and meaning-making dimensions of trauma that EMDR alone does not address.
MINDFULNESS & BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY
A Wider Lens
Western psychology has given us extraordinary tools for understanding the individual self. Buddhist thought offers something complementary — a framework that holds suffering not as a problem to be eliminated but as a condition to be understood, and the self not as a fixed entity but as something arising in relationship with everything around it.
At Blue Door, Buddhist philosophy and mindfulness practice are not offered as techniques alongside therapy. They are woven into the fabric of the work — informing the quality of attention brought to each session, the willingness to sit with uncertainty, and the understanding that genuine healing involves not just changing what we do but transforming how we relate to our own experience.
This includes formal mindfulness and meditation practices, which can be explored within the therapeutic relationship for those who are drawn to them.
A Note on the Process
If you are unsure which approach might be right for you, you don’t need to know before getting in touch. Part of the work of our initial consultation is understanding what you are carrying and which clinician and framework might serve you best. You are welcome to ask questions, to take your time, and to change your mind.