John Castleford @Life-Minded
I am a private practice therapist serving clients in SE Ireland, Birmingham UK as well as clients worldwide online as needed. I look forward to helping you resolve difficult challenges so you can move from where you are now to where you want to be –and so become the best version of who you could possibly be.
We like to think we have fantastically evolved brains. But all too often our brains seem to have a mind of their own, locking us into overthinking, interminable negative self-perceptions, constant anxiety, feelings of low self-worth and occasionally obsessions. And as our reality is dependent on how our brain processes and interprets information, are we in charge of our thoughts? Particularly if we are anxious and acutely aware of stressful circumstances? Do we want just to cope? Or thrive? Check my testimonial pages to see what my clients have to say.
I welcome inquiries and offer a confidential, free, no-obligation chat to discuss ways forward.
Approaches
I use a variety of approaches to address clients’ unique needs and these are firmly grounded on the latest findings from Neuroscience. These include better managed thinking, a blend of elements of compassion focus therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, existential/humanistic, multicultural, rational-emotive therapy (the forerunner of CBT), and CBT. All these approaches are customised to help clients develop an understanding of how the mind works, so they can empower themselves, and make the transition from floundering to flourishing. There is a growing body of research that the brain is amenable to being “re-wired” so we can improve ways to manage how we think and how we feel.
I help my clients move past what’s blocking them from reaching their full potential individually and in their relationships. Especially the relationship with themselves. And most clients only need six sessions because the start point is now –not the past or keeping the pain of the past in the present.
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Education & Credentials:
- Practising Since: 2010
- Education: B.Ed in multicultural education (CNAA, B’ham);
- BA Anthropology (1st class Hons) and MA in anthropology (University of Victoria, BC, Canada) where I specialised in human evolution, cultural and social organisation and the early human society, which I continued to study at the Dept of Ethnology & Prehistory, and St Cross College, Oxford University.
- Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, with interests in global approaches to mental health, and human evolutionary perspectives
