Individual Therapy — They/Them/Us Mental Health & Well-being

Your Safe Space

At They Them Us, individual therapy sessions with Abby provide a sanctuary of emotional, physical, and psychological safety. Abby’s non-judgmental approach ensures that every session is a safe space where you can express yourself freely and work towards your goals.

Creating a sense of safety is the cornerstone of Abby’s therapeutic approach. By focusing on establishing a secure environment, they help you reach an optimal arousal level. This increases your window of tolerance, allowing you to access your executive functioning. As a result, you'll find it easier to be more social and communicate effectively with others.

Understanding the fight, flight, and freeze responses is crucial to recognizing the difference between feeling safe and unsafe. When you feel emotionally dysregulated, it can be challenging to engage with the world around you. Abby’s interventions focus on creating a stable and secure foundation, helping you to feel safe and regulated.

Common Issues Addressed in Therapy

LGBTQIA+ Concerns: Questioning, acceptance, coming out, and transitioning in various settings such as home, work, and community.

Sleep Difficulties: Struggling to get up in the morning or fall asleep at night.
Burnout and Motivation: Feeling burned out due to poor work/life balance and having difficulty motivating yourself to leave the house.
Overwhelmed by Tasks: Feeling overwhelmed by a long to-do list and not making progress.
Grief and Loss: Coping with the loss of a loved one, job, or relationship, and its impact on daily life and responsibilities.
Gender Exploration: Questioning or being curious about your gender.
Rejection and Discrimination: Experiencing rejection by loved ones or the community based on abilities, self-expression, body, gender, or sexuality.
Mental Illness Stigma: Facing stigma and discrimination due to mental illness.
Misgendering and Queerphobia: Dealing with misgendering, queerphobia, or transphobia.
Safety Concerns: Feeling physically or psychologically unsafe in various environments due to diagnoses, sensory overload, past trauma, or minority status.
Violence and Abuse: Fearful of or experiencing emotional, verbal, or physical violence at home, in relationships, at school, work, or in the community.

Do any of these issues resonate with you?
Mental Health Occupational Therapy can help.

Therapeutic Techniques

Psychology & Positive Behaviour Therapies

Abby employs evidence-based psychology and positive behaviour therapies to help you understand and modify behaviours that may be holding you back. These approaches are designed to support your mental health and well-being, fostering positive change and growth.
Organisational Skills, Routine & Habit Building

Developing strong organisational skills and building effective routines and habits are essential for managing daily life and reducing stress. Abby works with you to create personalised strategies that promote consistency and efficiency, helping you achieve your goals.
Sensory Modulation & Interoception

Understanding your unique Sensory Profile helps you to understand how your sensory environment (internal and external) impacts on your arousal levels (Hyper, Hypo and Calm-Alert or Optimal level of Arousal), behaviour and emotional regulation, executive cognitive functioning and overall capacity to perform and participate in practical and meaningful occupational activities
Through understanding how your Sensory nervous system discriminates, attends to, processess and organises sensory information and responds to sensory triggers and memories from our external environment (e.g. Bright lights, busy places or unpredictable noises) and internal environment (physical sensations such as intense pain, palpitating heart, urge to go to the toilet or a traumatic memory) you can learn to manage the negative effects and enhance the positive impact this has on your functional capacity to engage in purposeful and meaningful activies and improve yo r overall mental health, well-being and quality of life.
We can assist with creating Sensory strategies, daily routines and safety plans (alerting, calming and grounding activities) which assist with distress tolerance, energery conservation, harm minimisation, improved executive cognitive functioning, emotional regulation and increased positive behaviour activation .

Understanding Arousal Levels and Polyvagal Theory

This visual guide explains how different arousal levels impact our nervous system and overall functioning, based on Polyvagal Theory. It categorises these levels into three main states, each requiring specific strategies for optimal mental health.

Hyper-Sensitivity / Overstimulated / Amygdala Hijacking:
- Description: This state is marked by excessive sensory sensitivity or overload, often triggered by trauma, ADHD, ASD, burnout, and stimulants like amphetamines. It leads to emotional dysregulation, behavioral reactivity, and impaired executive functioning.
- Challenges: Includes disorganization, reduced cognitive abilities, and difficulty in daily functioning.
- Strategies: Employ calming and grounding techniques or environmental adaptations to manage and reduce overstimulation.
Calm / Alert Nervous System - Optimal Functioning:
- Description: The ideal state for optimal functioning, characterized by a calm and alert nervous system. This state allows for effective executive functioning, aiding in attention, focus, cognitive processing, and problem-solving.
- Benefits: Enhanced emotional and behavioral responses, better decision-making, impulse control, and improved social interactions.
- Strategies: Use everyday strategies to maintain this balanced state for sustained well-being and productivity.
Hypo-Sensitive or Low Arousal Levels:
- Description: This state involves low arousal, often seen in conditions like burnout, depression, dissociation, fatigue, and certain responses to ADHD and schizophrenia. It results in a lack of motivation and difficulty with daily tasks.
- Challenges: Anhedonia, disorganization, and struggles with maintaining routine.
- Strategies: Utilize alerting strategies or adapt the environment to boost arousal levels and improve overall functioning.

By understanding these states and applying appropriate strategies, individuals can better manage their mental health and achieve a balanced, functional life.