Dedicated Psychotherapist in Dubai

Psychotherapy is a process that helps people change their thoughts, emotions and behaviors in order to live healthier and fuller lives. It can be used to treat a wide range of issues including anxiety, depression and relationship difficulties.

Psychotherapy can be conducted in individual or group settings, depending on the therapist’s specialization and services. The goal of psychotherapy is to help people discover their ability to engage with life’s challenges with more ease, enjoy healthier possibilities and develop positive relationships with themselves and others.

Different methods of psychotherapy offer different possibilities. A somatic psychotherapist can provide specialized therapy to go beyond symptom management and discover lasting change.

One of the most common questions I get asked is, what is the difference between a psychiatrist, psychologist, psychotherapist and counselor. If you are confused by these terms, you are not alone. And guess what. The confusion exists among the professionals as well. Here’s a brief about these terms:

 (You can also watch a video with a quick explanation about this difference).

Psychiatrist: The term Psychiatrist is largely a globally recognized and uniformally agreed-on term. Psychiatrists are medical doctors. Generally speaking, they prescribe medication to manage and reduce symptoms. On the other hand, Psychotherapists are not medical doctors. They cannot prescribe medication. Psychotherapists reduce symptoms by helping clients process through experiences as well as learning healthier coping skills and tools. Through psychotherapy, you can discover and build the internal muscles you need to increase your capacity for regulation and overall resilience. Sometimes, working collaboratively with both a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist can be very effective. Other times, medication is not necessary for achieving greater wellbeing and harmony.

Psychologist: Unfortunately, there isn’t a globally unified definition for the terms Psychologist, Psychotherapist nor Counselor. In the US, for instance, a psychologist is someone who has a PhD in Clinical Psychology and a license to practice from the American Psychology Association. Also, psychologists are trained in completing in-depth psychological assessments and testing as well as research. On the other hand, here in Dubai, a Psychologist is someone who has either an MA or a PhD in Clinical Psychology and is licensed either by the DHCC, CDA or DHA. That’s just the start of the confusion. If you read on, you’ll learn more about the licenses I have and how I use the different terms in this website.

Counselor: In the US and the UK, the term counselor is generally reserved for people who have a certification in counseling. Generally, such counselors would focus on short-term concerns rather than more in-depth or complex treatment. Here in Dubai, the term counselor is used for psychotherapists with an MA or PhD in counseling psychotherapy. For instance, here in Dubai, I am licensed (through the DHCC at first and now the DHA) as Allied Health – Counselor.But my training, skills and expertise go further than “counselor”. And that is because of the license I’ve obtained from the US, as well as the certified specializations I’ve pursued. In the US I am a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist or MFT. This means that I have 1) the academic required degree in Counseling Psychology, 2) completed intensive 3000 hours of supervised training and mentoring requirements and 3) passed the exhaustive board exams to be a licensed psychotherapist who is qualified to treat children, adults, individuals, couples, families and groups. I have chosen to focus my practice on working with individual adults.

Psychotherapist: The term psychotherapist is no longer used in licensing. However, I find that its definition is very simple and inclusive. Psychotherapy is the treatment of mental health challenges and disorders through psychological means rather than medication means. So, as a professional, I use this term to refer to therapy that is provided by nonmedical mental health licensed practitioners regardless of the different types of license titles used. Simply, a counselor or a psychologist, at the end of the day, is offering a form of psychotherapy treatment.  The terms psychotherapy, therapy and counseling are used interchangeably in this website.

If you want more information on the difference between psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists and counselors, here’s an article posted by WebMd.

How does therapy begin? What do we do?” Sometimes people are nervous about their first psychotherapy session. It can help to know what to expect. The main purpose of the first session is to 1) identify some of the challenges that are currently troubling you and the goals that bring you to therapy, 2) get “intake” or history information, 3) provide an opportunity to get a sense of the therapeutic environment, and 4) provide the beginning of a therapeutic relationship. Basically, we sit and talk, and “get to know each other”. In the first appointment, if it’s in the physical office, you get to visit the space and become familiar with the surrounding. You tell me more about what you are hoping to get out of therapy, ask questions you may have about the process and so on; and I tell you more about how I work.  Together, we discuss what could be useful for you at this time and decide on a treatment plan to achieve those goals. You can ask me questions at any time later on as well.

Sometimes, people have a hard time putting their finger on what it is that they are struggling with. That’s ok. If you feel like you’re down or anxious, off in some way, want help but not sure exactly with what, we can have a conversation where I’ll ask questions to help you think about different aspects of your life, stressors that are effecting you and possible patterns that keep you from being more the you you’d like to be. From there, you can have more of a sense of things and decide if you would like to have another appointment, or if you want to take some time to think about things further.

While online sessions have been offered in the past, currently there is a regulatory restriction for the use of this platform. So, for the time being, all of our sessions will be in-office sessions at The Psychology Center at the Carbone Clinic in Building 33 in the Dubai Health Care City, Dubai.

Frequency of sessions can vary. In general, for most effective results, I recommend that, when possible, sessions be held on a weekly basis, especially early on in treatment. When there is a need to increase the number of sessions per week, or reduce frequency, we will have a discussion about that. Additionally, frequency can be adjusted as recommended to meet your goals. I work collaboratively with you. You can bring up the question of frequency at any time. And, when I have a suggestion or concern about frequency, I will discuss that with you as well so that, together, we can make the adjustments that are most suited to you at different times.

Some therapy methods have a structured approach to therapy. This is helpful and common in therapy that is focused on skills building. In many cases, adapting and integrating skills is not do-able, or not enough, and therapy needs more time. That’s because the duration needed to achieve good outcomes in therapy is impacted by several variables including 1) the goals for therapy, 2) the “complexity” (i.e. history and interconnecting variables) of the challenges being addressed, 3) the supporting resources available, and so on. As an example, if someone generally has been feeling well overall, and suddenly there’s a single incident or challenge that has become an issue, likely the therapy will be short-term. For someone who has been struggling with challenges for a long time, or has challenges in different areas of life, then the course of therapy could be more medium to longer term.

Some people can find this overwhelming. But this too can be managed in a collaborative and supportive way. The duration can be navigated by identifying short term and long term goals. As progress is made, we can review the goals that you’ve set to determine if they are still relevant at this time in your life, or if the progress achieved is satisfying to take a break or end therapy.

Therapy is a personal process. So, you can stop or take a break at any time. My recommendation is that we discuss plans for stopping or taking a break together so that it is done in a way that best supports the progress and achievements you’ve made so far. Additionally, from my end, I will initiate this discussion as well if I believe we are at a point where taking a break or ending therapy should be considered. This is a process where it is really important that I hear your thoughts and perspective about where you feel you are with this therapeutic journey and how you feel about completing things at this time. We review progress together at different stages and make adjustments as needed in order to continue supporting you towards your goals.

Yes, this is possible. Firstly, if you are already working with a psychotherapist, that’s great. At the heart of therapy is the therapeutic relationship. So when there’s a good fit between the therapist and the client, it’s really valuable to continue together and not interrupt that. It’s also important not to work with two therapists at the same time. That can actually be counter productive and slow down your progress. With that in mind, Somatic Experiencing in particular can be used as an add-on for a few sessions (such as 2 to 8 sessions and review) to work through and transform the impact of specific incidences and memories such as car accidents, falls, medical procedure, assaults, phobias, panic attacks and so on. If you are considering including Somatic Experiencing at some point in your therapy, having a conversation with your therapist about this is important. If you want to ask me about a particular issue to see if Somatic Experiencing could be a good add-on, you can send me a message through the contact form. I look forward to hearing from you about this.