GHP / Mental Health Awards 2022 15 , Feb22637 People seek therapy when, despite their best efforts, they do not feel what they want to feel. This is the view of Dr Emma Solomon, Consultant Clinical Psychologist. With a thriving private practice alongside work in the NHS, her career is one which has helped a great many people to cope in difficult times. We take a look at how her bespoke blends of therapy interventions have helped many to flourish, leading to her success in the Mental Health Awards 2022. Best Mental Health Specialist 2022 (North West England): Dr Emma Solomon Specialist help with mental health is vital to achieving true and long-lasting change. No one knows this better than Dr Emma Solomon who has helped many in her work as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the NHS. In 2020 she felt she could do more with the therapy expertise she has accumulated over the last 20 years, and she began her own part-time private practice alongside her NHS work. Private practice has empowered Dr Solomon to offer a more personalised service to clients. We asked her what precisely this entailed. “I want the very best results for my clients” she tells us. “I vary the approach, for each stage of my client’s therapy... I like the metaphor of using different exercise methods to get fit. If you only run for your overall goal of getting fit, you miss out on the benefits of strength training, flexibility work, and nutrition.” We take a holistic view of training the body to work at peak performance, and Dr Solomon applies the same approach to achieve psychological fitness and flexibility. Dr Solomon spoke passionately about her desire to find ways that more people can benefit from psychological therapies. She described the mental health crisis that has worsened since the Pandemic and how so many people are struggling and seeking therapy. This is why she is particularly excited by the opportunities of briefer and more intensive therapies. She enjoys using the many therapy models she has trained in but now offers clients a phased intervention. This begins with traditional talking therapy, like Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy and then progresses to methods like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and rapid transformational therapy (RTT). She told us that “these are both hybrid therapies… they blend talking, behavioural science, hypnotherapy, neuroscience, and imagery methods…and they directly access the root causes of people’s issues creating lasting results in the here and now”. It is an exciting time for psychology, and this is one of the reasons Dr Solomon is so passionate about constantly learning and passing this learning onto her clients. It’s clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an epidemic of mental health concerns. “For many people it has been the tipping point and they have found their resilience tested beyond what anyone expected,” Dr Solomon agrees. That said, she has found the need to socially distance has resulted in opportunities for improving how people access therapy. “In terms of my practice, the pandemic has enabled therapists to realise that the traditional ‘therapy room’ setting was not required for results. We have all been surprised that the therapy techniques, tools and interventions work exactly the same way when delivered either on the phone or by ZOOM. This has massively increased access for people who wanted to see a particular therapist but who was not geographically close.” Dr Solomon’s exciting career has brought her incredible opportunities over the years. Her success both in the private and public sector is something to be celebrated, allowing as many people as possible to access her incredible skills. We ended our catchup by asking what keeps pushing her forward to achieve such success. “I love what I do,” she smiles, “and going to bed after reading a client’s email about how changed they feel, how moved they have been after sessions and how much better they are feeling and thanking me for working with them makes me want to reach more people.” With such a track record of success, we hope she keeps reaching people for many years to come. Company: Dr Emma Solomon, Consultant Clinical Psychologist Name: Dr Emma Solomon Email: info@ emmasolomonpsychologist.com Web Address: emmasolomonpsychologist.com
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