Conditions we treat

Persistent worry that is hard to switch off, often with physical symptoms such as a tight chest, restlessness, poor concentration or disturbed sleep. Anxiety responds well to treatment, and it responds best when talking work and, where appropriate, medication are used together rather than one at a time.

Intense fear of being watched, judged or embarrassed in front of other people. It often gets misread as shyness or rudeness, and it tends to shrink someone’s life quietly over years. Treatment usually involves gradually rebuilding the situations that have been avoided, with support while that happens.

Sudden surges of intense fear with strong physical symptoms: racing heart, breathlessness, shaking, a sense that something catastrophic is happening. Many people reach a first appointment after being checked for a heart problem and told nothing is physically wrong. Panic is treatable, and understanding the mechanism is a large part of it.

Low mood that has stopped lifting, along with loss of interest, changes to sleep and appetite, low energy, and difficulty seeing a way forward. Depression is not a character weakness and it is not something to wait out. It is one of the conditions where combining therapy and medication has the strongest track record.

Depression that follows a seasonal pattern, most often arriving with the shorter days and lifting in spring. It is a real diagnosis rather than a mood, and because it is predictable it can often be planned for ahead of time.

Difficulty sustaining attention, restlessness, and acting before thinking it through. In adults it often looks less like hyperactivity and more like chronic disorganisation, missed deadlines and a sense of underperforming relative to effort. Assessment takes a proper developmental history, not a questionnaire alone.

Lasting distress after a traumatic event: intrusive memories, nightmares, being permanently on guard, and avoiding anything that brings it back. Trauma work is paced by you. Nobody is pushed to recount something before they are ready, and that pacing is part of the treatment rather than a delay to it.

Unwanted, intrusive thoughts that cause real distress, and repeated behaviours or mental rituals carried out to reduce that distress. The relief each ritual brings is short, which is what keeps the cycle running. OCD is often hidden for years out of embarrassment about the content of the thoughts. It is a well understood condition with established treatment.

Episodes of elevated or agitated mood alongside episodes of depression. It is frequently identified late, because people tend to seek help during the depressed phase and the elevated phase does not feel like illness at the time. Careful history taking matters here more than almost anywhere else, and long-term monitoring is part of good care.

Trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking far too early and not getting back. Sleep sits underneath almost every other mental health condition, in both directions: poor sleep makes everything worse, and most conditions disturb sleep. It is worth treating in its own right rather than as a symptom that will clear up on its own.

Where a physical sleep disorder such as sleep apnea is suspected, that needs assessment by the right specialist, and you will be pointed toward it rather than treated around it.