Milton Sattler Therapy

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

Gender Sexuality & Relationship Diverse Therapy (GSRD)

I am an experienced psychotherapist with a demonstrated history of working with mental health since 2013 and wellbeing in different sectors such as private practice, National Health Service (NHS) and charitable sector. I am a registered member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP), the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) and the Association for Counselling & Therapy Online (ACTO). I offer Brief Psychodynamic Counselling, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and a Gender Sexuality and Relationship Diverse (GSRD) Therapy or a combination of them tailored accordingly to the clients’ needs.

I offer a confidential, safe, high quality, non-judgmental and supportive environment, brief counselling and long-term psychotherapy service in English and Portuguese. I think that connecting with my clients therapeutically enables me to fully understand their perception of the key issues affecting their lives.

Services

As a psychodynamic psychotherapist, I work exploring how your early childhood experiences and early relationships can shape your present relationships and circumstances, creating repeated patterns of relationships. These patterns are still present in your adult life even though you are unaware of them and they may no longer reflect your adult experiences. Being more aware of these patterns and how they impact the way in which you see the world and your position in it will help you to change this perception in a way which assists you better. This may involve uncovering the deeper origins of difficulties by exploring experiences, feelings, dreams, desires and patterns of relating that are contributing to present difficulties. I work one-on-one supporting you to gain a better self-understanding, so you can make more assertive life choices. Counselling could help you understand these problems and help you work with them in a more constructive way. As a Gender Sexuality and Relationship Diversities (GSRD) psychotherapist, I work with clients who are gender, sexuality or relationship-diverse such as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender person, Polyamorous, Asexual, Gender Queer, Gender Fluid and BDSM/Kink.

Brief Psychodynamic Therapy

Brief Psychodynamic Therapy focuses on unconscious processes as they are manifested in the client's present behaviour. The goals of psychodynamic therapy are client self-awareness and understanding of the influence of the past on present behaviour. It enables the client to examine unresolved conflicts and symptoms that arise from past dysfunctional relationships and manifest themselves in the need and desire to abuse substances.

In Brief Psychodynamic Therapy, the central focus is developed during the initial evaluation process, occurring during the first session or two. This focus must be agreed on by the client and therapist. The central focus singles out the most important issues and thus creates a structure and identifies a goal for the treatment. The therapist is expected to be fairly active in keeping the session focused on the main issue. Having a clear focus makes it possible to do interpretive work in a relatively short time because the therapist only addresses the circumscribed problem area.

I work usually between 20 to 25 sessions and then we evaluate our work and decide whether to carry on or stop.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Psychodynamic therapy, also known as insight-oriented therapy, focuses on unconscious processes as they are manifested in a person’s present behaviour. The goals of psychodynamic therapy are a client’s self-awareness and understanding of the influence of the past on present behaviour. In its brief form, a psychodynamic approach enables the client to examine unresolved conflicts and symptoms that arise from past dysfunctional relationships and manifest themselves in the need and desire to abuse substances.

The healing and change process envisioned in long-term psychodynamic therapy typically requires at least 2 years of sessions. This is because the goal of therapy is often to change an aspect of one's identity or personality or to integrate key developmental learning missed while the client was stuck at an earlier stage of emotional development.

A therapeutic alliance requires intimate self-disclosure on the part of the client and an empathetic and appropriate response on the part of the therapist.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave. It is a "problem-focused" and "action-oriented" form of therapy, meaning it is used to treat specific problems related to some diagnosed mental conditions.

CBT is based on the concept that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are interconnected, and that negative thoughts and feelings can trap you in a vicious cycle.

CBT aims to improve mental health and it focuses on challenging and changing unhelpful cognitive distortions (e.g. thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes) and behaviours, improving emotional regulation, and the development of personal coping strategies that target solving current problems.

CBT is based on the belief that thought distortions and maladaptive behaviours play a role in the development and maintenance of psychological conditions, and that symptoms and associated distress can be reduced by teaching new information-processing skills and coping mechanisms.

Gender Sexuality & Relationship Diverse (GSRD) Therapy

Gender Sexuality & Relationship Diversities (GSRD) is a more inclusive term to replace the acronym LGBTQ+. It includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans people, intersex, BDSM/Kink, non-monogamies, sex workers, asexual, non-binary and other gender non-conforming people, as well as those who feel generally excluded in discussions of LGBTQ+ issues.

You may be looking for a therapist with training in a variety of specific issues by feel comfortable in working with who belongs to the GSRD communities. I have attended workshops organised by Pink Therapy on the topic GSRD and Gendered Intelligence (GI) on the topic of working with trans and non-binary clients. I have worked in different LGBTQ+ organisations which have a specialised work with GSRD clients. I am also a LGBTQ+ rights defender and a campaigner for the Ban of Conversion Therapy practice. I am an experienced GSRD therapist who have developed high standard of specialised in offering therapy with sexual minorities. Those include who are identified as BDSM/Kink and Trans clients.

I am also very aware that mainstream psychotherapy has often persisted in focus on someone’s gender and/or sexuality, when it is unrelated to the issue being brought to therapy such as a bereavement, depression, anxiety. Trans and queer people suffer from job related stress, intersex people suffer from traumatic experiences with correction surgeries, kinksters suffer from a sense of loss when their children leave home. Often, GSRD clients can suffer from the consequences of homophobia, biphobia, lesbian phobia, transphobia and pathologizing BDSN/Kink practices.

As a GSRD psychotherapist, I believe in working with different tools to better fit to the client needs. I believe that gender and or sexuality/sexual behaviour is vital to the therapeutic process but I work with the clients’ own pace to attend to GSRD specific issues which the client feels that they need to work with or they feel the need to have a therapist who understands “where they are coming from”.

The field of psychodynamic therapy is an exciting and sometimes unsettling search for understand humankind. It has come a long way from a moment of transition in which progressive cisgender and LGBT+ practitioners are discussing LGBT+ outside the often pathologizing question of aetiology, while LGBT+ clinicians like myself are entering the profession, studying and presenting on the topic. I take seriously my professional development and I participate in several pieces of training and conferences related to LGBTIQ+ mental health such as the Pink Therapy 'Working with Sexuality & Relationship Diversities (GSRD) clients' and I am an accredited Pink Therapy GSRD-Aware Trainer. I attended the Gendered Intelligence training 'Working Alongside Trans, Gender Diverse and Questioning People'.

I have experience in working with individuals who identify as transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, gender-questioning, genderfluid and gender-fluid, and other people that don't fit in these labels. I offer therapy for anyone who wants to explore their identity, regardless of whether they are considering or undergoing transition and can support you on your personal journey.

I am a BDSM (Bondage and Discipline (B/D), Dominance and submission (D/s), and Sadism and Masochism (S/M or SM)/Kink-aware therapist, that is to say, that I recognise BDSM /kink as a normal practice I can distinguish BDSM/kink that people describe as being “healthy” for them from non-consensual abuse, is aware of what constitutes safe or risk, aware BDSM/kink practice, understands the diversity and nuance of BDSM/kink, and is aware of BDSM/kink-specific concerns that might be relevant to therapy. These concerns may include basic concerns common among people involved in BDSM/kink, such as disclosure to self and others, how to communicate about BDSM/kink with non-BDSM/kink partners, how to negotiate about BDSM/kink boundaries and limits, and how to manage stress caused by having to hide one’s involvement in BDSM/kink. Something that I may be looking at with my clients are some of the Kink communities tools developed to evaluate safe practices such as their views on the application of the terms Safe, Sane and Consensual (SSC), Risk Aware Consensual Kink (RACK) and Caring, Communication, Consent and Caution (4C’s) to define the core principles of healthy sexual behaviour in their practices.

My pronouns are 'he', 'him', 'his'.

Straight and working with me!

Being a GSRD therapist does not mean that I do not see or work with heterosexual monogamous clients or that I do not appreciate the way they live their lives. On the contrary, I think that as a psychotherapist I have the privilege of listening and helping those who may have never had the opportunities to talk and to be listened to by others about different aspects of their lives.

Online therapy

Online/Telephone therapy refers to therapy conducted via the internet or telephone. Some people may prefer to use video conferencing so that we can see each other as we speak, and some may prefer to use just audio. I encourage you to try video conferencing and I will support you in the transition by answering any questions.