THE LOVE CLINIC

The Love Clinic seeks to be a centre of excellence for relationships, with a heart of Tender Loving Care.

The Love Clinic is passion driven, believing in the power of love to heal the world, one heart at a time. Feeling loved, and being free to love, is vital to your personal wellbeing, and that of your home and your community. So The Love Clinic is here to help you restore, revive and renew the experience and expression of love in your heart.

I am Andrea love, the founder of The Love Clinic, a relationship specialist, a Couple and Individual Therapist, as well as a Love and Life Breakthrough Coach. I meet with clients in person in Lyne, Chertsey and online. 

---

MY PASSION

I am a simple romantic, and I want everyone to be as happy as they can be! So, the question is, 'How can you be happier?!'
The 75-year and 20-million dollar Grant Study (the longest longitudinal study of biosocial human development ever undertaken) points to a straightforward five-word conclusion:

“Happiness is love. Full stop.” George E. Vaillant, M.D., a Psychoanalyst, a research Psychiatrist, and Harvard Professor

I have made this vision my life’s work, and I would consider it a privilege to come alongside you as an individual, a couple or a family, at this moment in your lives on your love journey. My passion is to help you feel more healthily and securely connected, both within yourself and within your relationships, to feel more loved and to be more loving, and ultimately to experience greater happiness in your life.

---

MY APPROACH

My heart in recent years has found its therapeutic home in Emotionally Focused Therapy, (EFT), the kindest and most empathic, compassionate way of working, with a proven history of success. (This is not to be confused with the Emotional Freedom Technique!) Its gentle focus is not on blame, but on powerfully facilitating each individual to become the best, and, most fulfilled, version of themselves. Being empowered to feel loved and give love is the way to greater happiness, and the greatest antidote to unhappiness. Depth of relational connection is contingent upon creating sufficient emotional, as well as physical, safety for each partner to feel that they can show up with vulnerability and truly be accepted and respected as themselves.

Emotionally Focused Therapy is based on an empirically validated theory of adult love and emotional distress. With its base in attachment theory, it is also a perfect model to understand and heal your relationship with your family and with different parts of yourself.

For individuals the therapy can facilitate you to address and overcome unhealthy attachments in your life, whether they be your relationship to different parts of yourself, addictions, or destructive behaviours and patterns in relationships. I can empower you to discover new healthy strategies for your personal freedom and self-expression.

For couples it can offer a safe and affirming opportunity for healing where there has been a betrayal, or where there is persistent emotional distance or conflict. They can begin to identify where they get stuck, to practise strategies to divert their destructive cycles and to then experience new, deeper, and more satisfying, ways to connect with each other. This can then begin to create the revival of romance and the emergence of nurturing strategies for relational resilience going forward, or healthy ways to separate as a couple if necessary.

I have sought to specialise in this modality because of its proven track record of success, and I have undergone intensive further training.  I am Certified by the International Centre for Emotionally Focused Therapy as a Couple Therapist.

However, as well as being a qualified Counsellor, I have also trained as a Life Breakthrough Coach and a Marriage Breakthrough Coach. For some people, the task and goal-oriented approach of coaching feels a more comfortable, and forward focused way into deeper and more personal issues. The diversity of my training and experience enables me to work from an integrative base, drawing from Psychodynamic and Person-Centred Therapy, CBT and Coaching, according to your particular needs as an individual or as a couple. I seek to blend my counselling and coaching expertise and experience appropriately the client as I work with each unique individual and couple.

I offer a free 30 minute telephone or Zoom consultation by appointment if you would like to find out more.

MY EXPERIENCE

I trained 25 years ago as a Psychodynamic Counsellor, which took me into a 2-year internship in an Addiction Treatment Centre. This first sparked my interest in attachment, and how we can all have unhealthy attachments in our lives, getting stuck on our journey towards happy and healthy relationships. It also gave me an introduction to working with couples and families, as well as an insight into the power of psychoeducation.

This work continued in my role as Manager of an Addiction Treatment Programme at a Priory Hospital for 5 years. Whilst there, and subsequently, I have designed and delivered workshops for different target groups on relationships, recovery from addiction, self-esteem and various aspects of spirituality.

Passionate about facilitating the creation, and nurturing, of positive attachments, I was sponsored to attend fast-track training as a Relationship Counsellor with Marriage Care, a national relationship charity, over 10 years ago. Since then I have continued to develop in this field, by focusing my professional training on Emotionally Focused Therapy. I have deepened my commitment to working with couples, with a focus on healing and strengthening relational bonds, as well as individuals relating in healthier ways to different parts of themselves.

I have helped both individuals and couples address a wide range of issues including: relationship breakdown, recovery from affairs, separation, relational boredom, loss of libido, domestic abuse, anger management, conflict resolution, addiction, depression, anxiety, stress, low self-esteem, perfectionism and differences in spiritual expression.

In recent years I have worked for Relate, as well as working as a specialist Couple Therapist and Coach in private practice, both in Surrey and in a London Clinic for 4 years.  I have dedicated my career to becoming a relationship expert and I have supported hundreds of clients, and delivered over 10,000 client hours.

---

MY QUALIFICATIONS

• Certification from ICEEFT - The International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy- in Couple Therapy (EFCT), Family Therapy (EFFT) & Individual Therapy (EFIT)
• CORE Skills in Emotionally Focused Therapy
• Level 2 in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Individuals
• Level 2 in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples
• Level 2 in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Families
• Graduate of The Developmental Model of Couples Therapy Training
• Diploma in Psychodynamic Counselling
• Certificate in Relationship Counselling
• Certificate in Discernment Counselling for mixed agenda couples
• Level 2 The Gottman Method
• Certified SYMBIS Facilitator for Premarital Counselling
• Gottman Educator for the Bringing Baby Home Programme
• Gottman Leader for the Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work Course
• Certificate in Marriage Breakthrough Coaching
• Certificate in Life Breakthrough Coaching

In addition to the above I regularly attend a number of CPD training events each year.

---

MY PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

I am an Accredited Member of both the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and the Association of Christian Counsellors, and I adhere to their Ethical Framework.

I am a Certified EFT Therapist with the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT) and the British Centre for Emotionally Focused Therapy.