Therapy for
Addiction and Compulsive Behaviours
Bernadette Bustin CPsychol; AFBPsS
Chartered Psychologist
Counselling Psychologist
Effective Therapy for Enduring Change
Across the UK On-line & In-Person in Mid-Wales
Professional History
I left a career as a Communications Manager in the Telecomms industry, to start my family. When my children were all happily in full time school, not wanting to return to management, I decided to retrain. Starting with an Honours Degree in Psychology with the Open University I then completed my MSc and Post MSc Diploma an the University of Wolverhampton. This qualification granted Chartership with the British Psychological Society. The Associate Fellowship with the British Psychological Society (AFBPsS) recognises extensive post-qualification experience. My ongoing accreditation now requires that I am also registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Since the beginning of my training I have continuously worked within the NHS in a range of settings including Substance Misuse; Adult Mental Health and across a broad spectrum of physical health conditions, including chronic pain and sleep, including leading the Psychology team in an Adult Weight Management service where many clients struggle with binge-eating disorder and emotional eating. A small amount of NHS work continues alongside the personalised private therapy offered from this website. I initially trained in CBT, Person Centred and Psychodynamic approaches. Throughout my career I have continued to learn other therapeutic models and specifically trained in: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Compassion Focussed Therapy (CFT), and Eye Movement Desentising and Reprocessing (EMDR). The most recent addition to my formal training has been an extensive programme of Internal Family Systems training through IFSCA (Canada). I have also added specific certification in Behavioural Addictions and Binge Eating Disorder. As IFS is so appropriate and helpful for working with addictions and compulsive behaviours, I consistently choose this approach as the starting point with all my clients and use additional related methods as is helpful.
More personally .......
It is important to me that the way I earn my living is meaningful and makes a difference to others. My personal motivation for specialising in the area of addictions and compulsive behaviours is that I detest oppression and bullying of any kind. I believe that our lives are uniquely precious and that we should all have every opportunity to live freely and to aim for a fulfilling life. However, it feels particularly unjust when we are oppressed by our own minds - and this is one way of describing what happens with addictions and compulsions – we feel like our mind is bullying us to behave in a way that, on another level, we know is not in our interests. Many incidents of oppression in this world are outside of my sphere of influence. However, my training, experience and personal values mean that I bring skilled and wholehearted intention to my work with people who are feeling trapped and tyrannised by their own minds through addictions and compulsive behaviours. Through this work with individual people, I know that my clients regain a sense of freedom and confidence that not only greatly benefits their own lives but also positively impacts on their relationships with family and friends.