Stuart Langley

I have extensive experience in the treatment of Anxiety, Depression, Complex Trauma, and Personality Disorders. I work with individuals, couples and families.

I started my career by working therapeutically with disadvantaged youth in Cape Town, South Africa, who were at risk of joining organised criminal gangs. During my time in South Africa, I also maintained a private practice of adults experiencing emotional distress.

I then returned to the United Kingdom where I was born and trained. I worked across a wide range of mental health services both as a clinician and within leadership roles, including forensic mental health, adolescent mental health and juvenile justice, drug and alcohol clinics, and multiple modes individual and family therapy, including couples counselling.
I have extensive experience working with a range of individual difficulties including complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Personality Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, Depressive Disorders, Psychotic Disorders, and Trauma / Stressor-Related Disorders.

I have advanced training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and have specialised in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), and Radically Open – Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (RO-DBT). Standard DBT was primarily developed work with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and other difficulties related to emotional regulation (undercontrol). RO-DBT has been developed to work individuals who exhibit ‘overcontrol.’ It is intended for clinicians treating clients with such chronic problems as refractory depression, anorexia nervosa and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. ACT encourages clients to let go of unhelpful thoughts rather than struggling to change them. I have found that blending this with DBT to be highly useful in my practice, so clients have enhanced insights into themselves and their own personal triggers to distress which can then be managed.

I am also trained in the use of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR is a psychotherapy treatment that was originally designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories. EMDR therapy facilitates the accessing and processing of traumatic memories and other adverse life experience to bring these to an adaptive resolution. After successful treatment with EMDR therapy, affective distress is relieved, negative beliefs are reformulated, and physiological arousal is reduced.

The process of therapy is as important to me as the therapy itself. This personal value combined with the principles of Stabilisation Based Therapy (SBT) ensures that clients always feel safe within therapy and that there is continuously a shared understanding of goals and therapeutic purpose throughout treatment.

Specialties: Acute Stress Disorder, Adjustment Disorders, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Anxiety Disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Bipolar, Borderline Personality Disorder, Depressive Disorders, Dissociative Disorders, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Psychosis, and Substance-Related Disorders

Approaches: Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), Behavioural Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Family Systems Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Prolonged exposure therapy, Schema Therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, and Psycho-education.

Associated Information

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)