Connect Therapy and Wellbeing

Gabby is literally the BEST therapist Ive ever had! She has such a great way of helping you to understand your brain and she really helped me though one of the lowest periods of my life. She genuinely cares about her patients and I 100% could not recommend a therapist more!
May 2nd, 2023

Gabby is kind, professional and a great therapist. She opened my mind up to consider different perspectives and had a hugely positive impact on my life. Thank you!
Dec 5th, 2022

I attended four Connect Therapy and Wellbeing secession's with Gabby Kanyo, she was brilliant and very professional, she gave me the tools to handle work stress, thank you Gabby you were brilliant.
Nov 8th, 2022

Aug 29th, 2021

I first saw Gabby this year (February) for OCD. I had physical compulsions to make objects orderly and to keep environments sterile. After 3 sessions, my OCD disappeared! She explained it clearly with a flowchart. Exposure-response prevention (ERP) worked well as my OCD was at an early stage. We discovered that OCD was caused by perfectionism and was a need for control over objects/environment because COVID was an environment where I lacked control of my grades/medicine/future. During the first month with her, I was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis (TM). She quickly highlighted my positive toxicity, which makes me look positive on the surface. I was diagnosed with a serious neurological condition but acted like everything was okay. I repressed my negative emotions which may have caused TM to occur in the first place deep anger/hatred. As I didnt have any negative thoughts consciously, that energy was manifesting itself unconsciously into a physical health problem. She encouraged me to explore that with spiritual counselling. The running before TM was a way to punish me which she discovered from my subconscious mind. I ran on anger back when I had positive toxicity. Now, I have thoughts to run even though I cannot because of TM. It's the mind's way of telling me to release my anger/self-hatred. I have an exercise addiction because it came to a reliance on this to release my negative emotions. She also outlined the paradoxical nature of my mind. It seems that perfectionism caused many problems. The mind wants to achieve and exercise, but the body was too fatigued with TM. So, my next aim with her was to cope with TM. I now assess my fatigue by checking if it is blurry (which means I am tired), so I do a productive action but with low energy/mental stimulation. If I have clear vision, I could exercise or do an activity with high physical stimulation. This is invaluable. She explained that if I pushed through my fatigue, it would increase my guilt/anger. We also made experiments to combat my restlessness with sub-optimisation, ERP etc... My perfectionism was driven by shame. I was ashamed of my chemistry grade, which drove me to waste time appealing and then resitting for an exam I never needed to do (my grade was still good enough for my career). At one point, my body was collapsing after 5 mins of revising. I still wanted to sit the exam as: more people with top grades, extra time, gap year to prepare, amazing tutors, etc. But I couldnt do it. She helped me let go. This marked a pivotal change in my shame. Also, after one exam, my mind would latch onto another. Even my sports were a distraction e.g taking Ju-jitsu after failing the UCAT (she also pointed that I used an all-or-nothing perfectionistic approachleads to burnout). These were ways to also achieve. It was pointless doing Ju-jitsu in the evening as it was blurry, so I couldnt absorb anything. She convinced me to let go of Ju-Jitsu which helped with guilt of not going. She helped me discover a lot about myself by recommending The Gifts of Imperfection which lead me to highlighting shame by posting things on Instagram that I was ashamed about. I took videos in one shot and posted them, being authentic and imperfect, rather than editing to make them perfect. Before, I was self-conscious when speaking but now I am not. Instagram also helped me cultivate creativity, gratitude, expressing negative emotions, being in the moment, and a purpose (to be/ make others happy and healthy and raise awareness about invisible illnesses) Sometimes we didnt have to solve something, she was just there as a listener, a safe place where I could vent out after important events in my life. Gabby was amazing, and I couldnt be where I am today without her. If anyone is stuck in life and needs help or wants to improve managing emotions. Gabby is there to offer you a warm helping hand! "You don't want to need help to have help"is my motto.
Jun 23rd, 2022