Sharmila Dutt

 

Sharmila Dutt  (Associate)

Senior Individual & Couple Psychotherapist and Psychosexual Therapist

 

BACP Registered & Accredited Psychotherapist

COSRT Student Member

Psychosexual Therapist 

 

Background

Sharmila originally trained in social work at Eastleigh College from 1987-1989. Within this training she worked with disadvantaged young adults, elderly residents in residential setting and was a group leader for Al-Anon, family of alcoholics, therapeutic groups.

This experience, along with following corporate experiences working as team leader, resulted in Sharmila wanting to know more about the human psyche. She was interested in what shapes people as individuals, how the past informs the present and how we manage emotions, anxieties and frustrations. This curiosity led to her completing a Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Diploma in WPF from 2012-2015. WPF is a known centre of excellence for individual psychotherapy in the UK and it requires the trainee to undergo intensive individual personal therapy and self-reflective group practice as part of its training.  This training emphasised the benefits of the psychoanalytic practice of seeing clients more than once a week and this is a model that Sharmila can offer at EBTC.

In 2017 she completed a professional certificate in couple psychotherapy via Basingstoke Counselling Services. Sharmila was then able to draw on a rich history of working with individuals to feed into her couple’s work. She now has 7 years of experience working with a range of individuals and over 5 years working with couples both presenting with emotional trauma, intergenerational trauma, race, identity, grief, sexual abuse, addiction, anxiety and depression. She was particularly interested in relational issues that impacted the family dynamics and systems both past and present.

From Sharmila’s work with couples and individuals she became more interested in how the body stores and remembers trauma and the complexity of mind/body links. This led her to enrol in the Psychosexual Diploma at Tavistock Relationships, another international centre of excellence. Sharmila now combines her individual psychodynamic origins, with psychodynamic couple work and a CBT based psychosexual model that includes homework setting and behavioural, body focused exercises. She feels that these different approaches she has trained in have fed into a holistic model of working with clients of different ages, ethnicities, genders and sexualities.

Clinical Experience

Sharmila carried out her original clinical placement at Basingstoke Counselling Services where she worked with individuals presenting with a range of difficulties. She worked both face to face and online. She worked weekly and more than once a week where appropriate. During the couple training at Basingstoke, she worked clinically with couples presenting with communication difficulties, affairs, parenting and family issues. She tended to work weekly and open ended.

In the psychosexual training Sharmila completed a placement in the UK National Health Service where she trained in a short-term psychosexual 12 session model of working with individuals or couples. In this placement she worked with a wide divergence of race, religion, sexualities and gender identities. She especially enjoyed working collaboratively with the couples to tailor behavioural Sensate Focus exercises to their needs and simultaneously working Psychodynamically, to consider how their identity fed into their sexual relationships. She worked with a wide spectrum of PST issues including body dysmorphia, gender dysphoria, menopause, erectile disorder, premature and delayed ejaculation, low or absent desire and painful intercourse. During this placement Sharmila was also part of a team that educated GP practices on the benefits of talk therapy, and she is now part of the ‘talking point’ panel for the professional magazine ‘Therapy Today’.

Approach To Therapy

Sharmila’s approach to couple’s work is to look honestly and openly upon what a couple brings to the relationship. She works with the couple for them to take active steps towards understanding themselves and each other in a respectful way. In facilitating these important discussions, Sharmila has helped many couples with communication problems, affairs, loss of intimacy, life changes and life stages and lack or loss or desire.

Sharmila’s philosophy is to try to meet the client or couple where they are without judgement but with compassion.  She has found that compassion lets a person grow and gives them the space to think, explore and to just be. She can provide a warm, caring, accepting, judgement free atmosphere focused on promoting the clients or couples’ self-worth, goals and overall quality of life.

Sharmila understands that navigating relationships is a part of life however, very few of us are equipped or taught how to do this. Sharmila works with individuals and couples on a wide range of issues that come up such as divorce and separation, parenting and menopause.

Qualifications

Eastleigh College 1987-1989- Certificate in Social Work

WPF 2012-2015 Diploma in Individual Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

BCS 2017- Certificate in Couple Psychotherapy

Tavistock Relationships 2020-2023 Diploma – Psychosexual & Relationship Therapy

Publications

https://www.bacp.co.uk/bacp-journals/therapy-today/2020/october-2020/articles/talking-point/

Accrediting Bodies

BACP Registered member

COSRT (College of Sexual and Relationship Therapy) Student Member

Appointments

Sharmila works Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings and also Friday afternoon & evening.

If you would like to book an appointment with Sharmila, please call the clinic on 091 727777 or get in touch via the contact page.