https://www.psychspace.ae/video-resources-1 daily 0.75 2026-06-21 https://www.psychspace.ae/areas-of-focus-2 daily 0.75 2026-06-21 https://www.psychspace.ae/about daily 0.75 2026-06-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1601975845991-3TMYGEVGARY8UDUJTXFL/JP.jpg About https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/a655ec4c-4745-48ed-ab9f-0a2f61e7948b/Sigmund-Freud-img.webp About The conscious mind may be compared to a fountain playing in the sun and falling back into the great subterranean pool of subconscious from which it rises. Sigmund Freud https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/2a92a55a-8637-4fc7-8a04-38f9217109da/Melanie-Klein-img.webp About What we learn about the child and the adult through psychoanalysis shows that all the sufferings of later life are for the most part repetitions of these earlier ones, and that every child in the first years of life goes through an immeasurable degree of suffering. Melanie Klein https://www.psychspace.ae/contact daily 0.75 2026-03-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1abbef42-8abd-4d02-9e7a-cb69ad7790de/contact-dialer.jpg Contact https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/c62099be-b1f9-4238-99ad-cf99d401df4a/contact-building.jpg Contact https://www.psychspace.ae/faq daily 0.75 2026-06-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/d232b507-3fb8-4c03-8cad-38394ebd4cfa/A-Therapist4.jpg FAQ https://www.psychspace.ae/defensive-strategies daily 0.75 2026-06-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/bd74c1c6-6dbf-4e87-b374-4ab6f1c2a63b/Defences+2.jpg Defensive Strategies - Introduction Defences are an integral part of our psychology and we will find them occurring at home, in Dubai, and on holiday. They develop unconsciously during our childhood to protect us from painful experiences, thoughts and feelings. One of the problems with defences is that they become outdated as we move into adulthood and risk compromising our mental health. For example, let us imagine the denial of emotion being used to manage hurtful childhood experiences. This works well until adulthood is reached and romantic relationships are entered into - the continued denial of emotion will negatively impact on the quality of a relationship. Adulthood requires the identification, examination, and reshaping of our particular defence strategies if we hope to have positive relations with both ourselves and others. Treatment by a clinical psychologist will facilitate this process. Some common defences are listed below. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/a38a8c23-85d1-446e-8288-6154b8ce2eaf/Projection2.jpg Defensive Strategies - Projection Projection attributes one's own unacknowledged thoughts, feelings, or impulses to another person. For example, an individual concerned with the quality of their recent work becomes convinced that colleagues are quietly questioning their competence and waiting for them to fail. The recipient is typically someone the individual feels both threatened by and similar to in some respect. The disowned material is experienced as belonging to others and protects the individual from recognising it as their own. This commits the individual to an ongoing preoccupation with those receiving the projection. In more disturbed forms, particularly narcissistic projection, the recipient is blamed for the disowned material and pressured to accept it as their own. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/ba59fe37-3d1c-4164-b968-d4a7685d6f61/Isolation+of+affect.jpg Defensive Strategies - Isolation of Emotion Isolation of emotion involves detaching the emotional component of distressing thoughts and experiences while retaining clear intellectual recall of them. For example, an individual may recount a painful argument or traumatic incident in detail without experiencing the associated sadness, anger, or anxiety. The emotional charge is separated from the memory and typically results in unemotional or detached descriptions of distressing experiences. Although this defence can provide temporary relief by reducing immediate overwhelm, it deprives the individual of the evaluative information emotions provide for making decisions. The blocked emotions may also later emerge in delayed or displaced reactions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/122f31c7-8fc4-4b2c-afc3-c4a88812a1e6/Idealization+of+Others.jpg Defensive Strategies - Idealizing Others Attributing exaggerated positive qualities to another person is able to strengthen self-esteem through association. Idealization enables the unconscious borrowing of specialness, competence, or worth, and temporarily alleviates feelings of inadequacy. The idealised figure may be known personally, encountered only through reputation or public role, or sustained through imagined connection. Although the figure's shortcomings may be intellectually recognised, they are often downplayed to preserve the fantasy. The surfacing of undeniable human flaws leads to feelings of sharp disappointment and a reduction in self-esteem. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/2c70e103-3255-49b6-896b-4a6b5962db50/Self-devaluation.jpg Defensive Strategies - Self-Devaluation Feelings of inadequacy are defensively managed by devaluing one’s self-image through persistent self-criticism. Attributing exaggerated negative qualities to the self paradoxically protects against future personal disappointments or external criticism by lowering expectations of oneself; a negative outcome that is already anticipated is easier to absorb than one that is not. Positive characteristics can be intellectually acknowledged, but are consistently downplayed to preserve a stable self-image. Viewing the self negatively also reduces the pain of comparison by positioning others' accomplishments as unattainable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/fbda1d16-4339-4438-803e-3cde0dfbac59/Displacement.jpg Defensive Strategies - Displacement Displacement redirects negative emotions from their actual cause onto a substitute person or object where expression carries less personal risk. For example, an individual reprimanded by a superior at work returns home and snaps at their partner for no legitimate reason. The emotion itself is consciously felt and expressed, providing some relief, while the original issue remains unresolved. The person displacing their emotion may or may not recognize that their response was incorrectly placed. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/8e5e45d4-3fa2-4443-983a-e8ad64b1130b/Denial+2.jpg Defensive Strategies - Denial Denial involves refusing to acknowledge aspects of reality or personal experience despite clear evidence to the contrary. For example, an individual whose alcohol consumption has increased may insist they have it under control. Both the fact and the feelings that accompany the denied material are held outside awareness. This protects the individual from confronting painful feelings they cannot yet tolerate, and from the personal responsibility that acknowledgement would bring. Although denial offers short-term protection from distress, it prevents adjustment and typically worsens the underlying problem. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/320155f4-4fb6-469a-b095-5253a39b2f1d/Passive-aggresssive.png Defensive Strategies - Passive Aggression Passive-aggressive behaviour conveys dissatisfaction indirectly without openly acknowledging it. For example, an individual who feels hurt by their partner withdraws into silence and states that 'nothing is wrong' when asked. Direct expression is avoided in expectation of conflict or rejection, and discontent is instead expressed through behaviours such as withdrawal, backhanded compliments, selective forgetting, and deliberate inefficiency. The defensive behaviour delivers the grievance while avoiding overt confrontation. The individual typically feels justified in acting this way and may take quiet satisfaction in the discomfort caused. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/09b4a60f-a3aa-4592-af10-57e031f7ebd4/Suppression2.jpg Defensive Strategies - Suppression Suppression is the conscious postponement of distressing thoughts, feelings, and experiences. It involves deliberately setting them aside through strategies such as distraction (focusing on other tasks), self-instruction (e.g., "not now"), or physical actions (e.g., exercise). Both the thought and its associated feeling are held outside awareness until one feels better able to engage with the content, or when the timing is more suitable. Suppression is adaptive when used selectively and followed by genuine engagement with the postponed material. Habitual reliance on it can lead to chronic emotional avoidance and diminished capacity to tolerate difficult feelings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/7e4bd397-74af-40c1-9e8d-c1e98d5af94a/Sigmund-Freud-img.jpg Defensive Strategies - The conscious mind may be compared to a fountain playing in the sun and falling back into the great subterranean pool of subconscious from which it rises. Sigmund Freud https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/25862feb-4175-45de-b439-f019dc37c488/Melanie-Klein-img.jpg Defensive Strategies - What we learn about the child and the adult through psychoanalysis shows that all the sufferings of later life are for the most part repetitions of these earlier ones, and that every child in the first years of life goes through an immeasurable degree of suffering. Melanie Klein https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1573128555239-4YT8OJPWPK4NSWH8FL00/Fairbairnphoto.jpg Defensive Strategies - It is better to be a sinner in a world ruled by God than to live in a world ruled by the Devil. Ronald Fairbairn https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/13459f67-061f-44f7-8dff-4fbacf47f460/Harry-Stack-Sullivan-img.jpg Defensive Strategies - Your emotional life is not written in cement during childhood. You write each chapter as you go along. Harry Stack Sullivan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1573473567394-EL716H19W8E6IEFO4N90/winnicot-donald.jpg Defensive Strategies - The precursor of the mirror is the mother’s face. Donald Winnicott https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/3c0360be-2b3f-4181-909c-a481affbdc7b/John-Bowlby-img.jpg Defensive Strategies - We’re only as needy as our unmet needs. John Bowlby https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1573128439014-84MO8Y58GLQ8DBPZOTX2/wilfred_bion.jpg Defensive Strategies - If a new result is to have any value, it must unite elements long since known, but till then scattered and seemingly foreign to each other, and suddenly introduce order where the appearance of disorder reigned. Wilfred Bion https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1573128766888-71BZGBKOCFAJ2UBKLSIM/fonagy.jpg Defensive Strategies - During the second half of the first year, regulation of arousal and emotion no longer depend simply on what the caregiver does, but on how the infant interprets the caregiver’s accessibility and behaviour. Peter Fonagy https://www.psychspace.ae/areas-of-focus daily 0.75 2026-03-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1620113713218-47OS3ZAN9H6TIQBPXX9F/Depression1.jpg Areas of Focus - Depression I didn't want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that's really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you're so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare. NED VIZZINI https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1606804504380-HX4ZAL9YDPN0M9BUFF5S/Anxiety.jpg Areas of Focus - Anxiety Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. ARTHUR SOMERS ROCHE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1620125300435-A1X0SPRGX75M992PWH5K/Bipolar.jpg Areas of Focus - Bipolar Bipolar mood disorder is a nice way of saying that you will feel so high that no street drug can compete and you will feel so low that you wish you had been hit by a Mack truck instead. CHRISTINE ANDERSON https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1606804531939-5SC9C1Q4XIP1K02TIJFW/Fear.jpg Areas of Focus - Fear The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated. … Nothing else really counts at all. TED HUGHES https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1620125479885-6O140E8DM0LGUPKPGZS3/Self-Criticism.jpg Areas of Focus - Self-Criticism Nothing can be hidden from the superego. Not even thoughts. SIGMUND FREUD https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/2c4a6c0d-ebc1-4d93-bcb9-9754a8e00a43/Loneliness-img.jpg Areas of Focus - Loneliness God, but life is loneliness, despite all the opiates, despite the shrill tinsel gaiety of "parties" with no purpose, despite the false grinning faces we all wear. The loneliness of the soul in its appalling self-consciousness is horrible and overpowering. SYLVIA PLATH https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1606800905396-ONVQ8P4EMW8AJ99XYFM1/anger.jpg Areas of Focus - Anger Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy. ARISTOTLE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1607322814921-YGYKN7B7KQ2POTY19OYR/betrayal-new.jpg Areas of Focus - Betrayal We must concede that adultery cannot be a workable answer, for no one can be its victim and not feel forever cut to the core. We can hear their defence as often as we like, but we'll be sure of one thing in our hearts: that every ounce of their love has evaporated … . ALAIN DE BOTTON https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1606804703742-HQUMS2YJIVXNMC4DI9UJ/Grief.jpg Areas of Focus - Grief The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to. ELIZABETH KÜBLER-ROSS & DAVID KESSLER https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1607322837903-1IPH6LLGSLZBKJ0OQWCS/Guilt-new.jpg Areas of Focus - Guilt If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean. ALDOUS HUXLEY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1607322872604-CL4E38U7C9UNP9RFS7CD/trauma-new.jpg Areas of Focus - Trauma The child trapped in an abusive environment … must find a way to preserve a sense of trust in people who are untrustworthy, safety in a situation that is unsafe, control in a situation that is terrifyingly unpredictable, power in a situation of helplessness. JUDITH HERMAN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1606804821305-VNOEKT7PYJ6TBNMQ1ZTZ/Compulsions.jpg Areas of Focus - OCD test https://www.psychspace.ae/psychological-principles daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://www.psychspace.ae/children daily 0.75 2021-05-27 https://www.psychspace.ae/love daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://www.psychspace.ae/miscellany daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://www.psychspace.ae/depression daily 0.75 2021-05-27 https://www.psychspace.ae/body-mind-connection daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://www.psychspace.ae/sitemap daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://www.psychspace.ae/terms-and-conditions daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://www.psychspace.ae/privacy-policy daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://www.psychspace.ae/home daily 1.0 2026-06-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/fc5108d6-e286-40fb-8803-1c9db00460f0/banner-img.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/0139d0e3-b778-4d1f-9e01-9ea60db34007/What+do+you+see.jpg Home - What Do You See? The image at the top of the page can be viewed as a rabbit or a duck. It illustrates that what we apprehend is not always accurate, particularly when it comes to the factors underlying our mental health. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/da1f14ad-bd3e-41e2-8408-afcb3dc2bf3e/The+Case+For+Therapy.png Home - The Case for Therapy We all experience psychological distress that can at times become impossible to deal with on our own. Starting therapy requires the courage to admit that something is not working in our lives. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/98795c34-70b5-4372-b7fb-9f33d342c2ca/My+Approach+3.jpg Home - My Approach My approach is psychodynamic. It works with unconscious patterns, internalized images of early relationships, trauma, relational dynamics, and defensive strategies that shape current difficulties. Understanding them is the first step toward change. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/0b868d8a-5541-4103-9108-647cefc78841/Insight.png Home The development of greater psychological insight begins with talking about your current difficulties and the history that shapes them. Through this, your underlying patterns of feeling and reacting come into view as the present is linked to the past. You may wonder how the past shapes the present. We all experience its influence when a remark or tone of voice evokes unexpected emotions, skewed perceptions, and defensive responses. When a small remark produces a large reaction, the size of the reaction usually points to something older that has been touched. You are encouraged to freely express your thoughts, feelings, and experiences in sessions. I offer observations, and your feedback helps to clarify how these patterns work and what they protect against. e.g. exploring how past rejection shapes current distrust and serves a protective function. Therapy brings into view the patterns that have been operating without your knowing, and the experiences from which they took shape. Understanding alone does not undo them, but it makes the changes that follow possible. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/964d03f3-969d-4262-9ca3-b96f23d27579/Insight+Into+Action.png Home Insight alone rarely produces change. Many people arrive at therapy expecting that understanding why they are the way they are will be sufficient — that once the source of a difficulty is identified, the difficulty will resolve. This expectation is intuitive, but does not match how psychological change actually occurs. The patterns psychodynamic therapy addresses are emotional, automatic, and often laid down before words could be put to them. They operate fastest when you are under stress, in conflict, or close to someone — exactly the situations in which thinking clearly is hardest. Insight provides the map, but the work of changing direction has to be done in the moment, again and again, until the new way becomes familiar. The work in this phase takes several forms: · Present perceptions are recognised as shaped by templates from earlier relationships. For example, a work difficulty no longer reads as simple failure but as activating older messages about adequacy carried since childhood. · Difficult feelings are tolerated rather than discharged defensively. For example, frustration that would once have produced withdrawal or sharp words is held long enough to understand what one is responding to. · Defences become visible as they operate. For example, a difficult conversation that would once have ended in withdrawal can be stayed with and met directly. · What is felt to come from another is recognised as originating within oneself. For example, criticism that seems to come from a colleague turns out, on examination, to be partly self-criticism cast outward. · The harsh internal voice is recognised as belonging to an earlier relationship rather than to current reality. For example, the voice that calls one inadequate is heard as the echo of a parent or teacher whose standards were long ago internalised. · Others' mental states are held in mind as distinct from one's own. For example, during a disagreement, imagining what the other person might be feeling and thinking, rather than assuming. Three changes typically follow. Distress lessens because what once felt overwhelming can now be understood and met. Repeated patterns that have shaped your relationships, choices, and sense of self begin to weaken their hold. Your relationships with others change as you bring greater clarity to how you experience and respond to them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1606372433892-UZTYON9NPBDKAMD78B0U/image028.jpg Home - The Study of Personality The study of personality is a fundamental aspect to improving your mental health. Understanding your personality make-up in a fast-paced and demanding city like Dubai is vital. A clinical psychologist has a number of personality measures at their disposal. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/d44d8749-a3a4-465a-8565-fcfe703b9997/Openness-to-Experience2.jpg Home - 1. Openness to Experience This factor relates to curiosity and a willingness to try novel experiences. High levels of openness to experience are associated with the pursuit of adventure and the holding of less traditional beliefs. Taken too far, this trait will show in risk-taking and unpredictability. On the other hand, low levels of openness to experience indicate a pragmatic and traditional quality. Contrastingly, very low levels of openness to experience show in a close-minded and rigid mindset. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/90aa473e-e268-48b2-ba78-f8c565c1fab0/Conscientiousness-img2.jpg Home - 2. Conscientiousness This factor relates to self-discipline, responsibility, and a striving for achievement. High levels of conscientiousness reflect in a focused and determined approach. Taken to an extreme, this can manifest as inflexibility and an overly serious quality. Contrastingly, low levels of conscientiousness indicate a flexible and spontaneous disposition. Pushed too far, this risks disorganization and unreliability. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1607326626886-IIVIUT8FOCV9BWIC0B2Z/Evolution-of-teh-speakeasy-Joseph-Webster-Golinkin-1933-co-Museum-city-of-new-york.jpg Home - 3. Extraversion This factor relates to a pronounced engagement with the external world and is often mistakenly assumed to be a preferred attribute (in contrast to introversion). On a positive note, high levels of extraversion reflect in a cheerful and sociable disposition. However, exaggerated levels of extraversion manifest in attention-seeking behaviour and a difficulty with spending time alone. On the other hand, low levels of extraversion (i.e. introversion) indicate a reserved and deliberate quality. Taken too far, this manifests in a tendency to withdraw and feelings of loneliness. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1607326941395-1L93QSJJVHPT57IAK86Q/nurse-new.jpg Home - 4. Agreeableness This factor relates to a preference for social harmony. High levels of agreeableness show in a kind, trusting and forgiving disposition and are often seen in the caring professions (e.g. nursing, teaching, and the NGO sector). Taken too far, this can result in conflict avoidance, a lack of assertion, and the adoption of victimhood. Contrastingly, low levels of agreeableness reflect in a competitive and challenging disposition. Taken to an extreme, low agreeableness manifests in an argumentative and unfriendly interpersonal style. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d2aee79430eb50001e4a2b0/1606825315305-MTB1E1DPSRYB9KCBOF7J/Neuroticism.jpg Home - 5. Neuroticism This factor relates to negative emotions. High levels of neuroticism indicate emotional depth, empathy and realism. Taken to an extreme, this manifests as emotional instability, vulnerability to stress, and pessimism. On the other hand, low levels of neuroticism reflect in emotional stability and a resilience to stress. Excessively low levels of neuroticism are typically seen in an emotional flatness and insensitivity to risk. https://www.psychspace.ae/depression-treatment-dubai daily 0.75 2026-06-21 https://www.psychspace.ae/anxiety-treatment-dubai daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://www.psychspace.ae/bipolar-mood-disorder-treatment-dubai daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://www.psychspace.ae/fear-phobia-treatment-dubai daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://www.psychspace.ae/self-criticism-treatment-dubai daily 0.75 2021-05-07 https://www.psychspace.ae/loneliness daily 0.75 2021-05-07 https://www.psychspace.ae/anger-management-dubai daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://www.psychspace.ae/betrayal daily 0.75 2021-05-07 https://www.psychspace.ae/grief-treatment-dubai daily 0.75 2021-05-17 https://www.psychspace.ae/guilt daily 0.75 2021-05-17 https://www.psychspace.ae/trauma-treatment-dubai daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://www.psychspace.ae/ocd-treatment-dubai daily 0.75 2021-05-07