About me
About me at a glance
My name is Sam Lynch, CBT and DIT therapist and the owner of Beyond the Surface Therapy.
Qualifications: BSc, PgCert, PgDip, MSc, BABCP accredited.
Experience: NHS Talking Therapies, private therapy and my own personal experience of mental health difficulties.
Personal interests: People, sport, music, reading, travelling, learning, gardening.
I have a strong passion and interest as well as professional training in cognitive behavioural and brief psychodynamic therapeutic approaches. I regularly seek out opportunities to continue learning to make sure my therapy skills and knowledge are up to date. In my experience continued learning and personal growth is one way to maintain a sense of accomplishment, a purpose in life, motivation, and overall good mental health. This idea of continued personal growth is something I encourage in my clients too as well as helping them to overcome mental barriers in their lives.
I am a proud mixed-race male born to a white mother and black father. I have worked with clients from a variety of ethnicities and sexualities, and I welcome any background to my therapy. I especially encourage underrepresented groups of people to access therapy because I believe it really can make a real difference to everyone wanting to overcome challenges that inevitably can occur.
I am a BABCP accredited Cognitive Behavioural High Intensity Therapist (CBT) and a BPC accredited Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) practitioner with experience working for the NHS and in my own private practice. I initially qualified as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner in 2016 and qualified as a CBT Therapist in 2020 and as a DIT practitioner in 2024. My BABCP membership number is 00001003398. According to the BABCP own website 'Accreditation means that a CBT therapist has both core professional mental health training or recognised equivalent, as well as specific CBT training. To be accredited, our members must have applied and demonstrated that they meet high standards of training and experience in CBT'.
In my therapy, I provide a supportive and non-judgemental space for talking, reflecting, learning, and growing. I have been able to observe how life changing this type of space can be in helping clients overcome their difficulties and feeling better about themselves and lives.
To help maintain a good standard of my therapy, I receive intermittent supervision from other experienced therapists who help to provide support and guidance when needed. Supervision is considered a necessity and good practice for therapists. I work in line with the BABCP code of conduct to maintain professional high standards of care. See here for details https://babcp.com/Standards.
Experience
I have nine years’ experience of working for Talking Therapy services delivering CBT to clients aged 16 and above, presenting with a range of common mental health conditions. These include depression, generalised anxiety, social anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, health anxiety, specific phobias including heights and animal phobias, body dysmorphic disorder, trichotillomania, insomnia, bereavement, and body focused repetitive behaviours. My work is informed by symptoms that my clients present with but also dynamic interpersonal experiences that come to light in the sessions between therapist and client, client and themselves and client and others.
In January 2023, I began training in Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) through the Anna Freud Centre. In August 2024, I qualified as a Dynamic Interpersonal Therapist having completed and passed all training and supervised client work. DIT is a time-limited psychodynamic therapy that can help people deal with emotional and relationship problems. I am also trained up to level one in Psychodynamic Interpersonal Therapy PIT.
My training and experiences have helped me to help clients to better express their feelings, understand patterns and experiences in their relationships and make links to their earlier lives. It has also been useful in exploring difficulties that can inevitably occur in the therapist and client relationship in order to see what we can learn and to move forward, which I have found often leads to a strengthened working relationship.
I also have personal experience of mental health difficulties which I believe has given me a real insight that I have been able to use to help understand and treat the various clients I have worked with over the years. I have also had my own personal therapy which was invaluable, so I know what it can feel like being the client.