About

I'm Rodrigo Silva, a psychotherapist in Saint Helier, Jersey, working in person and online. I'm accredited in both Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (BABCP) and Cognitive Analytic Therapy (ACAT), an EMDR therapist, and a registered member of the Order of Portuguese Psychologists. Most of my work is with adults bringing anxiety, depression, trauma, OCD, and the relationship patterns that keep repeating.

I work mainly in two evidence-based modalities and choose between them — or combine them — on what the problem actually looks like, not on a house style. CBT is the right tool when a present-tense loop is keeping a problem going: we build a shared, collaborative formulation and test it with behavioural experiments. CAT is the right tool when the difficulty is a pattern laid down earlier and replayed in how you treat yourself and others — early on I write you a reformulation letter that sets the pattern out in your own story, and we map it so you can catch it as it happens. For trauma, I also use EMDR — a structured, evidence-based way of processing memories that stay stuck. I'll tell you, early and plainly, what I think fits.

I promise to think with you — to take what you bring seriously and work it through, rather than hand you reassurance. Sessions are available in English and Portuguese.

How I think about the work

Two influences shape how I work. From Wilfred Bion, the idea of thinking with a person rather than at them — staying with what's difficult long enough to make sense of it. From Aaron Beck, collaborative empiricism — treating you as a scientist of your own experience, testing what's true rather than taking thoughts at face value. CBT and CAT sit on those two lineages, and I hold them as equals.

Training and accreditations

• BABCP — Accredited Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist (Reg. 101239)
• ACAT — Accredited Cognitive Analytic Therapist (Reg. 15172)
• EMDR Therapist (EMDR Academy UK, 2019)
• Member, Order of Portuguese Psychologists — Clinical Psychology (Reg. 26160)

Qualifications: Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (University of East Anglia); Licenciatura in Clinical Psychology (ISPA, Lisbon).

Experience

I've worked in psychological therapy for over twenty years, across the NHS, public services, and private practice.

Since 2022 I've been in full-time private practice in Jersey, working with private clients and through insurers and referral partners — including AXA Health International, Onebright, and Think CBT — alongside Portuguese-speaking referrals and medico-legal work. Before that I spent eight years as a Senior Psychological Therapist with Jersey Talking Therapies (States of Jersey), the island's primary-care talking-therapies service, delivering CBT, CAT and EMDR and supervising other therapists. Earlier, in England, I was a CBT psychotherapist and locality team lead with the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, and I began my career in community mental-health rehabilitation in Lisbon.