When we start the therapy, we will probably agree to meet for one or two “getting to know you” sessions. This helps you to know that you feel comfortable with me and for me to know that I can help you. It also gives us a chance to discuss how best to move forwards.
In our sessions we will work cooperatively together. We will decide what the sessions will look like and how you want to proceed. I will often invite you to check in with how we are doing. I will answer your questions as we explore what brings you to therapy and as we move towards a better understanding of what is happening in your life. We will explore together in a nonjudgmental, comfortable and confidential space.
My approach to psychotherapy is holistic, up-to-date and grounded in the latest research. It helps to free you from distress and issues that are currently hindering you. It also enables you to experience happiness and do things that you couldn’t previously do, bringing about profound transformation.
I find many issues that bring clients into therapy result from unresolved experiences and how these shape beliefs about life. My work is grounded in the transpersonal which, to me, means walking alongside you, guiding as requested, as you find answers within yourself.
Often therapy focusses on treating the emotional difficulties associated with exposure to disturbing and traumatic life experiences. We may be unaware that issues in our current lives have roots in previous, often childhood, experiences such as: abuse, witnessing violence, accidents, neglect, deprivation, being criticised or undervalued, having an anxious caregiver or one with mental illness, traumatic loss, unmet physical or emotional needs, major separations from a caregiver - and more. Consequently you may have developed coping mechanisms and behaviours which protected you at the time but that have become outdated and subsequently lead to distortions which hinder you in managing current challenges.
We will thus look to stabilise the immediate issues you may be experiencing and explore how these impact your life. We will help you rediscover capacities and resources, which may have become hidden, possibly because of culturally conditioned beliefs or family scripts, or which have remained undiscovered, but which can be integrated into your everyday life to enhance your experiences.
I draw on my own twelve year experience of working with developmental and complex trauma through an integration of neuroscience, sensorimotor, ego state therapy, internal family systems, meditation; using, where appropriate, creative imagination and working with the body to heal complex trauma and dissociation.
Through this work, you will be able to make yourself feel calmer and stronger. We will work together so you will be able to experience a more fulfilling life, a feeling of aliveness, connectedness, and where relationships with others and yourself are warmer, more authentic and more compassionate.
