HOW I WORK

I practice as an integrative counsellor and psychotherapist: Integrative counselling/psychotherapy, as I understand it, is:
  • a therapeutic approach which integrates and works with various therapeutic techniques and modes of understanding according to client need;
  • a holistic way of working that engages all of who the client is: their emotions, thoughts, behaviours,relational patterns, their social field, cultural background, past history, present context, future aspirations etc.
  • a therapeutic approach that attempts to facilitate wholeness and integration within people, relationships, families and communities, integrating the varying, often conflicted, parts into a greater unity;

My work is influenced by the following therapeutic approaches:

  • Relational psychotherapy.
  • Emotion focused/process experiential work
  • Contemporary Gestalt Therapy.
  • Trauma work.
  • Somatic/embodied approaches.
  • Mindfulness and acceptance based practices and inquiry.
  • Transpersonal maps.

I integrate the above approaches into my work with individuals according to their needs and interests.

The following are various facets of how I work which are important to how I engage the therapeutic process:

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Awareness: The heart of my work involves supporting you to increase your awareness of how you structure and make meaning out of your experience. I use a variety of approaches which aim to help you become clear about your emotions, thought patterns, actions in the world and how these influence your relationships. Becoming aware of who you are and what you do empowers you in having a greater responsibility for the choices you make.

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Here and now: Whereas all therapies focus on how you structure your world and create meaning from your experience an important part of my work is exploring how you are structuring the present moment during the therapy hour. Working in such a present centred way the therapy hour comes alive, becomes dynamic and creative. Focusing on the present moment allows a deep and dynamic exploration of the ways you have create, and stop yourself from having, satisfying contact in the here and now. This exploration involves slowing down the work and focusing on what emotions are you experiencing now, what do you tell yourself now, how are you holding yourself in your body? What is that you are needing now?This way of working leads to contacting healthier and more satisfying ways of being in the here and now.

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Relational focus: The dynamic nature of the here and now focus often means there is a strong interest in the therapeutic relationship and how we, the client and the therapist, are co-creating this relationship. Focusing on the contact between us allows an understanding of your patterns of relating to others and the, possible, difficulties you may have in experiencing satisfying relationships. This exploration can allow the creation of a healing and reparative relationship which may undo past relational/attachment traumas.

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Current research shows that a strong therapeutic bond between client and therapist is the most important facet of counseling/psychotherapy, more important than the ‘techniques’ used by the therapist.  Any therapeutic work that focuses on the creation of a strong therapeutic alliance is strongly positioned to catalyse deep healing and growth.

Holistic approach: The way I work is holistic in that I take account of and attempt to engage all of who you are and the wider field in which you live, including your relationships, work situation, family and cultural background, social context, your emotions, thoughts, behaviours, your bodily experience, your past and present experiences and future aspirations.

I don’t view you as a set of problems or issues to be fixed! In my work there is a strong focus on integration whereby I support you to accept, and re-own, all parts of yourself and thus help you to move towards a greater sense of your wholeness and uniqueness.

This holistic focus allows me to perceive all the various aspects of your self/life as interconnected and important vital facets of who you are. This means that I acknowledge and affirm your own knowledge, understanding, resources and wisdom and attempt to empower you in accessing your own ‘ground’, truth and creative life direction.

Emotional life: I believe that accessing, naming and accepting our emotions and experiential states is one of the primary ways we can become free of stuck emotional patterns and create space for choice and change in our lives. Emotions underlie our thoughts and beliefs, behaviour patterns and are at the heart of our relationship joys and difficulties. I like to work slowly and to allow space for you to access and become acquainted with your emotional life and to begin to experience and accept disowned parts of yourself and your experience.

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Embodied life: I have extensive training in somatic and embodied psychotherapy. These approaches involve attuning ourselves to our somatic/bodily experience. In my work I help you to become aware of how you experience your body, including the connection between emotions and bodily-sensations, and trust that attunement to your own bodily process opens up spaces of feeling more grounded, connected to yourself and more able to relate to others.

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Creativity: Raising awareness in the here and now, focusing on the therapeutic relationship, while having a holistic focus on all facets of your experience and on the wider field in which you are embedded means that the therapeutic encounter is often spontaneous and creative. Creativity and creative process, as I am here using the terms, involves supporting you to access your spontaneous movement towards contacting life in as satisfying way as is possible. This means accessing a stronger sense of being alive and able to contact life from a more empowered, spontaneous and creative space.

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Mindfulness and acceptance practices: Mindfulness is a practice that is becoming central to many western psychotherapeutic methods. The theory behind mindfulness is that it is our attachment to emotions/thoughts that create un-necessary suffering in our lives. The less attached we are to specific thoughts/emotions the freer we are to make healthier and more satisfying choices. I utilize mindfulness as a ‘climate’ to be cultivated within the therapeutic encounter which aids in the exploration of experience through a lessening of self-judgment and an increase of self- acceptance. Becoming self-accepting is central to how I understand the healing process.

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Healthy process: At the heart of my work is empowering you to become aware of your own process of self-regulation; ie. how you contact the world, are nourished by it and in what ways you fail to be nourished by the way you are in the world. Raising your awareness around this process will allow you to become aware of how to meet the world in a way that is more nourishing for yourself, others  and the environment. Doing so over time allows for the cultivation of healthy habits of contacting life. Healthy self-regulation involves being aware of our own needs and negotiating these needs with others in a manner that is spontaneous, creative and ethical.

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Transpersonal openings: The therapeutic process, as I understand it, can involve contacting and navigating various transpersonal experiences. Contacting and experiencing these transpersonal openings is the domain of spirituality and spiritual concerns. I dont have a spiritual agenda in my work. I am interested, though, in the relationship between the psychotherapeutic process and spirituality and how spiritual interests and transpersonal experiences may arise in the work. I attempt support people to create a solid personal ground which allows for the holistic integration of spiritual concerns and transpersonal experiences.

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