I work with clients aged 18 and above and have worked with clients bringing in experiences of anxiety, depression, abuse, trauma, loss, and relationship issues. My training and process is grounded in the teachings of the Psychodynamic and Person-Centred paradigms. I adopt a relational and collaborative approach towards exploring whatever might be arising for you in the present moment in an empathic and non-judgemental manner. My research interests focus on trauma, including complex trauma, and abuse.
I’m currently enrolled in a year long training in Somatic Trauma Therapy and so I may integrate some techniques from this paradigm as well, especially when working with deeply traumatic experiences. Research has shown that talking about trauma doesn’t always help and can sometimes be re-traumatising. Somatic work helps us safely feel into and work through the shadows of the trauma we still carry in our body without necessarily going into the narrative. Staying with our present moment bodily sensations can often help us gain insight into and understand what might be happening inside/outside us and helps us let go of the hold our past may still have. It also helps us deepen our relationship with our body.
My approach in therapy is deeply relational, meaning that I work with the perspective that the therapeutic relationship itself can be reparative and transformative. The various relationships we find ourselves entangled in – whether it’s the one we have with ourselves, or with our parents, siblings, friends, work, our pets, God, partners and so on – form and re-form how we view and experience this world since birth. Slowly, but surely, our relationships make us who we are (consciously and unconsciously).
Sometimes they bring forth beautiful experiences of joy, love, peace, laughter, serenity into our life. At other times, the same relationships bring in the experience of loss, grief, sadness, betrayal, disappointment, pain. It is often the clash of the beautiful with the perhaps not so beautiful experiences that most of our stressors, anxieties, fears, panic and difficulties in life can arise from. So, what do we do then? And how do we live? How do we carry it in our bodies? How do we understand it all? Is understanding always important or can we sometimes just feel it in our bodies and allow it to pass through? Or do we just cut it all out (metaphorically) and pretend it doesn’t exist. And by “it”, I mean – the bad, the ugly, the dark, the painful, the anxieties, the shameful, the “not so beautiful” feelings and experiences.
These are some of the general themes and questions I’ve witnessed clients grapple with in one context or another. In the therapy room, all of “it” is welcome, all of you are welcome. We begin with where you are, in the here and now, and we follow closely with our minds and our bodies, where you find and take yourself in the process of therapy. I won’t have all the answers for you but I offer you a safe space, warmth and gentle curiosity in this journey.