Counselling and Psychotherapy
Some people worry having therapy is self-centred. I believe the opposite is true because therapy can boost self-awareness, encourage you to act more thoughtfully and help you relate more effectively to others.
Therapy is also as much about learning to accept yourself as it is about making positive changes to your life.
The therapy I offer involves meeting weekly for 50 minutes. You will lead the sessions in terms of the content you bring. However, I will gently challenge your perceptions of certain things and encourage you to delve deeper into specific topics to deepen your insight.
I will encourage you to reflect on your early life, including your relationships with those you grew up with. Childhood experiences, particularly in key relationships, impact our thoughts and behaviours in adulthood. They lead us to create unconscious beliefs about ourselves, our worth and our safety. The therapeutic process of identifying unconscious thoughts is called psychodynamic therapy. Once you become aware of your unconscious beliefs, you can have more control over them. You can choose to let go of those that are painful, incorrect, and out of date.
I will also encourage you to explore what is happening in your present life, including how you tend to feel about and respond to things. I will listen to you with empathy and respect. I will welcome your darkest and most troubling thoughts and help you to accept them, too. This approach is called humanistic therapy. Humanistic therapy celebrates our natural tendency towards self-growth, strength and happiness.
I also practice Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, which is based on the understanding that our feelings and behaviours do not define us and that everything we feel and do is driven only by a part of us. When holding painful core beliefs about our worth and safety, young parts of us can feel vulnerable and scared. Protective parts of us drive our actions out in the world to try to protect these young parts of us and avoid hurt.
IFS theory states that all our behaviours are driven by the intention to protect us from pain, yet they can cause unintended difficulties if they become 'extreme' or rigid. IFS can help you better understand your behaviour, meet the different parts of yourself with compassion, and let go of outdated and unhelpful beliefs.
Psychodynamic, humanistic and IFS modalities all operate according to the same principles;
We form (often painful, unhelpful and untrue) core beliefs about ourselves in early life, which can be updated once understood in adulthood.
When we act out, we are trying to protect ourselves from pain and fear.
The key to healing is fostering love, compassion and self-awareness.
I combine psychodynamic, humanistic, and IFS approaches in my work with individuals, couples and partnerships.
I enrich my therapy work with an understanding of the impact of trauma on our ability to process information and on our experiences in our bodies. I can teach you to tune into your nervous system state and regulate yourself, which is essential for managing mental health and wellbeing.
I also specialise in sex and relationships therapy and practice queer affirmative therapy.
Check out my fees and location, or contact me to inquire about availability.
“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” Oscar Wilde