About psychotherapy
Psychotherapy offers confidential professional help in a safe boundaried environment. People may come with psychological, emotional and/or life issues. For instance depression, long-standing difficulties in relationships or relating to oneself; family issues from the past or in the present; traumatic experiences that don't seem to be going away; an unhappy past or childhood. Feelings of loss and low self-esteem also lead people to seek therapy. Sometimes the causes of depression or deep unhappiness may not be apparent although the pain and distress is without question.
Psychotherapy provides a chance to talk through issues of concern to you in a confidential setting and may help to bring relief through the broad lens of understanding I bring to the work. I may bring some attention to your embodied experience of how you are feeling in any given moment. I have a creative approach to getting to understand more about yourself, which may draw on the use of imagery and dreams if that feels appropriate. Rooted in psychoanalytic theory, a psychodynamic framework aims to help you understand your present difficulties in terms of your own unique personal history and current overall life situation. Over time, an awareness of your 'inner world' and the influence it holds over your relationships, both from the past and in the present, may begin to develop. Individuals from all different backgrounds can benefit from psychotherapy.
As a general rule, psychotherapy has the capacity to address issues from a deeper level, taking into account the unconscious as well as conscious areas of the mind and psyche. I draw from my training in biodynamic craniosacral therapy and the trauma constellation work of Professor Franz Ruppert, which both have a strong relationship with the 'felt-sense' of the body through awareness of body sensations (a form of embodied mindfulness or 'focusing'), including an understanding of what happens to the body during early relational trauma (with particular reference to latest developments in attachment theory and neuroscience). I also have a deep interest in dreams and imagery work and the transpersonal or spiritual aspects of the human being. Within a psychodynamic framework, I draw from different streams of psychoanalytic thinking, with particular emphasis on Jungian and post-Jungian theory.