Therapy

What is Therapy?

Sometimes to understand ourselves and our situations better, we need someone else to hear and understand us, to be alongside us on our journey and see the broader view. Therapy is a safe confidential and open space to explore all of who we are. I practise Gestalt therapy, click here to read more. Therapy is a relationship that brings compassionate curiosity to our experience and enables us to harness more of ourselves in our lives and celebrate our uniqueness. We are each an expert on our own lives but sometimes we need support to make sense of it, find our way back, forward or sideways; to become aware of what is and what was.

What would it look like?

In therapy we explore what’s going on for you and what has brought you to where you are now. We begin by identifying the trigger that inspired you to reach out and what you want to get out of therapy. Often we have become stuck in our lives and repeat patterns that developed for a good reason but now, no longer serve us. Through the practise of compassionate curiosity, we deepen our awareness and learn to connect the present to the past, our mind to our body and ourselves to the world around us.

Therapy can be challenging but also inspiring and life changing. There isn’t a particular rule book of how it is for each person. The therapeutic relationship supports the deepening of awareness; as feelings may spring forth. I aim to work in a way that is safe, confidential, and unique to the needs of each individual. As a new way of being grows, the emerging spring of feelings may become a fountain of awareness and water our resource for renewal, growth and resilience.

Therapy isn’t just talking and being heard although that is part of the process. It is also about opening doors into new perspectives and new ways of understanding ourselves and our lives. It opens our awareness and can bring understanding however it takes courage to use that understanding and awareness and to make active changes in our life.

Practical information

To begin with, I suggest that if you need and are curious about therapy and feel drawn to what I’ve written here contact me and please let me know any questions you may have. We can arrange an initial exploratory session to see if we may want to work together. If so then we will agree to work for a further 5 sessions then we will review our work together. The sessions are usually weekly at the same time every week to allow for integration, support and continuity. Therapy can be short term or long term. There is no exact time anyone should come for therapy, the length is unique to each individual; a reflection of what we need and are capable of handling at a particular time emotionally, practically and financially. I conduct regular reviews and request that where our work extends beyond 6 weeks we have at least 3 weeks to end.

What is my Therapy Style?

Clients told me they experience me as authentic, warm, insightful, compassionate and yet stretching. I have personal interest in polarities, developmental theory, relationships, trauma, early development, mindfulness, creativity, dreams and embodiment. My style is influenced by each person, each relationship on a one of a kind personal journey through the creative therapeutic process. Like most psychotherapists I have drawn from the work of other non Gestalt writers and theorists. Work that has significantly influenced me has been the work of Babette Rothschild, Marshall Rosenberg and Irvin Yalom to name a few.

​I have a box of creative tools I draw upon that may be useful for the unfolding process some of which include: painting, clay, movement, sounding, and objects.

Who do I work with?

I enjoy working with a range of people from diverse backgrounds, ages, and perspectives. My time working in the health service and in charities has supported that capacity. I have a lot of experience in working with Depression, Anxiety, Trauma, Relationship and Attachment issues. I have an interest and experience in working with a mental health diagnosis yet don’t see it as a fixed label but as a support to understanding the whole person.

Underpinning Ethics

I am an Accredited member of BACP and subscribe to the BACP code of ethics CLICK HERE to view. All the work is confidential and I do my best to support each client within the capacity of the relationship. I support my work through regular supervision, CPD training, reading and research.

How much does it cost?

I charge £60 and have a limited number of reduced rate places for those in financial hardship and earning below £9 per hour.

Contact

If you have any further questions feel free to contact me
CLICK HERE