You are more than a brain, a head, a thought, you are a complex whole constantly changing human being. Gestalt therapy -the main modality of my training is one of the few psycho-therapeutic modalities that is holistic and includes the body. Many therapies focus on the head and thoughts alone and many focus on the body alone.
I work with both.
By inviting you to connect with your body, to notice a tightening in your abdomen, chest or throat as you speak of your concerns.
Simply placing your own hand on your belly, pausing to feel the sensations within can take you to the deeper emotions. Maybe your anxiety helped keep you safe. Perhaps it is fear beneath your anger. Maybe your annoying, demanding boss triggers something about your father, your pre-occupation with a neighbor’s shouting may have nothing to do with your neighbor but something in your past.
Connecting with the body can cut through all the words and story to the core issues in a safe supported respectful way.
You are in charge of the process.
Emotions are felt in your body, emotions stay in your body until they are processed and released with support.
You are not an object to be categorized, placed in a box with a label and provided with a series of scripted procedures and interventions to be ‘fixed’ by an expert. You have been formed by your experiences, your background and environment. Perhaps now is the time with my support to become active in choosing, creating your own way.
You are unique, and bring a unique complex vulnerable self to therapy to be seen, heard, felt and acknowledged. From this true deep meeting emerges growth, awareness and the ability to make choices, rather than react in your daily life.
“The being of each of us needs to be revered- by ourselves but also by others.” (Hycner 1995, p IX)
What is different about gestalt?
The core tenets of gestalt psychotherapy have complex roots in existentialism, humanism and holism, with both European and Eastern philosophical influences. Gestalt is a German word meaning whole and it is a noun and a verb, a state and a movement. From its founding years in 1950’s the underpinning principal of gestalt was and still is the focus on the potential growth of each individual client not their pathology or problems. Facilitating the development of awareness and then full acceptance of one’s life, one’s experiences have been a significant part of gestalt from its beginnings.
Counselling and Psychotherapy- the difference
Counselling has a short-term focus and attends to a particular issue or event. Psychotherapy is a deeper longer process which delves into how your current circumstances, behavior and relationship patterns developed and, in the therapeutic encounter unfinished business from the past often emerges to facilitate healing and growth.
The skills and techniques I use interweave seamlessly in response to the complex needs of each client, each session each moment.
Body Focused Gestalt Psychotherapy & Counselling
