Why Work With Me
I use an integrative approach that draws upon my years of training, clinical experience and extensive personal experiences of self-development and therapy.
I use what are termed both “top down” (talk therapy and psychotherapeutic methodologies) and “bottom up” (hands on bodywork, either from myself as the therapist or supporting clients to learn how to listen to their bodies through the use of touch) in an intuitive and mindful way, depending on my clients’ needs.
Somatic Therapy is an experiential approach towards mind-body integration. The body has historically been omitted from therapeutic enquiry. The latest science now shows us that the involvement of the body and it’s sensations supports the brain when processing undigested traumatic life experience and can improve treatment outcomes and shorten therapy time.
I use a blend of the following three core trainings, all of which complement each other due to their focus on nervous system regulation, somatic elements and supporting clients to reconnect to the felt-sense.
Margaret Roseneau
"Think of the nervous system as living time-keeping; a record of everything you've been through."
An Integrated Approach
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What is Compassionate Inquiry?
Compassionate Inquiry® is a psychotherapeutic approach created by Dr. Gabor Maté over several decades while working with both patients and retreat participants. This approach gently uncovers and releases the layers of childhood trauma, constriction and suppressed emotion embedded in the body, that are at the root of mental and physical illness and addiction.
When clients perceive the therapeutic relationship as a safe container, compassion and curiosity allow them to acknowledge and examine the traumatic events that happened to them as children, recognize the beliefs they internalized, and feel the emotions they suppressed. This contributes to the healing process.
Using Compassionate Inquiry, both the individual and therapist unveil the level of consciousness, mental climate, hidden assumptions, implicit memories and body states that form the real message that words both express and conceal.
When we can release ourselves from the hold of these stories, a new way of being emerges, leading to spontaneity, choice, expansion and freedom.
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What is Integral Somatic Psychology?
Integral Somatic Psychology™ (ISP) is an effective somatic psychology approach that helps clients achieve optimal mental health by fully embodying their emotions.
ISP has been developed to shorten therapy times and improve diverse outcomes (physical, energetic, cognitive, emotional, behavioural, relational, and spiritual) in all therapy modalities. It can also be taught to clients as a self-help tool for healing, and for enhancing their lives.
The emerging science of embodied cognition, emotion, and behaviour in affective neuroscience and cognitive psychology is increasingly establishing that our thoughts, feelings, and actions are dependent not just on our brain but also on our body and our environment; and that the lack of involvement of our body in any of these three inter-related functions can compromise all three and reduce our well-being.
The field of body psychotherapy has established that our inability to tolerate emotional experiences in our bodies is the primary reason for the formation of physiological defences such as muscular constriction. These defences reduce our body’s involvement in cognitive, emotional, and behavioural functions and cause psychophysiological symptoms.
Using these research findings, Integral Somatic Psychology seeks to improve our thoughts, feelings, and actions by making our body more available for them, by improving the body’s capacity to tolerate emotional experiences so that it does not shut down in the face of difficult emotions in therapy or life.
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What Is Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy?
(Biodynamic refers to a non-mechanical approach)Craniosacral Therapy originated in Osteopathy and is an extremely gentle, yet powerful hands-on therapy. The human body has a remarkable wisdom; it understands that through safe and neutral therapeutic touch it feels secure in the knowledge that it is not being threatened. This enables the process to penetrate to the deepest levels of our being.
Craniosacral Therapy is therefore a very profound therapy, reaching levels which are not generally accessed by other more physical or more invasive modalities, which might induce the body’s protective mechanisms, and is therefore able to connect with and enhance the underlying health at a very deep level. This enables the therapist and patient to gain access to the root causes of many conditions, including severe and profoundly debilitating disease.
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Ready To Learn More?
If you’d like to discuss how I might support you I offer a FREE 20 minute Discovery Call which you can book here.
