Psychotherapy & Counselling
What you can expect?
Support in meeting life's challenges, such as finding yourself struggling with grief and loss, stress, anxiety, depression, isolation, self esteem and in relationships both personal and at work. I bring my training, personal life experience and a real heart for meeting you in the dark places, where ever you may be. I work with you and your own innate wisdom navigating the pathway to greater self awareness, healthier relationships, and building your own skills and resilience to meet life’s challenges. The sessions generally focus more on process rather than content. The emphasis is on what is being done, thought and felt in the ‘present moment’ by both client and therapist, rather than on what was, might be, could or should have been. As you reflect on what brought you to therapy, the aim is that the context, dialogue and dynamic between therapist and client moves the awareness of the client into greater wholeness.
Eco Therapy
This is offered as a 3 hour workshop or as a therapy session. We take the session into nature. This may mean the beach, a park, walking through the bush with awareness and connection to the natural world. The premise is that nature has an immense capacity to hold and to heal us as we make contact with it. This is informed by both Theodore Roszak’s development of the applied practice of ecopsychology, with the inherent understanding that we are not separate from our environment. It also draws on the Japanese practice of Shinrin Yoku or Forest Bathing, a process of quietening and relaxating in nature, with a focus on deep breathing and bringing awareness to the natural world. Shinrin Yoku enhances healing and wellbeing.
Integration Therapy
Integration is offered to process healing journeys, plant or breath based, to facilitate embedding the benefits to optimise awareness and wholeness.
A Dive into the theory... a bit About Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt therapy is relational and experiential. And for those who like some of the theory behind the Gestalt model of working together, here it is. Aristotle, the Ancient Greek philosopher famously said ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ and this is central to understanding human perception in terms of the Gestalt psychology school of thought. Gestalt Therapy was founded by Fritz and Laura Perls in the early 1950’s integrating the approaches of Psychoanalysis, Zen Buddhism, Psychodrama, Holism, Phenomenology and Field Theory. These days Gestalt Therapy is influenced by the era of neuroscience, somatic experiencing, and the intersubjective arts. It is a therapy based on a 2 person psychological model with an awareness and an interest in the relationship between client and therapist. ‘Gestalt is above all about the whole – smells, tastes, intuitions, the surrounding environment, the historical context, the planetary hologram. And all of these co-exist like an excellent poem, wherein the artistry is never fully discovered, yet all the symbols and words, the cadences and shapes, interweave in a tapestry vibrating with life and tragedy and humour’ (Clarkson 1989). Clarkson notes the ‘impossibility of doing justice to the fullness, the vibrancy, the immediacy’ of the therapeutic engagement with client and therapist, and the 'rich, full-bodied intelligence of Gestalt practice’ whilst acknowledging the profound limitations of trying to capture that in words, ‘The Gestalt that can be described is not Gestalt’.