Thoughts from a therapist...on life, connection and exploration...
Blog Posts
One thing I love about therapy, is the way it shows me, time and again, that the human experience can be both profoundly universal, and also utterly diverse, unique and nuanced. In these articles, I name and explore aspects of my work and life, as a somatically-informed integrative therapist, during these interesting, challenging, yet often healing, times of change.
Landing in the Session
Before my counselling sessions, whether online or in-person, I like to give myself a few minutes to get comfortable, looking around and noticing my favourite things...the colour yellow, dim lighting, gifted objects and a hot cup of tea...so I feel full and ready for my client. When they arrive, I like to offer the same…
Exploring Protective Parts of Self
Over the last few days, I have been reminded of the ways that certain words, situations and scenarios can loop us back in time, so that old self-protective parts of ourselves can rear up, to guard us against perceived threat. As Internal Family Systems theory states, these parts of us are not bad, they are…
Making Mistakes
Over the last few days, I've been reminded once again that, as a human, there will be moments when I feel overwhelmed, make mistakes, and have to apologise or create repair. I have noticed that there can be a moment, within this experience, when I become self-critical, or even lean into catastrophizing. Putting myself down,…
Addiction and coping strategies...unshaming the ways we soothe ourselves
In some of the settings where I work, I support those who need help around their recovery from addiction, using a trauma-informed approach. I believe that most people have experienced some type of trauma, whether through a particularly difficult event, or perhaps simply from not getting their needs met, time and again, for too long.…
Creativity as a therapeutic tool
As a somatically-informed therapist, my go-to tools for resourcing my clients often centre around calming and soothing the nervous system, through body-centred strategies like grounding, breathwork, sensation-tracking, self-contact, tapping and movement. However, visualization is also an important and powerful part of somatic work, as the body and the imagination are intrinsically-linked, when working with unconscious…
Working therapeutically with difference and diversity
As a non-white woman with a mixed-heritage, I have some small personal insight into the way intersectionality, the various social factors which combine and overlap, can be felt in our lives and relationships, I try to work in a way that promotes self-awareness around my own nuanced privileges and biases, so that when I am…