Psychotherapy

Tara Brach says ‘Believing that something is wrong with us is a deep and tenacious suffering. This suffering emerges in crippling self judgments and conflicts in our relationships, in addiction and perfectionism, in loneliness and overwork - all the forces that keep our lives constricted and unfulfilled.   My approach attempts to reach over the chasm of our thinking towards the stored, often unconscious, memories held within the body. The space I offer listens to your pace, in a safe, warm, non judgemental and confidential setting, going at the pace and to the places that are best for you and the enquiry. We allow space for all of you, body, mind and your spiritual longings and journey. The body often attempts to ‘speak’ through a felt sense, a misty vague sensation. We may also be choosing to work during a phase of your life that is a transition, becoming a parent, empty nest, divorce, menopause, loss of work, new work, moving home, environmental awareness - there are many points in our lives when it is useful to stop and reflect to move forward with more awareness.   In my work with clients, we can attend to those outposts through this ’felt sense’ in the body. It’s interesting to note that we don't in fact ‘feel’ in our minds/thinking but in a sensation of sorts in our body. The mind interpretation is based on past patterning - no doubt it will mistakenly interpret the feeling as something akin to ‘you are rubbish, they don’t like you, keep your head down’. That may have been helpful in an earlier time of your life as it held a survival strategy by insisting that you need improving.This is preferable to being rejected. And hence the wheel goes round and round in an endless longing to get to this better version of oneself.   In therapy we can ‘pause’ when we notice ‘something’ may have emerged, slowing it down so that the ‘felt sense’ begins to retell its truth, like an image slowly emerging in the developing tray of a dark room - we watch the mind with a warmth and with welcome, as it keeps coming forward in its habitual way and we gently keep that part safe too. This often brings up memories or images that can be very helpful and creative.   This way of working is often referred to as Focusing whilst you can practise this alone, I have learnt that it comes alive inside us when we are in a safe space and being witnessed and accompanied in the gentle exploration. When you stick your head up to peek over the parapet it is helpful when someone is there alongside you with open curiosity and compassion. My training was within a Buddhist modality, known as Core Process Psychotherapy, at the Karuna Institute. It is defined as Core Process Psychotherapy is a synthesis of Western psychology and Buddhist understanding. This approach trusts that within and encompassing all our experience, even the most painful, there is a ‘Core’ state of openness and joy which is intrinsically healing. You can find out more about this approach here https://www.acpponline.net/what+is+cpp   My work has also been guided along by studying Carl Jung's work, the imagination, archetypes, meditation, more than human studies in the vein of Stephan Harding’s, David Abrahms, the San Bushmen philosophy, Somatic Experiencing and non duality.