What is Holistic Counselling and Psychotherapy?
When it comes to therapy the term Holistic is not a protected or clearly defined term, therefore let me tell you a bit more about what I mean by Holistic Counselling and Psychotherapy and what to expect when working with me.
By Holistic I mean working with the whole person and including the mind-body connection. I am deeply interested in hearing what brings you to counselling, your individual story and the experiences that shaped you. Being truly heard and seen for who we are is an incredibly important part of building a therapeutic relationship and the healing process itself.
At the same time, it is my experience that to be able to access deeper and often unconscious patterns requires including the body in the therapeutic process. Working with the mind-body connection allows us to explore the sensations, feelings and impulses that are connected to our thoughts and memories. It can give us access to experiences that have been held in our bodies for a long time, even from times before our conscious memories were formed and before we had words to make sense of experiences. This process opens the door to deeper change and lasting transformation.
Other important elements that inform my work are:
* Mindfulness as a base that helps me bring deep presence to the therapy sessions I provide and as a tool as part of the therapeutic work
* Awareness and inclusion of the historical, ancestral, cultural and societal factors that impact women’s lives and women’s experiences of themselves in conscious and unconscious ways
* Appreciation and gratitude for the deep wisdom and connection to the bigger picture that the female body holds
* Sensitivity and openness towards the fact that each of us is wired in their own unique way and a deep interest to meet each client where they are at, to find the most helpful way to support each person
Research tells us that the most healing aspect of therapy is the therapeutic relationship. If you are looking for a holistic therapist and you resonate with my approach or you’d like to find out more about it, please get in touch. I’d love to hear from you and organise an obligation free chat via Zoom, so we can meet, answer any questions and find out if we feel like we are a good fit.
Counselling:
The term Counselling generally refers to a shorter-term approach and is very helpful if you’d like support for a specific challenge in your life. This could be a life transition like a relationship change or a change at work; you might be at a crossroad or maybe you are feeling stuck in a particular area in your life.
Counselling can help you to find some ground under your feet, increase your capacity to cope and develop solutions by providing a safe, supportive space that resources you. Inside that space we work together to help you access your own inner wisdom and guidance to help you navigate the challenge you are facing.
Counselling can be as short as a few sessions or extend into longer term psychotherapy depending on what you bring and what you are hoping to take away with you.
No matter if you come to see me to get support with a specific situation or address a more complex issue, my work is always informed by my holistic approach.
Psychotherapy:
Psychotherapy refers to a longer-term approach when you are seeking relief from deeper, underlying patterns that are keeping you stuck in ways that no longer serve you. Traditionally Psychotherapy, also called ‘talking therapy, helps you understand your thoughts, feelings and behaviours and how they are linked at a deeper level with the intention to create change.
The approach to psychotherapy that I offer is called Hakomi or Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy. Here the focus is less on your thoughts -which you often already know very well-, instead we invite awareness on a deeper level. By including and exploring the experience of the body with some mindfulness we are able to gently access memories and experiences that are often outside of everyday consciousness or that happened a long time ago.
Because the foundation of any deeper work is having a sense of safety in the therapeutic relationship this work is most effective if you are able to commit to regular sessions.