Transformative psychotherapy…
My intention is to create a space where we can share a genuine connection. To help people begin to relate to what happens inside them differently, in a way that involves connecting with a deep compassion and kindness. As they find that place inside, they can begin to relate to themselves and others with more ease, kindness and openness.
Internal Family Systems.
IFS is an evidence based psychotherapy that is based on the idea that psyche consists of sub-personalities, called parts, which make up a kind of inner system. Parts often get into conflicts with each other and act in dysfunctional ways to protect us from pain. All this happens largely outside our awareness, and when we do see what’s happening, we frequently try to banish the parts that are causing the difficulties. Yet this hardly ever solves the problem. IFS, on the other hand, teaches us to relate to our parts with openness, curiosity, and compassion, not judgement, which allows each part to reveal its hidden agenda and the pain it defends against. It is this which paves the way for healing and transformation.
The psyche is largely organised to protect its self from pain, which is why IFS makes a distinction between parts that are in pain and parts that protect us from it. Protectors are parts that handle the external world and protect against vulnerability and pain. Exiles are young child parts that are in pain from the past. Protectors try to arrange our lives so that people can’t hurt our exiles, and when this does happen, protectors shut us down emotionally to keep us from feeling the pain. This noble effort doesn’t really work; the suffering still leaks through at odd moments. Furthermore, the defences instituted by protectors make us relate to the world in troublesome ways, or they blunt our aliveness or rob us of important capacities. IFS is able to transform the psyche by relying on the healing power of our true self or spiritual centre, which has important qualities – connectedness, curiosity, compassion and calmness.
EDMR.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a contemporary evidence based psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.
Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.
Havening.
Havening Touch® is a wonderfully gentle, intuitive, self-healing process using inbuilt biological healing mechanisms. The developer of Havening, Dr Ronald Ruden, has elucidated the complete pathway by which traumatic events get ‘hard-wired’ into a part of the brain called the Amygdala. He also discovered a very rapid molecular mechanism for permanently deleting traumatic memories, which works in minutes. The key to healing trauma is to create in the brain a strong signal of safety, which activates the molecular mechanism that deletes the traumatic memory. During Havening, the brain is literally rewired to remove the effects of trauma. The signals of safety are generated by applying very specific forms of soothing touch to the hands, upper arms and face. Neuroscientists discovered about ten years ago that we have specialised nerves in the skin with the sole purpose of detecting a soothing stroke from a warm object, such as a hand. These nerves send signals directly into the emotional centres of the brain to create a sense of deep safety and connection. These mechanisms of soothing touch have evolved in mammals and they form part of a natural mechanism for recovering from traumatic events.
Healing Groups
Healing Circle Group Work
Deep Growth - Healing - Integration
Many of the human problems are relational problems. Most of us experience the world in relation to other people; it makes sense that when we experience inner healing this will influence our relationships. Healing in groups can help connect and deepen our inner healing with others.
In Healing Groups we learn to experience our feelings, thoughts and body sensations in real time, with other people present, this can offer the feeling of community which can foster insight and potentially reparative interpersonal interactions with group members.
Allowing ourselves to explore our vulnerability with others present supports us to move out into the world in a new way, to connect to others in new ways, and to experience life in a new way.
Groups offer the opportunity for individuals to see parts of themselves as universally natural and part of being human.
My hope is for you to experience a sense of freedom to make the space for you; to connect to what feels helpful and healing.
