My approach
My therapeutic approach is heart-centred and holistic. While I have several frameworks for working with clients, all my work draws influences from traditional Western models of psychotherapy and coaching, and Eastern models of alternative therapies. I create a safe space for us to explore the parts of you that are struggling. I support you in building love and compassion for these parts. And I support you in exploring practices and lifestyle changes that can help you on this journey. I still use talking as a primary tool, but I may also invite the use of music or sound, breathwork, visualisation, movement, touch or Reiki within sessions.
We will always start with at least one initial consultation to think together about your hopes and needs, and what way of working may be most suitable for you at this time. Particularly for complex difficulties, or work with couples including children, it is often helpful for us to have one or two additional assessment sessions to help us better understand your needs before choosing a framework of further sessions.
Individual work
Individual therapy or coaching gives you the opportunity to explore the things holding you back from living the life you really want to be living, and begin to work through them with the container of a safe therapeutic relationship.
With the lens of pure holistic psychotherapy, we focus on uncovering and exploring old pains that are still being held on to by the mind and body. Through safety in the therapeutic relationship, we gently help your unconscious to trust that it can now let go of these pains, and old coping strategies which are no longer serving you. We still think together about lifestyle changes that could support your healing process, but this is not the central focus of the work. For clients wanting to work with this model, I offer once fortnightly 60-minute sessions, with a minimum of ten sessions.
With the lens of pure holistic coaching, while we still explore emotional and psychic barriers to change, we focus on helping you think about your lifestyle and practical changes that can help you soften these barriers. For clients wanting to work with this model, I offer 90-minute sessions every three to four weeks, with a minimum of four sessions.
My preferred style of working is a blend of both approaches. So far, I have found this to be the most effective model to facilitate change for clients who are not already engaged in other therapies or coaching. For this model, I typically offer 90-minute sessions every two to four weeks, with a minimum of five sessions.
Couples
My focus in couples work is to help you speak to and hear each other from your hearts. This usually involves supporting you in being able to clearly communicate your wishes and boundaries to each other, while having understanding and compassion for each other’s needs. It also involves supporting you to have more fun together as a couple, to reconnect to the love and joy that first brought you together!
We begin with a four-session assessment: we first meet together, followed by individual meetings with each of you and then a final joint session. This usually provides us with the foundation of our ongoing work. I then typically offer couples sessions in blocks of five 90-minute sessions, held once every two to four weeks.
The format of sessions will evolve according to need, but in general you can expect a blend of time for unstructured sharing and working through struggles with me as a witness and guide, and some more structured exercises to support understanding, connection and communication.
Parents & children
My training and therapeutic work in the UK over the past 11 years specialised in support for parents, children and teenagers. In the healthcare system this includes long and short term individual psychotherapy for children and/or their parents, consultation and care coordination with professionals in the systems around families (such as teachers and social workers), group work with children and young people, and facilitating parent support and training groups. Outside the healthcare system this includes teaching yoga to young people in various community settings and supporting projects helping young people access services and practices to support their holistic wellbeing.
If you are a parent with concerns about your child, and/or struggling with your own wellbeing related to the challenges of parenting, please get in touch and we can discuss ways in which I may be able to support. This could take a number of formats based on the needs and your wishes, so I would typically recommend we begin with at least one or two consultation sessions to more thoroughly assess the difficulties, and consider what may be most helpful.