Psychotherapy is effective in treating both specific issues and in facing questions of meaning and awakening at depth.
Many of us live lives that are limited. Many people suffer from specific conditions such as anxiety. Others just feel that there should be more to life than they currently experience. Many people seem to be finding that their relationships are not fulfilling or they simple struggle to be happy. We lead often very busy lives and could really do with the time and space to slow down and reflect on our inner world. Psychotherapy encourages us to turn and truly face our difficulties with the support and holding of the therapist. In doing so, we often find that by facing our problems we unlock the door to areas of potential that have been kept hidden within us.
Some of the issues that I work with include anxiety, depression, unresolved trauma, self-criticism, stress, anger management, panic attacks, sexual issues, addiction, bereavement, suicidal impulses, loneliness and isolation, relationship problems, and serious mental health difficulties. Our society seems to struggle with a sense of being cut off from a deeper and more sustaining source of meaning and purpose, and I also work at length with spiritual issues of awakening and with the quest for existential fulfilment.
In shorter term counselling work, where we might be targeting specific symptoms such as stress, anger or relationship problems, I use tools such as Mindfulness to help not only alleviate symptoms but also to open up the possibility of choice. Mindfulness allows us to get outside a problem and witness it as well as helping us to establish ways of being that are freer and less bound up with our suffering.
Some problems and life situations are deeply embedded in who we are and how we live, and they do take time to heal. Longer term therapy offers the commitment of a safe, caring and supportive relationship that enquires into life and really affects change at depth. My psychotherapy model has a very complete and depth understanding of how our suffering arises, and with how we identify with and live from that suffering. There is also a clear understanding of how to come out from that suffering and chose greater joy and freedom. There are a number of ways to work together towards this, such as working in the body, building presence, or using our deeper creativity, but they all rest in growing our awareness about ourselves. We all have within us great potential, perhaps more than we know. The journey of therapy helps us to really unlock that potential and lead lives of greater ease, happiness and success.
Relationships as we all know, can be hard. I work with Couples who are experiencing great difficulty in their relationships and may be in crisis. I work both to try a resolve these issues and on occasions to help couples find a way to end their relationship. I help couples understand their relationship better, learn to communicate together and find ways of recreating a positive relational feeling. Within this I help couples process difficult feelings and experiences together. I can help with issues of intimacy and sexuality and the recovery, or even discovery, of sexual and intimate fulfilment. We work in ways that both occur in the room and bring the therapy home with practical tools designed to help outside of therapy.
I also work with couples who are not in difficulty but want to explore ways to deepen their connection together and explore their relationship and its intimacy. It is my hope that we can all find ways to heal together and live in relationships that expand the meaning of our existence, create pleasure and bring joy into our lives.
