Professional Services
Counselling
Many people seek counselling because they have identified specific goals or issues that they wish to work on. Counselling is generally an issue focused process, attended by clients on a regular appointment basis.
I offer a counselling approach that is person-centred, drawing from cognitive behavioural, psychodynamic and gestalt models. My focus here is on the concerns that the client raises, while at the same time attending to the particular experiences, possible difficulties and the impacts of these concerns. Through this process, which may be short term and issue focused, the emphasis is on identifying thoughts, feelings, behaviours, assumptions and perceptions. Once we can identify these, we can find clarity, possible reframing and confident understanding and expression. Counselling helps people to identify alternative perspectives and possibilities which can then underpin how they might best address concerns.
“[A]…group of us felt that ideas were being fed to us, whereas we wished primarily to explore our own questions and doubts, and find out where they led.”
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The discovery of the Rosetta Stone allowed ancient Egyptian texts previously out of reach of being understood, to be translated. In a similar way psychotherapy offers the possibility to understand more about complex internal worlds of ourselves.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy facilitates living in clearer connection to individual and personal integrity. It has a primary focus on the experiences of the individual. This differentiates psychotherapy from counselling which tends to be ‘issue’ focused.
Through the process of psychotherapy I draw attention towards personal insight, as the client addresses the experience of their presenting issues and concerns. This provides the client with increasing helpful self insight. Psychotherapy has the capability to bring about deeper understanding of inner experience. It is from this, that the most effective long term change and issue resolution can take effect. Studies have illustrated that while counselling can be effective in short term, issue focused outcomes, psychotherapy can have better success outcomes in longer term development and greater access to different perspectives.
Sandplay Therapy
Jungian sandplay or Sandplay as it is often called, is a method of depth psychotherapy. It offers a specialised way to learn more about internal experience. Sandplay appeals to sensory processing through touch, colour, form and image.
This technique was developed by Dora Kalff, who applied the analytic psychology of Carl Jung to image making. She discovered that creative expression using sand and miniatures/figurines could lead to personal insight and understanding. Dora Kalff and Carl Jung both described how image making can offer greater therapeutic value than words alone. This forms the basis of Jungian Sandplay and makes it possible to work more deeply with experience through a non-verbal creative and sensory based process.
“Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has stuggled with in vain”
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