My Practice

When problems take over, they can overwhelm us, overshadow our strengths, and make us forget how resilient we are. I see therapy as a practice of co-discovery, in which I help people to (re)connect with their strengths and resilience and use them to ignite positive change in their lives, work and relationships. People often come to therapy with painful thoughts, memories, and emotions (fear, disappointment, sadness, guilt, doubt, etc.). Sometimes this kind of pain arises in therapy as well. Together, we’ll work to discover ways you can experience the whole range of emotions without being overwhelmed. We’ll also focus on how to use this emotional awareness as fuel for living more fully.

Often people seek out a therapist in a time of intense life transition. This can be sparked by a desire to shift one’s life (e.g. starting a new career) or by unplanned loss (e.g. a divorce or death of a loved one). Although this can be scary, therapy can provide support in moving towards personal growth and opening space for unforeseen opportunities.  

I work with adults, teens, and couples. I have specialized training in the models of therapy below. My practice is also guided by various ways of bridging practices of Buddhism and Psychology, such as the work of John Welwood and Tara Brach. I adapt my approach to suit each person I work with and integrate aspects of a variety of other frameworks.

Topics to explore include:

• Life transitions

• Anxiety

• Social anxiety

• Depression

• Trauma

• Addiction

• Relationship difficulties

• Polyamory

• Gender and sexual identity

• Family conflict

• Job dissatisfaction

• Difficulties at school

• Self-esteem

• Insomnia

• The impacts of racism, sexism, homophobia

Hakomi - Body centred psychotherapy

Our bodies hold the way we organize ourselves around our experience, be it through out posture, gestures, and habitual ways of speaking. By paying attention to these, together the practitioner and client create experiments to make discoveries about ways we can let go of outdated adaptations and live in a freer, more nourishing way, where we have more choice in the way we respond to life’s stressors.

Hakomi is commonly applied in work with individuals, couples, families, and groups.

To learn more visit: https://www.hakomieducation.net/

Narrative Therapy

Narrative Therapy views problems as separate from people, as things that affect their lives.  It sees people as the experts of their own lives who can gain access to their inherent knowledge and wisdom by being asked curious questions. Pondering and answering these questions creates the ability to reduce the impact of the problems.

From a Narrative Therapy perspective, the stories we tell about ourselves, or that others tell about us, inform us of our strengths, weaknesses, and what is possible or not possible for us. These stories are co-created throughout our lifetime, through our relationships with the people in our lives as well as our culture, society, and media, including taken for granted structures of power and domination. Some of these stories fit with the life we want to live, but others become problematic and lead to difficulties and feelings of being stuck. Through a non-judgemental process, Narrative Therapy seeks to examine these stories and find out when they were created and why they persist, while at the same time listening for alternative stories that speak to one’s hopes, dreams, and values.  Just as it is important to be aware of and understand our challenges, it is vital to become more deeply connected to what David Epston (co-founder of Narrative Therapy) calls our “wonderfulnesses”.  Therapy then becomes less about easing pain and more about living to one’s full potential.

Narrative Therapy is commonly applied in work with individuals, couples, families, groups, and communities.

To learn more visit: http://dulwichcentre.com.au/what-is-narrative-therapy/

Satir Model - Family Systems

“Peace within, peace between, peace among” ~Virginia Satir

The Satir Model holds the belief that problems are not the problems, but rather problems develop from the way people cope with difficulties. Within this model all people have the capacity to change, and even if external factors are beyond our control we can shift our internal experience of them. By gaining awareness of our feelings, perceptions, expectations, deeper yearnings, and life force energy we can more fully grow into our true selves and live to our potential. The Satir Model helps guide people to recognize the ways in which they have survived and coped with life’s challenges. By being more aware of our resources, we become better able to take responsibility and choose how we interact with the world. Therapy becomes a process of learning to become better decision makers and communicators, and cultivate a more peaceful and satisfying way of life.

The Satir Model is commonly applied in work with individuals, couples, families, and groups.

To learn more visit: http://satirpacific.org/the-satir-therapy/

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) or “tapping” is an evidence-based approach that spans the breadth of an easy to learn self-help tool for emotional regulation, all the way to a clinical therapeutic intervention that helps people resolve the effects of trauma. It works beautifully in combination with the other therapeutic modalities I draw from and is well suited for people of all ages including children. EFT operates through a process of tapping on acupuncture points on one’s own face and body while bringing attention to areas of distress in one’s thoughts, emotions, body, and behaviours. This helps cultivate a sense of acceptance of “what is” while freeing up the pathways of our subtle energy systems, leading our physiology to move from a state of fear and stress to a state of calm and safety. By shifting our physiology in this way, we foster integration of mind, body, and spirit and are better able to respond to life’s problems in a balanced way that fits with our values and hopes for the future, rather than from a place of survival or stuck-ness.

To learn more about:

• local self-help and professional trainings visit: http://www.neftti.com/

• explanations of EFT and scientific research visit: https://aametinternational.org/ and http://www.energypsych.org/