MY APPROACH

My main focus is on building a warm, supportive and safe space where you can be fully yourself and talk freely about your concerns without fear of being judged. Whatever you bring to therapy I will treat your experience with respect and as unique and subjective to your own personal circumstances.

As an integrative psychotherapist, I have been influenced by various therapeutic modalities that I use depending on client’s current needs and preferences, including Psychodynamic and Attachment Theories, Transactional Analysis, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Humanistic and Existential approaches, Trauma work, Polyvagal Theory and other somatic modalities.

However over the past few years my work has been increasingly influenced by Internal Family Systems (IFS), which I find a powerful modality of getting to know our ‘inner system’ and its ‘parts’ at a deeper level and to navigate through its many complexities. IFS has a potential to work  gently and respectfully with our most vulnerable parts and painful past experiences which are often unconscious. By being fully and compassionatelly witnessed,  these parts can be re-integrated back into our system in a healthier way, often resulting in a great relief and restoration.

Our sense of self and our self-esteem is shaped from an early age by interactions with others. Many of us learn, sometimes very early on life, that some of our needs and feelings are not acceptable to others, and therefore we find it difficult to accept them ourselves and suppress them even further.

Ignoring these emotions or true needs can result in an underlying anxiety, chronic depression, emotional numbness, self-loathing, shame and other forms of distress. But often people aren’t even aware that they’re carrying any of those emotions, they feel that ‘something is wrong’ but cannot put their finger on it.

Often being ‘really heard’ by an empathic counsellor for the first time can help to identify those needs and gradually get in touch with who you truly are. I believe that the most significant factor contributing to client’s growth and change is an open dialogue, respect and trust within the client-therapist relationship.

IFS is a highly effective approach that will support you to explore your inner world, understand better your emotional responses and develop healthy and positive behaviours that will allow you to create inner harmony, healing and deeper connection with self and others.