My approach

my approach

I have worked as a therapist for over ten years in community and hospital settings. In that time, I have learned that therapy is most effective when it is a collaborative, relational process. I work from a client-centred, strengths-based perspective. I believe that you are the expert on yourself and your challenges. With some supportive guidance, you can decide how to move ahead.

My therapeutic approach is integrated. I draw on insights and tools from different therapeutic modalities that can best support you in working towards your goals. A foundational trauma-informed perspective aids self-understanding. It identifies what has contributed to unhelpful patterns that are no longer serving you. It fosters self-compassion to work towards change.

Integrated Approach

Cognition

I can support you to explore how thoughts, beliefs and interpretations impact how you feel and respond to stressors. Our thoughts and beliefs can contribute to unhelpful habitual patterns like reactivity and avoidance. Cognitive behavioural and dialectical behavioural therapy provide tools to work with thoughts and beliefs. This can help to get unstuck from and shift unhelpful patterns. Mindfulness helps to develop awareness of and relate differently to unhelpful thinking patterns. This can help to reduce to reduce self-judgment, distress and the power of thoughts and beliefs to influence behaviour.

emotion

I can support you to name and understand trigger events that elicit strong emotional responses and reactions. It can be helpful to develop skills to more effectively cope with triggers. I can support you to understand and relate to your emotions in a more helpful way rather than judge or try to suppress our emotions. Emotions are adaptive resources. They work to motivate behaviour, communicate to others, and provide signals to needs and priorities. DBT skills can help to express and respond to emotions more effectively. Mindfulness and self-compassion can support to increase acceptance of unwanted emotions and reduce self-judgment.

BEHAVIOUR

I can support you to identify unhelpful patterns. These patterns contribute to feeling stuck. They also limit the capacity to live according to your values and sustain meaningful relationships. A trauma-informed lens helps to understand how these patterns were formed and protected against threats. This can reduce self-judgment and shame to work effectively towards change. Mindfulness skills can help to increase capacity to pause before getting caught up in unhelpful habitual reactions. DBT can supply specific tools and skills to respond more skillfully to life stressors and interpersonal conflicts.

The Body/Somatics

Increasing awareness of body clues to enhance understanding of patterns of thoughts, emotions and actions. Developing understanding of nervous system states through a trauma-informed lens and how these contribute to reactions and avoidance. This awareness of body sensations can increase capacity to catch and disrupt unhelpful patterns in responses. DBT provides practical tools to reduce nervous system arousal. Mindfulness supports how the body provides different ways to be with uncomfortable thoughts and emotions. It helps reduce getting stuck in rumination or reactivity.