Hope’s Snowdrop
How Therapy Can Help
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”— Carl Jung
I provide person centred psychotherapy and art psychotherapy to people who suffer from a wide variety of mental health conditions. I have a special interest in recovery from eating disorders with many years experience bringing clients to full recovery.
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.” — Carl Jung
Through the process of psychotherapy we can find the capacity to deal with the unresolved hurts and difficulties that occur in life. In doing so, we can discover the strengths and qualities to live a more full and satisfying life.
Person-Centred: You have within you all you need to heal and become whole.
I practise the person-centred approach which places the client’s knowledge and their point of view at the centre of the work. This approach to therapy sees human beings as innately prone towards developing their true potential, and works to foster a better understanding of any obstacles that may be preventing this development.
An effective therapeutic relationship is a partnership:
“How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?” - Carl Rogers
The therapeutic relationship is at the heart of the work. Many studies highlight the healing power of the therapeutic relationship alone. Like all relationships, it also takes time to develop. It is important that you feel comfortable, supported and heard. Since, most effectively, it is a partnership, your active engagement is welcomed and encouraged. When you come to work with me, I am committed to establishing a relationship that is active and engaging and will facilitate your healing, freedom and happiness.
The evidence based theories that most inform my practice are psychodynamic, humanistic, and CBT. From my experience and training, in practice, my approach is compassionate, creative and cognitive. This means that I will work with you cognitively and creatively and always with compassion.
Compassion
When a person realizes he has been deeply heard, his eyes moisten. I think in some real sense he is weeping for joy. It is as though he were saying, "Thank God, somebody heard me. Someone knows what it's like to be me” ― Carl R. Rogers
Life experience constantly makes me aware of how in awe I am before the mystery of life in all its unfolding of joy and heartache. Often we don’t understand the reason for an experience until afterwards. Sometimes we never understand.
I will listen in order to hear you. I will help you develop your own listening skills to hear yourself, truly and compassionately. I will also provide a safe, nurturing space for you to retreat to in order to process your experiences, and explore what it is you need to heal. I will be non-judgemental, calm, gentle and respectful. I will also be real.
“The compassionate mind is the mind that transforms.” ― Paul Gilbert
Creative
To be alive is to be creative. Often though, when we are unwell, we become disconnected from our own creativity or we dismiss it and are unaware of its power to heal us and restore our vitality. Creativity is energy, joy and connection to life. Creativity is not just in art. Creativity is in how you think and how you act. It is in how you schedule your day, the design of your kitchen, how you spend your time with your loved ones in conversation and in kindness. It is also in cooking, gardening, music, reading, writing, and playing with your children. If you’re a child reading this, or an adult child, it is in your play! Play is creative!) I work with clients to help them rediscover, express and realise that their creativity is a valuable healing resource to many of life’s challenges.
You creative expressions is welcomed and encouraged as an integral part of your journey of healing and wholeness. You might be drawn to a share a poem, a song, or perhaps you are drawn to a particular mode of expressing, to writing, moving, or playing a musical instrument. I will invite you to engage in art and art-making in session. This might be new to you but I would encourage you to give it a chance. Art therapy improves cognition, sensorimotor functions, fosters self esteem, self awareness, and cultivates emotional intelligence. It can also promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress.
Art-making works holistically, engaging the mind, body and spirit in ways that are distinct from talk therapy alone. Kinesthetic, perceptual, and symbolic opportunities invite alternative modes of receptive and expressive communication which circumvents the limitations of language. Visual and symbolic expression gives voice to experience and emotions and empowers indivitual, communal, and societal transformation.
In other words, art and art-making is a gentle and non invasive way of working holistically that allows you to process emotions and experiences at a pace that is natural for you. It can also allow you to express and process on a sub conscious level. Through the process you develop your own visual language which is unique to you and yours alone. One of moment I always enjoy is an image review session. There I observe the clients amazement as they “see” all their images, the stories and insights and development they hold that may not have been obvious at the time of making.
It is also fun and joyful and release a lot of tension.
"You can't use up creativity. The more you use the more you have." -- Maya Angelou
Cognitive
“ When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Max Planck
“Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” — Shakespeare
Much work in therapy is cognitive. This means paying attention to how and what we think, the kinds of thoughts we have about ourselves and how our thinking affects the way we feel. In therapy we have the time, safety and space to look at how we have come to think as we do and why we believe the things we have come to believe about ourselves. The more aware we are of why we think and feel the way we do, the more we can make conscious, positive choices in how we respond to ourselves and to others. The process of self-discovery can, at times, be difficult. Over time, it is also very rewarding. Compassion and creative work are great allies to the process which can also prove extremely rewarding.
If I’m working with you already, I am privileged. Thank you. If I’ve yet to meet you, I’m very much looking forward.