I work hard to establish and maintain a comfortable environment for all of my clients in therapy. Safety, trust and a solid therapeutic alliance with your clinician are well known to be some of the key foundations for successful outcomes in counselling. They come together and form a base that can give rise to powerful opportunities for reflection. 1.) On how things may have been. 2.) On how things are now. And perhaps most importantly, 3.) On how you would like things to be in the future. This sets the stage for accurately identifying and then eventually starting to act on key pieces necessary to realize desired change.
Often the toughest work, is finding the courage to take a look at (with empathy, self compassion and a refrain on judgement); some of the self limiting habits, beliefs and behaviours that have both developed out of, and contributed to, a person's complex individual experiences. Our circumstances and our understanding of them, can lead us to many and varied ways and means of coping. Not all of them of course, are healthy or productive. Knowing our thoughts and feelings on important matters and getting back to a place of controlling them (most of the time), is in very simple terms, what therapy should be all about. That is one of the core things I can help to facilitate.
I have worked in the helping profession for my entire career, which is quickly approaching 30 years. I have a Masters of Arts Degree in Counselling Psychology, along with extensive post graduate training in a number of evidence based trauma therapy modalities. This is just the ‘fancy’ way of stating that; a solid body of independent and thoughtfully constructed scientific research studies have concluded that there is real substance to these techniques. And that they are consistently effective in treating Trauma. I have additional training and experience in: Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE), Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) and Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET). I have experience working with adolescents and adults. This includes the full continuum of adulthood, through the lifespan to retirement and later life.
I aspire to be an ally, to the very core principles of diversity and respect. I value and honour the unique individuality of identity expression and aspiration of all individuals I meet. Please expect to be treated with dignity, curiosity and a fundamental respect for everything that makes you, uniquely you.