My Approach to Practice

I have trauma training, including in EMDR (eye-movement desensitisation & reprocessing), as well as in the the use of mindfulness in therapy. I believe in a rounded approach to therapy that addresses thoughts, motivations and values, feelings and emotions, body sensations, and relationships, and so have training in therapies such as emotionally focused therapy (EFT), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), existential therapy, and somatic therapy.

From a meaning-centred approach, it is key to listen for how you make sense of yourself and your life, and what is most important to you. Reducing and managing symptoms can be an important part of the process, but we don’t stop there. It is by addressing and creating meaning in life that people achieve balance, well-being, and authenticity.

Providing trauma-informed therapy means I have training and supervision in trauma therapies such as EMDR. I help people work with intense, overwhelming experiences that may have contributed to persistent nightmares, flashbacks, intrusive and distressing thoughts and feelings, and a deep sense of loss of one's identity, connections, and place in the world.

I view the quality of the connection between the therapist and the person as one of the core ingredients of effective therapy. I make it a point to look together at, and address, the kinds of patterns or strategies you have used to cope with stress and adversity. We use therapy to notice, adjust, and expand your patterns and strategies if they are no longer serving you well.

As a therapist, my goal is to assist people in knowing both the wisdom and limits in the ways they respond to life’s challenges. My hope is to assist people in generating new, more expansive, and more fulfilling ways to live. In practice, this can often involve:

  • Learning to feel, tolerate, and move through distress,

  • Expressing thoughts and feelings in a healthy, congruent way,

  • Bringing fuller awareness to the kinds of limiting patterns people habitually fall into, and

  • Discovering and practising alternatives to limiting patterns,

  • Enacting personal values, strengths, and meaningful identities,

  • Bringing together beliefs, emotions, thoughts, and sensations, into meaningful wholes.