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Therapeutic Approach:

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My 'therapeutic approach' is heart centred and deeply trauma sensitive, which means bringing an awareness of how we are shaped by our life experiences and the depth of complexity and conflicting feelings that may be present. A feeling of safety can't be forced, highly attuned, sensitive systems are expert at picking up subtleties and incongruence in the environment. Working with presence, mindfulness, nervous system awareness, Somatic Experiencing and parts work to allow what needs to be seen and felt to arise in its time. In my experience of therapy I've found it rare to find somewhere that feels safe enough to allow what needs to surface to surface. I believe it's important to find spaces where we have space to hear ourselves and explore beneath the surface. To find ways to give expression to the experiences we may not have had the chance to digest and are still carrying. This may include the painful, confusing and beautiful experiences, and by finding ways to express them - whether by words, movement, gesture, silence, song or story - we may be able to move these experiences through us, honoring, releasing and integrating them.

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​​​​​Below is a description of the different modalities I am trained in and can incorporate into sessions:

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Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP) - Dance Psychotherapy uses movement and body expression to process emotions, reduce stress, and improve mental health. By engaging our body in creative movement, it is possible to access deep emotional states, improve self-awareness, and foster healing, especially in the context of trauma or personal growth. DMP can provide tools to get beneath the intellectual mind and access the wisdom that is held within the body. It can facilitate access to the deep preverbal layers of consciousness that talking therapy alone can struggle to reach. To be able to creatively express and give shape to what is being felt can be extremely helpful and transformative. The mind can often feel overwhelmed and confused, but by using practices alongside verbal processing that return us to the body and the breath, it is possible to access a deeper embodied knowing. Click here for more information.

 

Somatic Experiencing (SE) - Somatic Experiencing is a body-based therapeutic approach created by Peter Levine that helps individuals resolve symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma that accumulate in our bodies and nervous systems. Trauma, from an SE lens, is focused on how it shows up in the nervous system and how that dysregulation impacts life. It is so powerful because it brings us into awareness of our pysiological state and what it is communicating moment to moment. We so often live in our minds disconnected from our physical experience which is giving us so much information about what we should move toward and away from. This spidey sense can get disrupted due to trauma and we end up moving toward what is not healthy for us because it feels familiar. SE supports in the slowing down and bringing awareness to this. It can help us unpick and learn what is a trauma response and what is our intuition guiding us. Somatic Experiencing facilitates the completion of self- protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions and working to complete defensive responses previously thwarted from bringing resolution to the nervous system and, therefore, to the individual. Click here for more information.

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Internal Family Systems (IFS) - Created by Dick Schwartz, IFS is a transformative model that sees us all as being made up of a system of inner parts all with their own story, experiences and reasons for doing what they do. Ideally this inner system is held and led by our core self, the deep truth of who we are, the wise witnessing presence who's natural state of being is anchored in presence and love. IFS helps us to connect with and heal the various parts of ourselves, such as the exiled parts of us, our wounded inner children that are carrying burdens from the past, or protective parts which may be trying to manage unresolved pain through various coping strategies. IFS is rooted in bringing self compassion, love and acceptance to all our parts, supporting integration so that our inner family system can begin to operate more harmoniously. We often have fragmented polarised parts within, where our inner parts are in conflict with eachother, with certain parts being in control and other parts being completely exiled. It is possible to hear all our parts and unburden them from past pains allowing for a greater sense of peace, ease and coherence within. Click here for more information.

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Polyvagal Theory - Polyvagal Theory is based on understanding the autonomic nervous system and how it responds to different situations/ stimuli. Stress and trauma can impact the autonomic nervous system and what we perceive as threat. Polyvagal theory supports emotional well-being by promoting safety, connection, and resilience through awareness of the body's physiological responses. Deb Dana says that 'state drives story' meaning that dependent on what physiological state our nervous system is in will impact the way we see the world and the stories are mind tells us about the world. In one state (ventral vagal) we may perceive the world as safe and welcoming and full of possibility, in another (dorsal vagal) we may feel alone, frozen, lost, everything feels hopeless, in another (sympathetic) we may feel unsafe, anxious, wired, hyper vigilant and like we are under constant threat. And our thoughts will be driven by and reflect these states. Often people who have experienced trauma (most of us) will cycle between sympathetic activation (fight/ flight) and dorsal collapse. Part of the work is to notice and learn which state we are in and develop skills to be with ourselves in these places and develop flexibility in the nervous system so that we are not stuck in any one state. It's not to demonise any of these states - we need them all to play, to meditate, to take action. A healthy nervous system moves between all the states throughout the day, problems arise when we get stuck in any one. There is a way more nuance and complexity to this, Click here for more information.

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Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) - Created by Pat Ogden Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a body-centered approach that addresses the unresolved autonomic and emotional dysregulation that can be the legacy of unresolved trauma and attachment issues. It can also help uncover and transform limiting beliefs at a body level. It progresses through three key phases: safety and stabilisation, processing of traumatic memories, and reintegration. The primary goal of these phases is to reduce symptoms, build internal resources, and process trauma. An important aspect of SP is cultivating a witnessing presence which allows individuals to experience emotions and bodily sensations without becoming overwhelmed by them. At the time of the overwhelming experience (trauma) there was no witnessing presence which means any experience that is too much for our systems can't be processed and integrated, this is what SP supports. Through mindful awareness, we can stay present with feelings, sensations, and beliefs, enabling the integration of past experiences. This process fosters healing, leading to greater balance and integration in the present. Click here for more information.

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