About therapy
I’m an integrative relational psychotherapist. Working integratively means I draw on different ways of working therapeutically to offer a responsive, collaborative therapy that is meaningful to you. It also means a focus on becoming aware of and integrating the different parts of you. Together, we can explore aspects of your experience in depth, including feelings, needs or parts of yourself that may have had little chance to be heard.
Therapy with me is primarily talking, but we might also work with imagery, dreams, creative expression or awareness practices where these offer a helpful way to explore. You do not need to think of yourself as creative or know how you want to work before we begin.
Relational means that my approach is informed by relational psychoanalysis, which recognises our deep needs for attachment and belonging and are shaped by our experiences in relationships, especially in early life. We might explore your family and childhood experiences alongside important relationships in your life now, becoming curious about familiar roles, expectations and patterns.
We may also pay attention to what happens between us in therapy. How you experience being listened to, expressing a need or encountering a difference or disagreement can help us understand your ways of relating and explore new possibilities. This is something we consider together, with curiosity about my part as well as yours.
Each of us experiences life through our body as well as through our thoughts, but many of us suffer from lack of connection to our “feeling of what happens” (some of us experience it instead as symptoms). Sometimes tension, a change in breathing or a sense of ease can help us notice something we have not yet been able to name. We will likely pay attention to bodily experience and your relationship with your body. This work is always invitational, with respect for your boundaries, and need not involve physical touch.
I approach familiar patterns with respect for the circumstances in which they developed. Ways of protecting yourself, keeping the peace or finding connection may once have been necessary, even if they now feel limiting or painful. Therapy offers space to understand these patterns, recognise what you feel and need, and explore where greater choice may be possible.