In Depth:

How they work together…

A Foundation

The core of my work consists of the principles of Person-Centered Theory, a belief that when given the necessary conditions (including Unconditional Positive Regard, Congruence and Empathy) clients can make progress and movement, first towards awareness and then following that towards change. Person-Centered Theory holds that the client is the best judge of what should be shared, so you take the lead. This allows you to take ownership when goals are achieved later on. However both client and therapist must work hard in the session in order for it to be beneficial, so I play an active role in supporting you and modelling the necessary conditions, which will make the therapy room a safe place to share in. I will offer an alternative perspective and insight, while respecting yours, and we will initially take time to build a trusting, working relationship, so that challenges and suggestions feel comfortable.

Moving from Past to Present

With the foundations now in place, feelings of safety and trust will hopefully grow and sharing can begin. Psychodynamic Theory comes in to add another lens as we begin to reflect on your experiences, feelings and thoughts. The roots of your problems may lay in pain from the past, but linking this to present feelings allows us to understand how it has shaped you in the now, and then we can work with it more effectively. It is very important to work in the present in order to make changes in the present. This can be difficult, especially when we have a problematic past which prevents us from tackling our problems alone. Unconscious feelings and drives tied up with our past can often block progress during therapy and here I will use my training to notice these processes, bring them into the open, so we can facilitate freeing you of blockages and bringing you into the here and now.

Living and being with others

The Relational Approach is one way to view the past and present working together. The relationships we form during our lives develop our well being, by influencing the way we think, feel and treat ourselves and others. And so they inform our blueprint of how we expect engagements in the future to be. The professional relationship between you and your therapist can be used to explore your approach to relationships and your feelings and thoughts towards others. The hope is that we can use our working relationship to move you to awareness about how you really effect others and how you are really perceived by others, as often when we have had difficult past experiences this can be negatively skewed. Going forward this awareness can allow you to actively form more satisfying relationships, which will transform the most important relationship of all, the one you have with yourself. It is this relationship that if nourished can create feelings of autonomy, self-worth and self-care, which informs our future outlook for the better.