Therapeutic Services
Have you lost a loved one? Can I help you with online grief and bereavement support and comfort in your time of need.
Individual Counselling
Do you find yourself struggling to trust others and are holding back from meaningful connections? These concerns may be the result of unresolved trauma.
Some of the areas I can help with include:
Anxiety & depression
Depression, low mood, and emotional numbness
Self-esteem and self-worth, shame
Trauma and post-traumatic stress
Grief and loss, absent father syndrome
Relationship difficulties,
Men’s issues and mid-life crises
Life transitions, identity, and belonging
Personal development and life story work
What is Trauma?
Trauma occurs precisely when an event is overwhelming to a point where a person is unable to rationalize, defend, process or accept what is happening to them or someone close to them. Trauma fragments the brain’s ability to make sense and therefore move on from the onslaught. The event when it occurs overwhelms and drives us to our basic survival responses.
When the traumatic incident occurred did you find yourself unable to move? You may even find yourself tensing up or being easily startled throughout your day. After a traumatic event, you may develop an exaggerated stress response. It involves a recurrent pattern of reactions related to the initial event. You aren’t alone in experiencing this, it is actually one of the most common signs of having been traumatized.
Other signs include:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Irritability
- Panic Attacks
- Numbing
- Insomnia
- Flashbacks
- Hopelessness
- Loss of a sense of self
What is Complex Trauma?
Complex trauma arises from exposure to multiple traumatic events which often occur during childhood. Emotional, physical and sexual abuse, exploitation or bullying, and even being trafficked are the most common root causes. Sometimes a parent or person caring for a child has their own trauma experiences, and their child inevitably is adversely affected.
Complex trauma is not always the result of childhood trauma. It can also occur as a result of adults’ experience of violence in the home, university, neighbourhood and workplace. The abuse could be physical, sexual, emotional, verbal, financial or spiritual-PTSD, which if left untreated can develop into Complex Trauma. The long-term effects of this exposure should be assessed by a mental health professional as soon as possible.
Some indications that may be experiencing complex trauma are:
- Persistent unresolved guilt
- Constant feelings of shame and worthlessness
- Trouble feeling “safe” within your own body
- Deep distrust of authority figures
- Anxiety around intimacy/ aversion to close relationships
- Being easily startled
- Self-harming behaviours
- Chronic pain
- Using food or substances to cope with strong emotions
My heart approach
I believe that healing begins with genuine human connection. My approach is warm, collaborative, and tailored to you. Depending on your goals and preferences.
It is also important to consider the root cause and address the whole person and the experiences that brought up these concerns. A trauma sensitive approach to therapy allows you to explore your current difficulties while keeping in mind that we are complex beings with histories that impact us. We look to understand how we survived our most difficult experiences and how to utilize those strengths while learning new tools to continue to thrive.
The world of therapy has come a long way in the treatment of trauma and PTSD. There is a greater understanding of how trauma is held within the body and manifests symptoms. Through trauma-focused therapy, you can learn to understand not only the circumstances that led to the trauma but also uncover your strengths and utilize them to shift the patterns that are keeping you stuck.
The therapeutic process is a collaborative journey. In our sessions together, we can explore:
Body-centered (somatic) therapy links the healing elements of (EFT) emotional freedom technique, mindfulness, with the CBT narrative reprogramming.
It allows you to work through not only the thoughts and underlying beliefs that have resulted from the trauma, but accesses the healing capacity of the brain and body to develop a deeper, more felt sense of internal safety. This form of somatic therapy is not only to cultivate a deep level of healing, but to bring forward your intuition and inner capacity to better manage stress and maintain a healthy mind-body connection. Learning this simple methods to self-soothe, feeling grounded, and re-connecting to you to harness the body’s innate wisdom and movement towards healing and growth.
Getting help.
In the course of life, you will experience traumatic events that are emotionally painful. If not treated, these events may result in mental and even physical effects. A trauma specialist is a mental health therapist specializing in trauma. They have extensive training and clinical experience working directly with trauma victims.
Going through difficult times may be a normal part of every person/ family’s journey, however dysfunction does not have to be. How we cope with difficulties determines the mental health and happiness of those most beloved to us. Respect, tolerance, and unconditional acceptance are not inherent but rather skills that can be taught and improved upon.
Couples Counselling
Therapy Can Make a Difference to Your Life
Transnational Analysis and relationship education have been proven to be effective in improving communication between couples, addressing difficult problems in the relationship, and providing couples with the tools to move forward together or break up on the best terms. Whether you are in the process of separating or want to strengthen your relationship going forward, couples counselling can help you and your partner make the best choices for you and your family.
Below is a list of the various techniques I use to help your journey:
- EFT- Emotional freedom technique
- Mindfulness based stress reduction
- EMDR (In training)
- Poly-Vagus nerve and somatic experiencing
- Life book story work
- Healing the father deceit wound
Our sessions will be a collaborative process of understating communication patters, unpinning needs and expectations. This helps us to better understand the root cause, as well as to see how it induces distress and disruption in your life currently. Here are just some of the issues we can help you to explore in couples counselling.
- Anger management
- Emotional abuse
- Parenting
- Loss or grief
- Divorce and relationships
- Anxiety or Fears
- Trans -generational trauma
- Communication and skills building
- Dealing with Illness
- Affair recovery
- Historial trauma
There are a number of benefits that couples and families can gain from my holistic approach, Some of these include:
Better emotional functioning:
EFT provides a language for healthy dependency between partners and looks at key moves and moments that define an adult love relationship. The primary goal of the model is to expand and re-organize the emotional responses of the couple.
Stronger bonds: EFT is based on attachment theory, which suggests that attachments between people typically provide a safe haven—a retreat from the world and a way to obtain comfort, security, and a buffer against stress.
Improved interpersonal understanding: EFT helps people become more aware of their partner’s needs. Because of this awareness, they are also able to listen and discuss problems from a place of empathy instead of a place of defensiveness or anger.Emotionally focused therapy can unwind automatic, counter-productive reactions that threaten relationships.
During an EFT session, a therapist observes the dynamics between a couple and then acts as a collaborator to coach and direct new ways of interacting. Unlike some other forms of therapy where the therapist is more of a passive listener, EFT therapists take an active role in guiding the conversation. The therapeutic approach also focuses on addressing emotions and interactions within the session rather than focusing on things like worksheets and homework.
Therapists are empathetic and help couples recognize their emotions as valid. They help couples and individuals recognize behaviours and patterns that they may not even be aware of and see how these actions contribute to conflict in a relationship.
Emotional Freedom Technique (Tapping)
What Tapping is a set of techniques which utilize the body’s energy meridian points, like acupuncture and acupressure. You can stimulate these acupoints by tapping on them with your fingertips – literally tapping into your body’s own healing power.
Also known as EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), Tapping is a powerful stress relief technique based on the combined principles of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology
While tapping on the points, you also maintain your mental focus on whatever is causing you distress (such as a strong emotion, worry, unresolved problem, or physical symptom). Learn more about how tapping can help with anxiety.
This technique has been proven to reduce stress, lower cortisol, improve sleep, reduce anxiety, relieve pain, increase productivity, and so much more!
Tapping allows you to take your physical and emotional well-being into your own hands. It’s simple for anyone to master, it’s free, and it’s easy to include in your daily schedule – you can do it anywhere and anytime you need it, and is a helpful way of bringing our attention to the sensations of the body. This helps with grounding and self-regulation.
The benefits of ‘Over-toning’
Om
A mantra is a self directed affirmation that anyone can use to ground and self heal. It is very useful both for learners and for the most advanced practitioners. In this mantra the whole universe is like a crystal. This mantra is chanted, meditating on the connection between us and the universe, with a sense of altruism, love, and dedication. The main benefits of chanting is that it has a way of detoxing the mind.