techniques
My practice is ‘client-focused’. The following counselling techniques comprise a toolkit to utilise when the client’s experience suggests a movement towards one or more of these assistive processes. The client always remains the central point around which the session unfolds. The client comes first.
Trauma Relief
Symptoms of trauma are manifold: Emotional volatility, dissociation, overwhelm, guilt, shame, isolation, anxiety, fear, etc can all point back to traumatic event/s. Working with the body at a safe and gradual pace, trauma can be moved through and given the outlet that was missing at the time of the original event.
My practice in this area is borne out of the latest research by therapists Peter Levine, Stephen Porges, Deborah Dana, Pat Ogden, Besel Van Der Kolk, etc. Their work focuses on the physiological impacts of trauma – particularly Polyvagal Theory – and how to work gently towards re-establishing balance and flow within the client’s entire system.
Constellation Therapy
We each belong to a family system. Negative events that occurred in past generations can play out as symptoms in our current life. War, early death, secrets, etc. can occur as illness, patterns of self-sabotage or unwanted emotions in the here and now. Constellation work looks to acknowledge where the difficulty originally showed up and leave us free to face our own life without the burden of the original symptom.
Structural Constellation Therapy
This counselling technique is very useful when difficult decisions need to be made. Bypassing the mind’s capacity to hold all options at once and justify all, structural constellations take the decision from the head to the body. This technique utilises a somatic body, movement-based process to reveal what might be getting in the way of stepping forward, freely.
Dissolution Freedom Technique (DFT)
Enables us to look at long-term problems or ailments and clear the underlying reason for their perpetuation in our life. The technique reveals the original feeling or need that wasn’t met that then manifested in a creating a symptom that calls us to see what was too overwhelming to experience.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
Engaging the body’s meridian system (established in Chinese Medicine) this technique uses a ‘tapping’ sequence to interrupt our cognitive responses to thoughts or feelings that are overwhelming. This technique is one you can take home and use in a myriad of different situations to regain a sense of calm and release the grip of stress.
Direct or Somatic Experiencing
Sensations such as fear, sadness or anger can feel like too much to bear. As the feelings rise we will do anything to diminish them. Direct experiencing is a method that allows the emotion to be experienced without the accompanying overwhelm. Clients report a release of the emotion and a discovery of what lies beneath – the resource that remains untouched.
Byron Katie’s ‘The Work’
This technique uses a series of questions and ‘turnarounds’ to inquire into the hold stressful thoughts have on us. We are able to distinguish between the meaning we give to life experiences, and reality. Clients report a sense of release from everyday beliefs that weren’t serving them and find that they are able to maintain a lighter, more balanced perspective on life.
Guided Visualisations
We are all made up of many parts. We might even call these parts different versions of our self. We are our child self, our adult self – there are parts of us we have exiled, and parts of us that protect our vulnerabilities, etc. Sometimes one of these parts gets lost, perhaps in a difficult or traumatic event. Visualisations help us to look back to that part that got stuck. In this reflection we can begin to heal the original wound and thereby reintegrate the part that got lost. Clients can experience a sense of wholeness or a feeling that ‘everything is in its right place’.
Meditations
A series of meditations gives the client an opportunity to check in with the wisdom that already exists at their core. We tap into this self-guidance to make choices that match the client’s intentions to achieve harmony and freedom.