How I will work with you:
– I work with gentle, safe methods – collaborative, sensitive.
– I incorporate a stepped care approach as endorsed by the ACT Dept. of Health. This means we begin with respect, safety & stability, then progress to deeper exploration as and when it is appropriate.
– I work to the Australian National Standards for Mental Health Services and have been assessed by the ACT Human Services Registrar and supported and registered as an NDIS Provider of Therapeutic Support services from 1/1/2018 to March 2020*.
From a basis of psychodynamic psychotherapy, my work is informed by Self-psychology and Somatic Intersubjective Psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy is relational therapy and my work is informed by Attachment and Developmental theories. What this means is:
- Psychodynamic Psychotherapy – “The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy” by Jonathan Shedler (2010), identified 7 features which reliably distinguish psychodynamic therapy from other therapies and lists these as:
– Focus on affect and expression of emotion.
– Exploration of attempts to avoid distressing thoughts and feelings.
– Identification of recurring themes and patterns.
– Discussion of past experience (developmental focus).
– Focus on interpersonal relations.
– Focus on therapy relationship.
– Exploration of fantasy life (internal thoughts including desires, fears, fantasies, dreams and daydreams.) - Somatic Psychotherapy “is grounded in the belief that not only are thought, emotion and bodily experience inextricably linked (creating a bodymind), but also that change can be brought about in one domain of experience by mindfully accessing another.” (from http://www.pacfa.org.au/somatic-psychotherapy/ on 21/11/2017).
This means that accessing our somatic sensations – our internal subjective sense of our physical self – is useful, and at times, essential for the therapeutic process of understanding and change. The body is often a missed dimension in making the connections between our emotions, our health and our relationship to the people and places around us.
Somatic psychotherapy has shown to be effective for the treatment of a broad range of concerns from anxiety, depression, trauma, personality disorders, grief and loss, eating disorders and addictions. - Self Psychology is based the work of Heinz Kohut who placed empathy at the centre of the successful therapeutic process:
“The self forms the central focus of this theory, and is understood as the vital, cohesive, feeling of ongoingness, agency, and self-worth. Through appropriate and attuned responsiveness, the therapist promotes the growth of critical aspects of the self. These aspects support the client’s ambitions and ideas, give expression to their talents and skills, and aid the development of healthy relationships…. Self Psychology is a relational psychology in that it maintains that human psychological functioning is always embedded in social interactions.” (Self Psychology Australia, retrieved on 27/11/2017 from http://selfpsychology.com.au/13-2/)
*Re: NDIS registration – I chose not to continue with NDIS registration in early 2020, when it changed from State to National administration, due to it’s onerous requirements more suited to an organisation than an individual practitioner. However, I continue to welcome clients with NDIS funding who are Self managed or Plan managed.
