In my practice, I take a trauma-informed approach to counselling, which means that I understand the pervasive impact of trauma and prioritize your safety, choice, and empowerment throughout the therapeutic process. I recognize that everybody's experience is unique, and I tailor my approach to meet your individual needs and circumstances. I am committed to creating a therapeutic space where we will move at a pace that feels comfortable for you, and you will have the autonomy to decide what topics to explore in our sessions.

Psychodynamic Counselling

What is Psychodynamic Counselling?

Psychodynamic counselling explores the emotions and experience that forms our thoughts, actions, and relationships. This therapeutic approach, acknowledges that our unconscious has a profound influence on our current mental well-being, and that our early life experiences can impact our present-day functioning.

Psychodynamic counselling focuses on understanding the unconscious processes that drive our behaviours and feelings. By bringing these influences into conscious awareness, a person can gain a better understanding of themselves, leading to lasting personal growth and improved mental well-being.

How it works?

In psychodynamic counselling, your current experience and significant events from your past, particularly those from childhood, are explored. These experiences often shape one’s personality and influence how we interact with the world.

Together, we will explore your thoughts, feelings and the unconscious patterns that may be contributing to your current issues. These patterns often manifest in repeated behaviours, emotions, or relationship dynamics that you might find troubling or confusing.

Building a trusting relationship is key to this therapeutic approach, to enable you to speak openly and honestly about your thoughts and feelings.

With time, psychodynamic counselling fosters increased insight and self-awareness. As you gain a deeper understanding of your inner world, you can make more deliberate choices, leading to positive transformations in your life.

Benefits

Psychodynamic counselling can address an array of issues, including depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, addiction issues and low self-esteem. By addressing the root causes of these problems, rather than just the symptoms, this approach can lead to profound and enduring change.

Whether you are looking for support with an ongoing problem or a particular issue or life event, or you want to work on your personal growth and development, psychodynamic counselling can be a life-changing, life-enhancing experience.

The first step is to carry out a comprehensive assessment to get an understanding of your history, symptoms, and specific needs. This includes evaluating the severity of trauma and its impact on your mental health.

If we decide that NET is the right for you, the next stage will be to build a timeline that maps significant events in your life from birth to the present day. There will be focus on traumatic events, but we will also map significant positive experiences. From this, we will decide how many sessions will be needed to complete the treatment.

Each session will last approximately 90 minutes. During these sessions, I will guide you to share emotions, thoughts, sensory details and physiological responses related to the events on your timeline, and we will work together to process events. Together, we make sense of your experiences, identifying patters and impacts on thoughts and behaviours. I ensure you stay grounded in the present by linking emotions and physical responses to chronological details such as time and place.

The therapy concludes with the creation of a coherent life narrative in the broader context of life experience, providing a sense of closure and empowerment. Many clients often report a greater sense of control over their lives and an enhanced ability to cope with future stressors. 

How NET can help people in recovery from addiction 

Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) is a valuable therapeutic approach for individuals struggling with addiction, especially when their substance use is linked to past traumatic events. NET helps individuals process and integrates traumatic memories, which can be a significant underlying factor in addictive behaviours.