About Me
The professionals I have gained the most from are those who remained still when I was agitated, were compassionate when I hardened up, were generous when I flinched, questioned when I was certain, and tracked my emotional register while I thought myself around in circles – all the while staying connected to me and my experience. These are the mentors I work to emulate.
My sense of humour sets me apart.
Counselling is art and science. The art is in engaging and following your client, fully attuned in the moment to their experience. The relationship is central to the work, this has been shown to be the case in a myriad of studies over decades (science). There is art in timing ‘challenges’ so they have impact beyond their weight. These are the curiosities, reflections, re-frames, information or wonderings that evoke insights, awareness, and new perspectives. With a clear sense of direction these are cultivated into new and more satisfying experiences of life.
I refer to the part of me that watches myself go through the world as my ’witness’. It takes on a particular role as I work. It keeps track of me as I keep track of you. It sifts through my momentary experience for pieces that inform hunches I may have about your needs and experiences. It keeps me true to the statement “you are always the centre of our work”. We each have a witness and yours is of great value to you as you seek to improve your life satisfaction. Part of my work is keeping you in touch with your witness as we work.
The first work I did as a counsellor was with men behaving abusively in their relationships. We worked under the unofficial but often repeated guideline ‘easy on the guy, hard on the behaviour’. For some this would be a hard line to maintain; I get that. And it is a very therapeutic place to be – accepted for who you are even as how and what you are doing is brought into the light of day. It is a practice of the truism that when I am accepted as I am, then I am able to change. It is consistent with a belief in people’s capacity to find their way and heal. My job isn’t to fight who you are, it is to be OK with who you are and alert for the moments when you relax and a ‘challenge’ will find its way in.
My work is informed by a number of modalities: CBT, ACT, DBT, Narrative Therapy, the Hakomi Method, Gestalt Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Solution Oriented practice, and Systems thinking. What this gives me is a range of ‘languages’ to engage clients by. It is well established (more science) that cookie cutter approaches do not serve clients. I find people speak of and understand their experiences more in keeping with the language and perspective of one counselling modality or another. I may judge that a different lens would be helpful and introduce one at the appropriate point, but we start where you are. This approach is organized around a path I see to reaching the goals we have established.
And then there is humour. Sometimes humour joins me in a session. I have a sense of humour and it may show up. When it does it may or may not get to speak out. When it speaks up it serves us in a number of ways like relieving stress, allowing us to remain on the therapeutic edge of your comfort zone, etc. And humour can also be seeing something familiar in a new light, or illuminating something we accept as a given - not a choice. Seeing the same old thing in a new light. Gaining a sense of options where there seemed to be none, is a fair way of looking at successful counselling. I reach this point with clients and find it very satisfying.
I look forward to hearing from you... when the time is right.
My sense of humour sets me apart.
Counselling is art and science. The art is in engaging and following your client, fully attuned in the moment to their experience. The relationship is central to the work, this has been shown to be the case in a myriad of studies over decades (science). There is art in timing ‘challenges’ so they have impact beyond their weight. These are the curiosities, reflections, re-frames, information or wonderings that evoke insights, awareness, and new perspectives. With a clear sense of direction these are cultivated into new and more satisfying experiences of life.
I refer to the part of me that watches myself go through the world as my ’witness’. It takes on a particular role as I work. It keeps track of me as I keep track of you. It sifts through my momentary experience for pieces that inform hunches I may have about your needs and experiences. It keeps me true to the statement “you are always the centre of our work”. We each have a witness and yours is of great value to you as you seek to improve your life satisfaction. Part of my work is keeping you in touch with your witness as we work.
The first work I did as a counsellor was with men behaving abusively in their relationships. We worked under the unofficial but often repeated guideline ‘easy on the guy, hard on the behaviour’. For some this would be a hard line to maintain; I get that. And it is a very therapeutic place to be – accepted for who you are even as how and what you are doing is brought into the light of day. It is a practice of the truism that when I am accepted as I am, then I am able to change. It is consistent with a belief in people’s capacity to find their way and heal. My job isn’t to fight who you are, it is to be OK with who you are and alert for the moments when you relax and a ‘challenge’ will find its way in.
My work is informed by a number of modalities: CBT, ACT, DBT, Narrative Therapy, the Hakomi Method, Gestalt Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Solution Oriented practice, and Systems thinking. What this gives me is a range of ‘languages’ to engage clients by. It is well established (more science) that cookie cutter approaches do not serve clients. I find people speak of and understand their experiences more in keeping with the language and perspective of one counselling modality or another. I may judge that a different lens would be helpful and introduce one at the appropriate point, but we start where you are. This approach is organized around a path I see to reaching the goals we have established.
And then there is humour. Sometimes humour joins me in a session. I have a sense of humour and it may show up. When it does it may or may not get to speak out. When it speaks up it serves us in a number of ways like relieving stress, allowing us to remain on the therapeutic edge of your comfort zone, etc. And humour can also be seeing something familiar in a new light, or illuminating something we accept as a given - not a choice. Seeing the same old thing in a new light. Gaining a sense of options where there seemed to be none, is a fair way of looking at successful counselling. I reach this point with clients and find it very satisfying.
I look forward to hearing from you... when the time is right.
