I use a synergistic mix of psychotherapy along with EFT, hypnotherapy and other body based tools and techniques. I am an accredited member of EFT International and an affiliate member of the United States Association of Body Psychotherapy.

It is essential that you feel safe and comfortable when working with me. I recommend that you avail of a complementary 20 minute consultation online or by phone (by appointment only), in order to see if we are a good fit for each other and to get a feel for the person I am. I work in person, over the phone and online (skype, zoom, facetime). Please see session guidelines.

Until we feel safe enough, we will try to avoid pain which works really well short term, but not long term as we well know because of the issues that bring us to therapy. Just as our bodies become activated (flight/fight/freeze/shutdown), they need to be able to deactivate in order to return to a state of wellbeing. In order for us to deactivate our stress response, we need to feel safe enough, both internally and externally. Safety is felt in the body and it is something that we cannot talk our body into. It is something that we have to show to our body.

Unresolved stress and trauma makes us feel unsafe in our bodies because our bodies internalise unresolved threats, it is crucially important therefore that therapy include the body and not just the mind. Becoming embodied is a process that needs to go at the pace of our most hurt parts. If we are not in our bodies (disembodied), we cannot fully release the stress they hold, returning to our bodies involves going slowly (titration) and being as gentle and as kind as we can with ourself.

Symptoms, psychological and physical, are usually our first sign that something is amiss. Symptoms are the end result of us having to bury something we could not digest/handle, which drives the experience further into our unconscious, a process called somatisation. Our body becomes full and there is no more room for unfelt experiences. We experience this fullness as being at the end of our tether. Symptoms are the bread crumb trail that lead us to the root cause(s). There are some good questions we can ask so we get some clarity about what the root causes are.

Trauma occurs when our ability cope is overwhelmed. Irish psychiatrist Ivor Browne, coined one of the most simple and elegant definitions of trauma, he calls it "unexperienced experience". One of the most valuable skills we can learn is how to increase the capacity in our nervous system so we can tolerate difficult emotions and their sensations in our body. We can then experience what has remained unexperienced for years. This is what true emotional freedom means.

The importance of emotions cannot be overstated when doing trauma work, because they are felt in the body, not the mind. Emotions do not get enough attention or credence in my opinion and if they do, it is usually negative. Some books that I have found very helpful are:
• The Language of Emotions: What your feelings are trying to tell you, Karla Mc Laren
• In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness, Peter Levine
• The Practice of Embodying Emotions: A Guide for Improving Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioral Outcomes, Raja Selvam
• The Feeling Of What Happens: Body, Emotion and the Making of Consciousness, Antonio Damasio
• Unlocking the Emotional Brain: Eliminating Symptoms at Their Roots Using Memory Reconsolidation, Bruce Ecker, Robin Tictic & Laurel Hulley
• Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Connection, Candace Pert
• Focusing, Eugene T. Gendlin