Using a wide selection of tools to develop our therapy sessions, we will focus on the many aspects - or dimensions - of who you are. Our work together may range from looking at the daily practicalities of your life, such as work, exercise and diet, to dealing with unwanted thoughts and emotions, and identifying ways of finding meaning and balance in your life.
Through Healing Dimensions, you will be able to:By working through these issues and needs, you can achieve greater balance, fulfilment and tranquillity in your life.
We will work together as a team to support your search for resolution. My work is person-centered and focused on accessing your own capacities and strengths to meet your goals.
At your first visit, you will have the opportunity to share something of your life, explore your goals and develop an individualised plan for our time together. You will find an open, warm and supportive environment in which you are safe to relax and share what is important to you.
I use an integrative and holistic approach to practice, combining approaches from counselling, bio-energetic and transpersonal therapies and personal coaching to suit the unique needs of each person.
To meet each person's individual needs, the sessions might include:We can also use arts-based activities, stillness and mindfulness meditation, journaling and reflection to support your individual needs.
As needed, I call on my professional support and referral network to support you in accessing the best possible health and community services.
As an integrative practitioner, I am informed by a wide range of experience and exploration in the fields of counselling, natural therapies and transformational processes. Here is some information on the main therapies used at Healing Dimensions, with links to further details.
IFS is an evidence based, holistic and transformational approach to personal development and therapy which sees each person as being a system of inner parts contained within a core Self. Inner parts that help us to manage and enjoy life and that develop to protect us. In our centre Self remains compassionate, calm and unchanged, holding the knowledge of how to come into balance and heal. Parts are always trying their best to help us but life experiences can mean that they develop extreme roles and behaviours in order to cope with challenges, difficulty and pain. These extremes can be experienced as anxiety, and depression, addictions and views of oneself and others that are negative and unhelpful. IFS therapy helps create inner and outer connections, helping people to access the healing qualities of Self and to understand, care for and heal their protective and wounded inner parts.
IFS can be used not only for therapy, but as an ongoing approach for self-awareness, growth and transformation, enhancing our relationship with ourselves and each other. The qualities of Self continue to be accessed to provide a richer and deeper life, resilience in the face of challenges and the capacity to express more and more of our potential. The qualities of Self are seen as compassion, calm, connectedness, courage, confidence, creativity, clarity and curiosity. For more information on IFS go to www.ifs-institute.com or watch this video https://youtu.be/DdZZ7sTX840
Person-centered therapy has developed from the work of Carl Rogers and involves the understanding that you are the author of your own life. The sessions focus on providing the space, support and guidance for you to connect to your own truth and need for action. Within the safe place of an empathic, honest and caring therapy relationship, we bring awareness to what is happening, gradually building the strength and opportunity for changes to happen.
Emotion-focused therapy (also called process experiential emotion-focused therapy) has its origins in person-centered, gestalt, focusing and cognitive based approaches. It is strongly research-based and provides well-tested ways of connecting to your feelings, thoughts and beliefs.
Our emotions are a core source of information about our inner and outer worlds. Learning to identify and work with your emotions can be a 'quick' and efficient way to access all the dimensions of an experience - the memories, thoughts, meanings, values, feelings and actions which come into play when we are upset or disturbed.
There is considerable evidence to show that when we connect to and process underlying emotions the chances of permanent change are enhanced. Emotion-focused therapy offers 'up to the minute' information and strategies to support you to connect to your feelings at your own pace and without a dramatic or painful catharsis. In the process you can enhance your own emotional intelligence and learn to apply this at home and work.
This warm-hearted approach helps you identify core values and develop actions based on these values.
Acceptance and Commitment therapy has developed out of cognitive behavioural therapy. An empirically-based psychological intervention, it uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies, together with commitment and behaviour change strategies. It provides innovative and interesting ways of dealing with unwanted thoughts as well as strategies for accepting what can and cannot be changed.
With a strong mindfulness base, it enables you to develop your own strengths and skills to handle life.
'Soma' means body. Many of us in this modern world are separated from our bodies. Somatic processes help reconnect you to your body and access the knowledge and wisdom that lies within you. By paying attention to your bodily experience we can get in touch with emotions, memories and insights which can be less accessible though 'talking' therapy alone.
Focusing is a 'simple' yet profound approach to tapping into the bodily or 'felt sense' of a situation. Developed by Eugene Gendlin and now developed into a therapy in its own right, Focusing is deeply meditative process which you can also learn for self awareness and self care.
Transpersonal approaches view life experiences and issues from a deep and broad perspective. They come from the understanding that we have a deep self- or unconscious which contains parts of ourselves that exist outside everyday awareness. These aspects can have a profound effect on our lives. Our sessions may involve accessing the riches of these deeper parts of self through exploring dreams, using arts-based activities and guided imagery. Stillness and meditation-based practices may be used to still an overactive mind and to enhance connection to inner wisdom and insight.
A transpersonal view is broad, looking beyond the personal to Jungian-based understandings of universal patterns known as archetypes. Completing an archetypal chart may provide a map of all the principal archetypes which play out in your world. For example, we might explore the archetypal pattern of the hero's/heroine's journey as a way of understanding what is happening and what directions to take. For those in the health care field, there can be benefit from exploring the archetype of the healer.
Going beyond the confines of the purely personal, we may pay attention to your sources of meaning and strength within the framework of your belief system and spirituality.
Bio-energetic therapies are those approaches which work directly with your energy system. Sometimes referred to as energy healing, bio-energetic therapies promote a person's natural healing properties (that is, the ability to come into balance) whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. I use a combination of these therapies, in particular Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch and Australian Bush Flower Essences.
Therapeutic Touch and Healing Touch are evidence-based therapies developed and used in mainstream and complementary health care practice. They have been shown to enhance profound relaxation, reduce anxiety, support the healing response and assist with reducing pain and distress. Both these therapies use the therapist's hands as a focus. You can either be seated or lying, fully clothed, with the experience of light or no touch to your body. These therapies involve assessment of your energy system and interventions to support your energy flows in the direction of balance and harmony. The hands of a Therapeutic Touch practitioner have been shown to emit electro-magnetic energy in the same frequencies associated with the healing of human tissue.
The relaxing and affirming experience of bio-energetic therapies can aid wellbeing, healing and provide support. These therapies may also be used as preparation for and support during surgery, childbirth and in the last days of life.
You can learn to tune into your own vibrational state - to identify earlier rather than later when you are out of balance and need ways to balance your own system.
These are an emotion-focused natural therapy used during or following a session to support you through the change process. These essences are not therapeutic drugs, but work on mind, body and spirit. They are obtained by extracting the healing vibration quality from the most evolved part of the plant - the flowers, and work on an emotional level to harmonise subconscious negative feelings and belief patterns.
We may use the visual stimulus of the flowers themselves as part of a session, while the essences in the form of creams or drops can be taken following a session. Extensive information on Australian Bush Flower Essences is available on their website.
