My relational approach to psychotherapy in Bristol involves understanding, and providing support for, the whole of you. Typically, we abandon parts of ourselves as ‘not ok’ or ‘unacceptable’ as people around us might have done when we were younger, and these parts often contain the life force and energy for change in our lives. As a psychotherapist, I consider all of your patterns and behaviours in a light of how they were appropriate and helpful creative adjustments to an environment that wasn’t able to support you in a way you needed at that time.
Together, we pay attention to your physical and psychological processes and how they link together. Working relationally means that I bring myself into the therapeutic relationship with you as another human being, sharing my responses, thoughts and feelings with you. If it feels helpful to you, I use our relationship as a way of raising your awareness of how you might be relating with and experiencing the world around you.
Mainly I’ll listen and ask questions, but I’ll also share my thoughts, feelings and personal experience when appropriate. I’ll be myself in our relationship, not a blank screen or someone who is sorted, but another human who also suffers.
Although it’s difficult to pin down exactly how change happens, the relationship that is developed between the therapist and client is healing. With a psychotherapist’s presence and attunement, you can explore who you are at a deeper level, gain insight into the feelings that you have, and understand. Ultimately you will change behavioural patterns that seem to be out of your control at present, giving you greater choice moment-to-moment to live life more fully. When you feel deeply understood and accepted in the parts of you that you felt were unacceptable, change happens naturally.
I have a particular interest in how to live life fully, and how to able to relate fully, as a Bristol Counsellor, to others as who we are, free from the constraints of the past.
During my time working as a therapist in Bristol, I have come across writings, and also written some of my own articles based on my experience, about therapy which you can access here
You also may care to explore further some of the concepts introduced here by visiting the Edinburgh Gestalt Institute.
