Working with Individuals

Just as it is customary for people to believe that pain and sadness should be avoided under all circumstances, they believe that love means the absence of all conflict. And they find good reasons for this idea in the fact that the struggles around them seem only to be destructive interchanges which bring no good to either one of those concerned. But the reason for this is that the "conflicts" of most people are actually attempts to avoid the real conflicts. (Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving.)

Therapy is a way of exploring and working through crises, changes in life circumstance, and (if continued longer term) our understanding of who we are. Therapy is a safe and creative process where the individual and the therapist meet around a topic or issue and spend time investigating and exploring possibilities.

Impediments to Change

Sometimes it is habitual behaviours that impede our ability to change. These behaviours usually start early in life, as a response to circumstances. At the time, the behaviours may have been beneficial and may have created safety and a way of managing.

These behaviours may, however, no longer be useful, and may be preventing us from getting what we now need. Therapy is a way of unlearning such old, fixed patterns and creating new choices.

Shame

It has been said that shame is itself shaming; we retreat not only from our shame but from the experiencing of that shame.

As therapists we believe there is a deep healing power in working through issues that are heavy with shame, and in bringing to the surface painful residual shame that may not be associated with any one particular issue, but which stays with us as a depressive weight (often called "ground shame").

We offer a supportive, private and non-judgemental environment in which the therapist and the individual can travel such difficult paths together.