The foundations
We make decisions in our early years that stay with us and can affect the rest of our lives. Our brains, thought processes, and perceptions about ourselves and the world are mostly formed in infancy. As children, we learn to adapt to the world around us, moulding and shaping ourselves to meet the expectations of others. As we evolve in what can be an inauthentic world in which we’re not always fully accepted, we learn to hide or abandon parts of ourselves to stay safe.
The impact
These difficult early experiences and traumas can develop into various symptoms such as depression, anxiety, chronic ill health, difficulty in relationships, and a sense of being lost or overwhelmed. I welcome these symptoms as challenges we can work on together and overcome through therapy.
My Approach
I am an advanced UKCP trainee mindfulness-based Core Process Psychotherapist. Core Process (MBCPP) is a powerful, gentle, and mindful approach to therapy.
MBCPP works on the understanding that we are inherently healthy and that we have formed unhealthy patterns through our lived experiences. It explores how we have developed these unhealthy patterns and works to untangle the knots using mindful awareness. As we become more insightful and self-aware in the present moment, the better we can observe our thoughts and feelings and eventually, let go of our ‘toddler wisdom’.
MBCPP combines traditional talk therapy with mindfulness practices. It’s based on the belief that our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours are all interconnected and that by developing awareness of these connections, we can better understand ourselves and create positive change in our lives.
In this type of therapy, you’ll explore your inner world, including your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. You’ll learn to observe these experiences without judgment, allowing you to gain insight into your patterns of behaviour and thought.
The mindfulness practices used in this therapy can include meditation, breathing exercises, and other techniques designed to help you focus your attention and cultivate awareness of your experiences in the present moment.
Overall, Mindfulness-based Core Process Psychotherapy can be a powerful tool for personal growth and healing. It can help you become more self-aware, increase your resilience, and develop greater compassion for yourself and others.
I am also completing my training in Somatic Experiencing (SE), this is a powerful toolkit for healing from trauma, which aims to help us find closure and resolution. A deeply mindful process, we track sensations in our bodies and release threat responses (fight, flight, freeze and faun) that are stuck in our systems. When something traumatic happens to us, even at birth and we are not able to complete the threat response that was triggered at the time, the response becomes trapped in our bodies and impacts our lives and relationship with the world around us.
