Author Archive
Benefits of Guided Visualization
Guided visualization is a process where you use your imagination to focus inward while being guided by a soothing voice. The voice and the sounds provide a focus that helps you to maintain concentration. Guided relaxations are ways to help people with suggestion and peaceful imagery, to practice relaxation. In working with clients you can ‘practice’ the experience of relaxation and encourage them to remember this experience in stressful situations. The following are ways that visualization can be helpful; Read the rest of this entry »
The Art of Attunement
For all beginning therapists one of the hardest things to come to terms with is that less is more. It is easy to feel pressured to ‘do’ something to help our client’s suffering. Over the years I have come to appreciate the importance of the skill of attunement and how it is central to a transformative experience.
During the first few years of life the ability of a mother to be attuned to the needs of her infant is crucial to their development. This attunement is important to a child’s ability to learn to regulate their nervous system and deal with distressing events. When a mother consistently fails to be attuned different types of insecure attachment result. One could say that a mother’s attunement is the building block to how one learns to be connected to others, build relationships, and feel safe in the world. This article discusses how the skill of attunement in therapy has similar effects.
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How is Therapy Transformative?
How is Therapy Transformative?
So many times people come into therapy wanting to know what happens, how does it work? What are we doing in therapy? I think one of the important things we are doing is encouraging people to have a more intimate relationship with themselves. Without that relationship it is very difficult to make decisions, to create the life we want, to share ourselves and to love others. This relationship involves our whole body. We experience life by what flows through our body. It is not just an intellectual knowing, thinking about I am this or that, but it is taking in the whole of who we are. It is when we experience this flow of emotions, and sensation easily and without being overwhelmed that we feel alive with the richness and complexity of our life.
Are you apprehensive about starting counselling?
Overcoming Fears About Counselling.
In this article I will address some common attitudes that I see preventing people seeking assistance from therapists, and how they represent interpersonal fears that are related to the work one does in therapy.
Therapy is a commitment to improve your emotional health. In the end you have to make the changes you want in your life, and considering therapy as a way to help you create the life you want is a courageous decision. If you see yourself in the following attitudes I would encourage you to take a closer look at where these beliefs are coming from.
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