To feel that one is seen and understood by someone, or to be met on a limbic level, is the first step to an emotional healing process and a change in one’s experience of the world – Susan Hart
When you have therapy with me, it is important for me that you are safe and feel that I am on your side with everything you experience from our first moment of contact.
Amongst other things, people find that non-verbal interaction and mirroring gives a sense of feeling recognized and resonating on an emotional level. This is one of the things I focus on as a therapist. I work with gentleness and respect for how ready you are as regards different channels. These channels are universal to human experience and expression – feelings, thoughts and body awareness. The harmonious interaction of these channels will in time give you calm and clarity. I start with what your precise needs are right now, considering your unique situation and background.
Emotions:
Emotions can be experienced in a multitude of ways, and no matter how they are felt, they are always messengers of our inner state of being and tell of our interaction with those we are close to. They are a witness to how we feel in a relationship or in an environment. Feelings are also connected with human motivation, and subtly influence contact and communication with other people. When feelings are shared with someone who gives them space and recognition, a healing process takes place, and over time it is possible to feel more comfortable with the things you feel and to understand the meaning and connection between thought processes.
Thoughts:
In the interplay with emotion, it is comforting and calming to understand why we act, feel and think as we do. It is possible to develop yourself through a process of reflection in a relation to an attentive and reassuring person. In this way, certain characteristic scenarios can be forestalled through an understanding of what it is that provokes a particular reaction, and what sequence of events precedes it. Through reflection, it is possible to become calmer, and understand your partner, child or colleague in a new way.
In this way, you can plan and act in a more caring way towards both yourself and others, and get greater access your natural resources.
Body/Resources:
Because we live in a culture with the main focus on emotions and thoughts, many people have lost contact with their bodies and are cut off from an awareness of sensory signals. By exploring the sensory experience of something that feels pleasurable in the body, it is possible to build up a counterweight to stress, anxiety and depression, which regulates how you feel. The body can function as a balancing factor in our inner state and a reservoir of resources. I work with this focus on resources and pleasurable body states which are gently built up in our dialogue.
The experience of balance, which is felt in the inner organs and body environment, is a wonderful healing experience. This means having an underlying feeling that you have a secure base in your own organism… – Peter Levine