07753 827745

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Personal Therapy

I offer individual therapy in the comfort and safety of a city center site in Exeter.
Gestalt Therapy uses dialogue, experimentation and attention to body sensations; the aim being to increase awareness and insight and how this affects individuals in the present moment. The background for this method is one of support. Support and acceptance go together. The client may experience self-support from the breath, breathing in deeply and feeling the breath in the body. Then there is the question of environmental support or support in situations. Is the client supported at home? Does he/she feel supported in therapy? These aspects of support are important in the early stages of therapy and need to be in place and remain before deeper exploration and subsequent change can take place.

Although diagnosis can sometimes be helpful, as a Gestalt Therapist I do not see people as a diagnosis or with illness. People reach the places they are in through adjusting to the situations in which they find themselves. For example: a child grows up with the parents being unable to support it… the child learns to survive some how without support, this would be creative adjustment. These adjustments could affect the way we live.

An aspect of Gestalt that may be different from other therapies is that I do not see issues people may bring in isolation. Gestalt Therapy for me is holistic. We do not live in a ‘bubble’, each aspect of our lives has an influence upon how we feel. If things are difficult in one area of our lives then this will influence how we are in other areas. The world in which we live cannot be separated from the individual. During therapy we can look at all aspects of our lives, the affects these aspects will be having on the way we live and relate.

The feelings and experiences of the client are honored. Histories and narratives and the way the past is remembered is crucial. How is this affecting us today? This could lead to new awareness of how we are in the present moment.
How are we relating in the therapy session? Is this changing? What aspects are we doing differently in the session than maybe in other environments. Maybe those other environments need to change or be changed. The relationship, over time, with the therapist, will be gently examined. We never relate alone. The sessions are conducted in a confidential, respectful manner.

As a Gestalt therapist, my aim is to facilitate and empower clients in finding their own creative solutions and importantly, ways forward from their new-found understanding, and to be the individual they wish to be.
Fees … £45 per 50 minute session.

How I work

1

Dialogue and listening are not the sole medium of exchange, but it is important in every session. During the process of a session, awareness exercises, such as guided meditations, imagery and embodied movement could enable emotions and feelings in the body to be fully sensed. The unfolding and deeper understanding of these emotions could subsequently result in their release.

2

Gestalt techniques can be integrated into the process of making sense of past and present feelings and situations. The unfolding of the narrative by addressing feelings and experiences in depth can reveal needs, hungers, anxieties and ultimately strengths and solutions. New insights, emotions and importantly methods of self support can be discovered.

3

Importantly in how we live our lives is how we relate to others and our environment. With this in mind the therapeutic relationship will be viewed, experienced and addressed from the standpoint of safe honest reflection. This can enable a deeper understanding to arise as to how we openly relate or use blockages when in contact with another individual and our environment. 

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