- 25 years clinical experience with children & adolescents with relational and developmental trauma
- Qualified in 1990 as creative arts therapist with special training in movement psychotherapy
- Movement psychotherapy is similar in approach to the principles of art, play & music psychotherapy, using spontaneous movements and gestures as a projective technique to encourage clients to engage in expressing feelings verbally or non-verbally
- Work focuses on “somatic narratives” including facial expression, eye-gaze, posture, gestures and uses the body as the target of therapeutic action
- Aim of therapy is to develop personal resources –particularly somatic strategies -via self-soothing techniques and breath exercises in order to gain body/physical awareness
- Physical self-awareness is a prerequisite for change.Therapy begins by helping clients to first notice, then describe the feelings in their bodies.“Not emotions such as anger or anxiety or fear, but the physical sensations beneath the emotions: pressure, heat, muscular tension, tingling, caving in, feeling hollow.We work together identifying the sensations associated with relaxation or pleasure, as well as becoming aware of breath, gestures and movements.”(Dr Bessel van der Kolk, 2014).
- Bringing the unconscious to the surface (consciousness), primarily via the body, using authentic movements and free association.
- Uncovering feelings, conflicts and desires that are hidden from conscious awareness and causing problems in day-to-day life
- Working towards an awareness of bodily sensations when feeling isolated or alienated from society
- Developing personal resources for
- low self-esteem
- loneliness
- stress
- depression or low mood
- Reduction of anxiety
- Mood management
- Affect regulation
- Work on self-image & body-image
- A proficient assessor of Story Stem Assessment Profiles (narratives) with Anna Freud centre for children & families. SSAP is one of the very few play-based projective techniques used with children aged 4 –8 years which allows assessment of a child’s expectations and perceptions of family roles, relationships and attachments, without asking direct questions about family which could cause conflict or anxiety.
- Creator of an acclaimedTraining programme for carers of children in therapeutic residential care, drawing on 25 years experience as consultant and psychotherapist.