Clinical Counselling Soul Conversations
How I work
I want to help my clients find their balance; first by understanding their body and the wisdom they can receive from there. Also by helping them to remain curious about feelings that arise, noticing what they may be saying to them. Then exploring habits of the mind; the internal chatter or themes that consistently arise through life. As we look into the whole being - body, mind, heart and Soul - we are better able to find wisdom, the wise council that is inside of each of us; part of our internal family system.
We can so often get caught up in comparing ourselves to others, believing we need to be more than we are; trying to get ahead or feeling afraid of what might be next. We feel like we are missing something, that is often why we go to counselling; because we feel like something is out of order and we can't figure it out. But often we are looking outside of ourselves for that which is missing in our life. And I believe what is missing is found inside of Self. What is missing is a connection to this deeper part of our-Self. The goal in therapy then is to help you find and trust the deep wisdom inside. It is a way to reawaken that aliveness, to bring back that spark in you that is creative, less fearful and wants you to be your best Self.
I hold a welcoming, inclusive, safe space for those who wish to explore this deep work of soul. I walk with my clients in the spirit of love and acceptance, believing that Spirit is not concerned with what name we use but how we travel in this world.
Counselling
Soul Conversations
What do soul conversations have to do with clinical counselling?
Soul (sol) noun : the spiritual or immaterial essence/part, animating principal of a human being, regarded as immortal. A persons moral or emotional nature or sense of identity.
So many of us lose connection with this deeper part of self. This often begins to happen in our childhood, we start off freer to create, play, imagine and to dream. I’m sure we’ve all watched children play in mud puddles, or marvel over a rainbow or a snowflake. Then through what Carl Rogers calls 'conditions of worth', we begin to put this part of ourselves away - put on a mask to be accepted, to be seen as worthy, smart. Carl Jung talks about this shift in consciousness as allowing ego to have more of the control in our life. Richard Schwartz in Internal Family Systems speaks of different parts being more active (trying to protect us from rejection/harm) instead of the Self being in the lead. Whatever the psychological/spiritual theory behind this idea, the goal is to get us back to that deeper part of ourself that we once were, and are in our essence or essential nature.
We are all unique beings and that is what makes us all human. Society and religion has tried to conform us into the same mould to be acceptable in their world. But our uniqueness is something to be celebrated and that deep part of our Self is calling us to be ourselves, uniquely ourselves. Quaker theologian Parker Palmer wrote Let Your Life Speak, what he is saying in this book is to let that inner spark tell you what brings you aliveness, listen to those inner stirrings and they will guide you to the life direction that is uniquely right for you.
My hope is that you will come to therapy to find deeper internal meaning, not external answers. I see my role as helping you to begin to find and listen to your inner guide. To loosen the conditions of worth that were put on you as you grew up, so you can become more and more your true authentic Self.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”