Like many therapists I use an integrative approach. This means that I utilise elements from a variety of modalities to help you. Why? Because you are unique and no one model holds all the answers. As I am listening to you I am feeling into what tools and interventions will support your process best.
"What are the modalities you draw on?"
Counselling is the ‘talk-focused’ part of the work and is my basic training.
I draw on a variety of skills and models but use person-centred and intersubjective psychodynamic approaches most. Person-centred arises from Karl Rogers belief in the inherent wisdom that we all have that is revealed in safe relationship and where our inner experience can be reflected back to us.
Inter-subjective psychodynamic shares a lot with Karl Rogers' approach, but more deeply relies on an understanding of how the self is formed and organised through empathically attuned response.
Both of these models rely on deep listening and reflection to clarify challenges and goals and support the wisdom you have within as well as supporting the development of the self as happens only in attuned relationship.
For couples counselling I rely both on Gottman and somatic models.
For parenting I draw understandings from Circle of Security and Parent Effectiveness Training (PET).
I completed my Grad. Dip. Counselling in 2017, with additional training in PET in 2017 and Gottman relationship work in 2016 (educator role) and 2020 (level 1). I am commensing a Somatic Psychotherapy course, March 2021.
Somatic Experiencing®(SE) was developed by Peter Levine and works with the understanding that trauma and stress are stored in the body, not just the mind. The focus of this work is helping your body to resolve this stored survival energy by supporting you to complete incomplete defensive responses, rediscover healthy boundaries, bring in supports for 'what was missed or missing' from others during the development of the trauma.
By working largely with the ‘felt sense’ (what we notice in the body) this modality accesses the body’s natural ability to resolve traumatic stress and its symptoms.
I have been incorporating SE in my work since 2016 and completed my practitioner training in 2019. To read more about SE please read this article:
And for a taste of some of the elements of an SE session, here is an online SE meditation by Sukie Baxter (an US SE practitioner) youtu.be/yCMCKEeG29w
Integral Somatic Psychology™(ISP) was created by Raja Selvam. It is another body-oriented therapy with emphasis on creating a safe and attuned relationship between client and therapist still at the centre. The focus of this work is on the embodiment of emotions, using the whole body to experience and regulate emotional states.
This work can be very helpful where we have pervasive emotions like sadness/grief, fear/terror, anger/rage, and anxiety that consistently overwhelm us. This can also be a very helpful modality where we have experiences of deep distress (loss, hurt, terror, confusion) that seem to haunt us no matter what we do.
I completed my basic training in ISP in February 2020 and am integrating it slowly into my practice as my capacity for this modality grows. To read more about ISP - the blog page has many useful articles: https://integralsomaticpsychology.com/
Bodywork provided in my therapeutic approach draws on understandings from SE and ISP. It is completely optional but is offered because touch work can be a powerful tool.
It is provided fully-clothed, usually lying face up on a massage table. The process is a mixture of gentle hand placements and talk. The hand placements allow me to provide support, help facilitate your body's process, and give extra information about what might be stuck or in distress.
We work it out together at every step of the way: where I put my hands, what pressure feels right, when to stop or move. While engaged in this bodywork we track what is happening in the body together. One of the things I love about this process is that it is collaborative - rather than a massage where someone 'does to you', we are feeling in together to your experience and what needs and wants to happen. This can be a highly empowering process and offers possibilities for change for old relational hurts, which often come where there is not enough choice or proper attention.
I started in learning about bodywork as a young person interested in body balancing. I trained in relaxation massage in 2014. Bodywork training was incorporated into my Somatic Experiencing certification and supportive holds were also taught in my ISP training.
Other influences
Having studied and worked in Spiritual Care for some years, these deeper existential questions also inform my work. We are not living in isolation from life: we all have a sense of our story, connections to people and places that we love or care about, we all have beliefs and values around which we organise our lives. Bringing awareness to these wider, deeper questions, is also part of my work and can be an important resource in bringing our personal story into relationship with the world around us.
Life-coaching has given me an appreciation for getting practical: making a plan and seeing what comes from implementing it.
I have also studied Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (level 1) and an introduction to Contemplative Psychology. Both of these focus on mindful awareness and again touch on the deeper layers of our values and our awareness of being that can be important when we want to situate our experience within a wider context of being.
To read more about qualifications and training, please visit: ABOUT CHANTAL
To make an appointment or book a 20 minute information session.