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Vulnerability is scary.  It has to be, or it ceases to be vulnerability.  To dare to cast your fears aside in the service of wholehearted living is no easy task, and to do that in the presence of another soul, even more so.
Therapy is a space created to hold your fears and your hopes, your disappointments and your dreams.  It is also a place of exploration and of profound healing.  A skilled counsellor can help you visit the museum in your mind, unpack all the boxes you’ve hidden in every corner of the building and safely explore their contents;  for the more you look at the artefacts, the less power they have over you.
 

Some of those artefacts are difficult to access and you may not even have words for some of them.  That's why it's important to be listening to the body as much as to the mind.  The mind and the body are no more detached than your head is from your neck, so to ignore the body is to ingore vital information about your experiences as well as paths toward healing.  Somatic Experiencing integrated into psychotherapy looks at both the mind and the body when exploring your experiences with the aim of reintegrating the two in a holistic way.

What does Somatic Experiencing look like? 

Depending on your needs and goals for therapy, SE need not look much different to traditional psychotherapy. In the most simple example, it may be helping you to become aware of how the body is bracing itself as you tell a specific story.  When you are more comfortable with that awareness we progress slowly to tracking those sensations and sitting with them for slightly longer than you might normally do.  This has the effect of normalising the sensations to the point where the body is less inclined to activate a stress response when you think about or are in certain situations. Follow the link for a more detailed explanation of what to expect in a session.

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Therapy promotes an environment that invites growth, exploration, and understanding of what it is to be human.
 

It would be my privilege to join you and to support you on your travels.
 

Greg