I have been educated in the following theories and approaches to counselling and psychotherapy:
Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)
Trauma Informed Counselling
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Cognitive behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)
Mindfulness and Meditation
Behaviourism Theories
I think it’s incredibly valuable to talk about what your experience of life is like. What does life mean to you? How do we use language to narrate our lives? What’s the story we have of ourselves? I think philosophical conversations are healthy and aid psychological, even spiritual, development. Have you heard of “Phenomenology”? It is the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view. That’s your point of view, and my point of view. I also tend to place a strong focus on emotions. How do you feel most of the time? There’s a song called ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey. There’s a line that sings “Livin’ just to find emotion” and I think that’s true for all of humanity. We want to survive. We want to thrive. And we chase the feel goods. We tend to want to ‘get rid of’ or avoid the unpleasant emotions. A little tip from me: sometimes, the feel good emotions are born from the painful ones. That is the Yin Yang of life.
