About Integrative Therapy
Integration is simply about understanding and accepting the entirety of a person, towards achieving the change they want.
What is Integrative Therapy?
Integrative therapists believe each client has a different way of experiencing and understanding the world around them. A single, one-fits-all approach therefore may not recognise the client’s unique mental, physical, emotional, social, sexual or spiritual experience.
This is supported in clinical research, which has shown that all the different therapeutic approaches have similar outcomes. What really matters are the common factors experienced by the client – summed up as empathy, acceptance, genuineness and the relationship between client and therapist.
Integrative therapy is therefore a combined method which brings aspects from different counselling approaches into one. The therapist and client work together to see the client as a whole person, not a list of symptoms or behaviours.
What Does Integrative Therapy Look Like?
Although sessions will look different for each client, generally therapy has three steps:
Awareness
Often people come to therapy not fully knowing what the issue is. Maybe they have a feeling, but they need support from another person to put words to it. There are often repeating patterns or “stories” that need revealing in order to move forward. Awareness of them is just the start.
Acceptance
Sometimes awareness can bring up difficult feelings that need processing in a safe and accepting space. Giving these feelings this time and space to be heard can make them easier to handle, while also developing compassion for the self.
Change
Integration is about developing awareness and compassionate acceptance for the whole self, without being held back by the past or feeling anxious for the future. Within this environment, purposeful and mindful change in the present will happen naturally.
What to Expect from Me
I am a trauma informed, integrative practitioner, which means I believe it is what happened to you that is important, as well as what meaning you have taken from your experiences and what impact this has had on your life. To do this, my approach is acceptance and understanding for the whole of a person, including for feelings that are difficult to process and are stopping you from discovering and reinforcing your own strengths and resources.
Through my research and experience, I believe the relationship that develops in the room is the most important factor in Integrative Therapy. Not every therapist will suit every client, so I will support you to find what is needed to best create the environment for change and offer honesty if I’m not the best fit.
Similarly, not every approach will work for every client, so I will tailor sessions to best suit your needs. Working together, we’ll find the most impactful way of communicating what is happening for you when the words seem to dry up, as well as finding ways to ground yourself when things seem overwhelming. This can allow for dynamic hours where we can creatively respond to your difficulties and find new ways to live in the world.