Therapy involves the gentle holding of all that one carries, it involves finding the courage and building the somatic safety to first uncover one's truth and then speak it. Every client is different, bringing with them a story, their own personal myth of the world and a body that contains the map and all the pages. Every client requires a different pacing, a different approach, and a differing style, all of which is open and responding to each unfolding moment. 

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It is important to remember, that the institution of psychotherapy also holds her architecture in the mental health institution that was birthed from eugenics, racism and colonialism. At this convergence of the poly-crisis, it is crucial to discern where therapeutic practice upholds and perpetuates this harm rather than actively works to dismantle this. This is an on-going ethic and principle in my practice. I find my meaning in the belief that both individual and communal therapy work is needed at this time of collapse, and that it is crucial that the work done in an individual therapy room is able to be actively translated beyond into the relationships and communities of the client whom I serve. The therapy room exists in isolation, it is in the space of inter-relatedness and embodied choice that change truly occurs.

 

A healthy person will become symptomatic in a dysfunctional society, traditional mental health institutions seek to restore a person to a level of functioning in which they can again assimilate and partake in the capitalist, colonial machine. This system is one that consumes and we can no longer self-care, ultra-wellness or self-optimise our way out of it (we never could to begin with). My philosophy of practice holds the intersectional and entrenched nature of these systems of oppression, and seeks to create a therapeutic space that transcends the burden of individual healing and therefore individual shame.

 

Therapy at its core is about restoring the capacity for presence, safety, trust, collaboration, agency, compassion, connection, courage, steadiness, creativity, empathy, imagination, play, pleasure, desire, authenticity and congruence. All of these qualities are inherently relational, for we only exist in the context of the other (the other also being our more than human kin). All of these qualities are impacted by trauma and rupturing. Therapy gives us permission and builds the capacity to feel our full range of emotions, whilst still remaining with choice. It allows us to discern between what is a challenge and a threat. Thus, increasing our ability to hold relationship with complexity and diversity. 

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Each psychotherapist is unique, and a central principle of my training was in the teaching that the therapist is the instrument of the work. This is why it is important to find a therapist that you feel a resonance, a relatability and an understanding with. Communication styles, preferred modalities and lived experience all differs across the profession and that is one of the many beauties of it. It is a rich and diverse field.

 

I am a non-binary, autistic, poetic being who values a conversational style, a person centred & experiential approach and who holds roots in principles of deep/spiritual ecology as the way in which I find my own sense of faith, meaning and belonging in this world. 

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If you do believe that my therapeutic practice could be resonant for you, please enquire via the forms or book a session via the links provided. 

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In solidarity, 

Mais