Core Process Psychotherapy

What is Core Process Psychotherapy?

Core Process Psychotherapy is an approach to therapy, in which the present moment is seen as a gateway to our innate health. This health is never lost, but is obscured by self-limiting belief systems which cause us to suffer. As we begin to bring awareness to how we re-create these beliefs from moment to moment, we also become aware of the underlying core of our nature, which is free of such conditioning.

The scope of the Core Process approach includes not only the mind, but also the role of the body in holding onto habitual patterns of tension. This patterning colours how we feel about ourselves and relate to the world around us.

The spiritual nature of who we are is also acknowledged and worked with. This does not require engaging with any particular belief systems, but encourages direct experience of our true nature.

How does it work?

We are always moving towards expressing our innate health as best we can. When events overwhelm us, we are not able to process them and we become stuck. In Core Process Psychotherapy we begin to create the conditions whereby things may start to move again.

Spaciousness, clarity and compassion are developed as qualities we can bring to ourselves, as we begin to explore those aspects of ourselves we find most difficult.

Drawing from Western, Buddhist and body-oriented psychology, an enquiry into the way we experience our world and ourselves is encouraged. Working with our thoughts, feelings and body-sensations as they come and go re-connects us with the fluidity that underlies our more fixed notions of who we are. Transformation naturally occurs as this reflective process opens us up to the flow of new possibilities.

Is Core Process Psychotherapy for me?

People come to therapy for many different reasons. At the root of most of these there is the experience of suffering. This may range from intense emotional anguish to a general sense that there should be more to our lives than there seems to be. Therapy offers us the opportunity to enquire into the nature of our suffering and discover our capacity for healing.

This occurs in an atmosphere of safety and respect, in which the whole of you is welcomed. Therapy progresses at your pace and is supported in a spirit of enquiry and non-judgement.

Pre and Perinatal Influences

I bring to my practice an understanding of the importance of our formative womb and birth experiences. This informs my work with babies, children and adults and is supported by more than six years of ongoing training in the field of Pre- and Perinatal Psychology. Unresolved pre and perinatal trauma can deeply impact our need for bonding and attachment in our early years, leading to later difficulties in our relationships. It operates below the level of our conscious awareness in a number of ways, generating habitual behaviours and belief systems that undermine our capacity to respond fully to the possibilities available in the present moment.

The Influence of Body Psychotherapy

A full training in Body Psychotherapy from the lineage of Wilhelm Reich also supports my practice. The understanding of how we ‘armour’ ourselves by contracting the body in response to painful and overwhelming experiences when we are young, comes directly from Reich’s work. The restoration of the natural flow of life-force or ‘bioenergy’ and the capacity for emotional fluidity is central to health and well-being.