I integrate various features from a number of different psychotherapeutic approaches and life coaching techniques, according to what I intuit is most useful for each individual client in any given session.  I mainly adopt concepts from the following types of therapy: Psychodynamic, Cognitive, Gestalt, Existential, Jungian and Transpersonal.  Some brief explanations of these types, as I view them:

– The central principle within Psychodynamic theory is the recognition that our early years shape us.  As children we receive information from significant people and events, as if factual.  An obstructive, damaging, distorted set of beliefs, values and views may ensue.  Reassessment and reconstruction of them is required, so that they become in alignment with the adult’s free choices and his/her nature.

– Cognitive therapy is about recognizing one’s negative and restrictive thoughts, making a conscious effort to question the truth and usefulness in such thoughts, and remembering to strive to embrace more constructive thinking instead.

– With Gestalt, the idea is for a client to become fully aware of how he is right now in the present moment, the intention being to become aware of his common behaviors and therefore of what he’d like to alter.

– The emphasis of Existentialist thought is on the future and on a person finding out what is most valuable and meaningful to him personally, and then living accordingly.

– Jung and the individuation process: When we ask ourselves, “Who am I apart from my history and the roles I have played?” (Hollis, J. (1995) ‘The Middle Passage’, p.7), then we are on the way to uncovering our true Self, our most authentic self.  The Transpersonal approach lends itself to locating the real identity of each person, the unique and phenomenal essence of an individual beyond the ego, and then making use of this information, so that a client may live more consciously and live life to his/her fullest potential according to his/her unique set of skills and inner qualities.

Furthermore, it is my opinion that a transpersonal journey can be a gateway to greater inner peace, first of all requiring some sort of spiritual awakening and then moving along a path of continual ‘effort’ or openness to connect with a higher power, whether we view that as God or an inner wisdom or something else.  I personally believe that connection to a supernatural power is necessary beyond the human willpower to be able to thrive in such a difficult, trying world with all the inauthenticity and injustice around us.  To keep us feeling secure regardless of what external circumstances are and regardless of how others behave.   To keep us in a relatively unshakeable state regardless of external factors which are beyond our control.