This Hart therapist is warm, empathetic and insightful. He is passionate about developing dialogue with and support for couples and individuals that confirms them in the fullness of their experience, grows awareness, and fosters agency and change. He believes that relationships are fundamental to the formation of a sense of self, and hence, well-being. He regards the relationship between therapist and client in the present moment as a vital, secure and creative ground for growing awareness, experiencing new and alternative ways of being together, and increasing capacity for change.
Partnered for 19 years and with a young daughter, this Hart therapist is deeply interested in collaborating with clients who are partnered or married in exploring the full range of complex dynamics in their relationship. Working together in a contained, safe, caring therapeutic environment that regards and attends to each person, he encourages couples to face each other, practice renewed listening, and through emerging awareness begin to understand each other’s needs and aspirations for the relationship. He supports couples to enhance the existing health of their relationship with clearer communication and greater sensitivity. He assists couples in seeking repair, or ways forward after challenge, hurt or confusion. In this way, he believes potential conflict, disconnection, and repeating patterns that may hinder emotional well-being and satisfaction in the relationship can be addressed. He also understands that couples may need support for safe and respectful separation. In each case, a careful, collaborative approach to creating shared awareness and potential subsequent change underpins all sessions.
His approach is holistic and integrative. He has a Master’s degree in contemporary relational Gestalt Therapy, and advanced skills training in couples work including in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples. A client’s total situation is considered, including environmental, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of experience. In couples therapy, the relationship is the client, and each of these dimensions are part of the processes by which people and things ‘take shape’ in relationships. He is attentive to the emergence of ‘good form’ or harmonious configurations for people in relationship with others, themselves, and the world. He works with compassion, kindness, equanimity, empathy, and humour in dialogue with clients to build awareness and shared understanding of the complexities of their situation. He believes that with this awareness, self-acceptance and support, and by gently challenging fixed or stuck relational patterns, change is possible.