Philosophy

During my training and clinical practice as a therapist, I developed my own holistic philosophy and integrative theoretical model. I chose the term holistic (i.e. 'whole-istic') as I share the view that every individual and system is a whole made up of various psychological and somatic parts and intrinsically interconnected and inseparable from the socio-political, ecological and cosmic whole of life. 

My theory is based on principles informed by my own practice-based phenomenological research, and supported by training in integrative counselling and coaching, and an interest in global studies on health and well-being. The artistic and spiritual core of my practice is the quality of compassionate, warm and genuine presence that I offer. My interventions are informed by the following basic principles, which are constantly in a state of being tested and refined, like all good science.

You'll notice that I write these principles from the collective perspective of "we" as so far they've proven to be universally applicable for all human beings from all kinds of experiences, cultures and walks of life. I remain alongside you, and my intention is to stay open to learning how to support you best.

21 Principles of my Theoretical Model:

1. We are relational beings: Human beings are multidimensional beings, existing as organisms in mutual relationships with all of life, and we are all manifestations of energy.

2. We all share innate, personal needs and a capacity for collective evolution. We each have an innate, energetic curiosity toward exploring the world in order to meet our innate needs, and thereby fulfill our optimal capacities for: individual and collective evolution, belonging, self-expression, personal growth, safety, shelter, warmth, nutrition, survival, thriving, reciprocity and continuation of life-giving energy.

3. We are all in a natural flow of giving and receiving. The way that we relate with the world arises from our inner nature, which is creative and life-sustaining and seeks fulfilment of our innate needs and capacities, and potential to contribute and benefit the web of life.

4. We shape reality, and reality shapes us. Places, people, events, and indeed the whole cosmos, coalesces to form conditions whereby we each learn to adapt, grow and share in order to fulfil some of our personal needs and the needs of others in the human and more-than-human world i.e. the planetary ecosystem as a whole.

5. Nothing is fixed, however love holds strong. Contact with people as infants, particularly our main caregivers may help to fulfill our sense of belonging in the world, and create a secure attachment as a relationship template for our relationship with all life. This security provides freedom to be our authentic selves with the expectation that our needs will be fulfilled. Such faith based in direct experience of needs-fulfillment, gives rise to pleasant feelings, regenerative emotions, and psychological strength and fortitude.

6. Trust is necessary, especially in early life. Insufficiently attuned connection with our caregivers as young infants creates an insecure attachment pattern. This happens when a caregiver shows a lack of presence, empathy, care or understanding, which breaks our trust in them. Such experiences may profoundly impact our ability to be our authentic, energised selves, and may create a lasting state of distress and compromised trust, based on fear that our needs may not be understood and therefore met. This can create a baseline of depleting emotions and unpleasant feelings, or even numbness as we learn to cope by pushing away our feelings. This may lead to trust and relationship difficulties with ourselves, other people, and life as a whole. Healing is possible through recovering a secure attachment with ourselves (i.e. self-trust) and also others.

7. Feelings contain information about our needs. Our feelings are a map to our needs, but they are not reality itself. Feelings can help us to move towards meeting our emotional needs. We can track the feelings in our bodies and look deeply into them in order to fulfill our capacity to be our most growthful, wisest selves, and find ways to securely meet our needs.

8. How we respond to our feelings matters. It is possible that we may be used to responding to feelings in familiar ways, which may not meet our needs most wisely and effectively. Looking deeply within, as well as learning from others, can help us to find the best possible ways to care for our feelings and meet our needs; this is how personal growth happens. Looking deeply into our hearts, minds and feelings helps us to truly know ourselves, and connect to our resources and insights.

9. Changing our habits is sometimes necessary to restore wellbeing. We may suffer with emotional and mental wellbeing problems if we avoid meeting our needs, or meet them in ways that jeopardise our other needs. This can have critical consequences personality development and relationships, and even survival. Such complications may create complex habit patterns that keep us stuck in suffering, unless we change how we respond to our feelings, and meet our needs in different ways.

10. Psychological trauma happens in the absence of safe connection. When the basic need for true connection (which may be experienced as kindness, calmness, compassion, genuineness) is not met from inside or outside of us, then on some level the need for safety may be perceived to be seriously threatened, and we will experience traumatic stress, which is an energetic embodied survival response. Unless it is quickly resolved, sometimes this traumatic stress is passed onto others, in similar ways to how it reached us i.e. by compromising safety in connection.

11. We can grow after trauma, however long ago it happened. Our bodies may recover from traumatic stress if we re-learn how to relax and reconnect safely with ourselves and others after the event where we felt so unsafe. From the experience of reconnecting, we may discover strength within ourselves, and wisdom about life and our relationships. This is called post-traumatic growth. It means that we can learn to adapt positively after the traumatic experience (resilience) and grow our resources to prevent future harm (anti-fragility). Ultimately recovery from trauma is an experience of coming home to ourselves again i.e. reconnecting after being torn and disconnected from safety in our core.

12. Post-traumatic stress may disrupt health and wellbeing if not resolved. If we repeatedly feel so disconnected and unsafe that we cannot easily relax, then our bodies may remain in the state of psychological and neuro-muscular tension known as post-traumatic stress. The main symptom of post-traumatic stress is hypervigilance, which means perceiving potential threat where there isn’t any. Sometimes the post-traumatic stress pattern can be identified in the form of intrusive thoughts and images in our minds, strong feelings, or distorted views of reality. Post-traumatic stress is a loss of resilience, where our minds make templates for understanding reality that are informed by a loss of safe connection to the world around us. Triggers that unconsciously remind us of the trauma that we originally experienced, may cause severe anxiety and prolonged post-traumatic stress may cause both physical and mental health problems.

13. Relaxation is key. The way to heal post-traumatic stress is to connect safely with another human being, relax the muscles in the body, release pent-up energy, and safely process thoughts and feelings. This is enough to repair mental perceptions and restore self-trust and trust in people, and in life. Because traumatic stress causes the nervous system to send distress signals to our muscles, relaxing our muscles is a way of feeding back to the brain and the body, re-experiencing what safety feels like again. As we learn to relax, we may need to safely release the energy of traumatic stress stored in the body, and possibly process memories, and this will change our perceptions of reality. Restoring relaxation and safety in the body is what trauma healing feels like. This changes how we experience ourselves and the world, so we are less anxious and low in mood, and our overall health may also improve.

14. Creativity is a core, essential resource for living our lives with optimal health and wellness. If the need for free, creative self-expression is unmet, then we may not find solutions to our problems, and lose our ability to respond wisely to our needs. This may cause personal low mood, depression, boredom and social stagnation and destructive behaviour. Our minds thrive by staying open, relaxed and creative, but when they're closed, distracted or constricted, then depleting emotions build up that require self-reflection, imagination and creative experimentation, in order to be healed. 

15. Some anxiety is natural and necessary to function as a human being. Anxiety is the natural human phenomenon of being in a creative process of moving towards one's needs. For example, in regards to the need to live in a more peaceful and evolved society, anxiety is sometimes known as existential angst or divine discontent. Anxiety can be reduced when we reconnect with our inner resources to work toward our needs, and share support with others to find ways to meet our needs together.

16. Overwhelming anxiety may be a result of unresolved trauma. Anxiety can be particularly intense when our needs have not been met often enough in the past, such as during early childhood when our caregivers didn't meet our needs sufficiently, which we may experience as being traumatic. This may create post-traumatic stress leading us to expect life to be just as difficult to survive, or worse, in the present and future. Treatment for post-traumatic stress may be required to help to restructure our thinking and expectations and increase our awareness of resources available.

17. Psychosis is the extreme self-regulating function of the mind in response to strain. If we are extremely strained because our basic needs are not fulfilled (such as for safety, nutrition, belonging, self-expression and collective evolution) then our personal mental structures, formed through habit and behaviour, may break-down as our minds expand and we try new ways to reach our needs. This is also called psychosis or spiritual emergency, which may happen due to a critical overload of stress. Through a process of separation and re-integration, the mind may reset to create a new personality structure, integrating what has been learnt, in time and with good support.

18. Healthy people still experience changing emotions and feelings. In day-to-day life, we may experience a changing mixture of pleasant and unpleasant feelings; this is because some of our needs will be met and others will not be met at different times. Listening to our feelings and taking care of our needs can help us to suffer less, but it will never eradicate uncomfortable feelings and emotions altogether because we need them in order to learn how to adapt, survive, thrive and ultimately evolve.

19. Unpleasant feelings are worthy of self-compassion. If we experience prolonged unpleasant feelings and unmet needs, then we may feel overwhelmed or numb, and think that life is not worth living. Sometimes we may even wish to end our lives unless we can experience freedom. At such times a safety plan is crucial. If we find out what our needs are, and practise compassionate, practical steps to work towards them, then we can act in meaningful ways that preserve our lives and allow us to thrive.

20. We are not just our suffering, we each have a core Self, and many different parts of us with resources. There are many parts of our personalities with different needs. These parts are autonomous and complex personality structures. We can relate with these psychological parts to create intelligent, self-aware behaviours that meet our multiple and often conflicting needs.

21. Life is meaningful, and the truth matters. Human beings share oral traditions of wisdom, all around the world. Understanding our personal life stories and how we relate with the land, people, culture and the universe helps us to live a meaningful life existence. An important purpose of our lives may be to restore our own sense of truth and find meaning as a part of the collective story of life; this may make our lives feel worthwhile, help us to transcend some suffering, enrich our life experiences and call us all to a greater way of being in the world.