If you are visiting this page because you feel stuck, down, anxious or distressed, you are not alone. There is no possibility of creating a life that doesn’t have change, loss and heartbreak in it. The reality is that in our shared human experience we all encounter times of distress. Sometimes we need to fall apart before we can become whole again.
Friends and family can offer support in difficult times and sometimes we may nevertheless choose to look at underlying patterns with a qualified therapist. It does not need to be an either-or-decision; you can choose both.
I am a senior accredited psychotherapist and supervisor, trained in Gestalt Psychotherapy (4 years), Somatic Trauma Therapy (2 years), Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS), Grief and bereavement specific work (2 years), soul-centric work (4 years) and CBT (1 year).
I specialised in various forms of trauma therapy and work with evidence-based approaches such as IFS and somatic trauma therapy to support people to come into relationship with wounded and protective parts of themselves, developing internal resources and secure attachments, that anchor the person in their whole bodily experience in the here and now.
I have a particular interest in the ways in which individual lives are inter-woven with the collective, inter-generational and psycho-social field in which we live and how the dysfunction in this field can show up in individual stories. Trauma often runs in families, the class system, the education system (e.g. Boarding schools), organisations etc. All of this can be felt in individual lives and hinder healthy relationships towards oneself, others, the living Earth system and the generations that come after us. For further reading on this please see an article of mine here.
My specialist knowledge and training in several different approaches enables me to use what best suits the issues you bring, rather than asking you to fit one approach.
I have managed psychotherapy and mental health services in the charitable and higher education sector for many years and worked as an international trainer and consultant, including for the World Health Organisation, the Council of Europe, several Government Ministries and large international charities.
I have authored many articles, including for the BACP, the British Gestalt Journal, Resurgence magazine, academic and non academic journals and was interviewed for a BBC documentary and by the Huffington Post on my work in the field of climate psychology.
I regularly offer lectures, workshops and seminars to a wide variety of groups and organisations.
We work together to identify what is needed to bring movement into a seemingly stuck situation and to find a way of integrating new behaviours into a more conscious and choiceful way of being. Together, we explore stuck patterns and their negative impact on your life and your relationships. Once you have become more aware of them and understand how you may actively maintain them, you can start to experiment with change. From a place of greater awareness you can then be playful, gently stretch your comfort zone and experiment with different behaviour. It is usually at that point that clients see real change in their lives, their relationships and their environment.
I support people in tracking what aspects of themselves have been sacrificed in exchange for fitting in. This retrieval of exiled parts of the psyche often leads to greater vitality. Bringing our attention to the tender aspects in which we said 'no' to our life and started to live small in the hope for safety, allows a maturation process to unfold that brings us back into life. Together we listen out for the wisdom beneath your suffering, for what is yearning to be heard, aiming to restore a richly textured soul life.
The more resourced we are ourselves, the more we can serve the dignity of life and play our part in re-ensouling the aspect of the world that is within our reach.
I have witnessed many times what a profound difference this way of working can make to peoples' lives. That is why I am deeply passionate about my work.
I see clients on a short- and long-term basis, depending on their need. I work with complex long standing issues as well as situations that have just arisen. I offer regular on-line work for international clients.
I also offer personal and professional mentoring sessions for those who don't have an immediate therapeutic need but want to explore how to align their professional life with a more soulful approach, listening for what soul is calling for you to work with and what your contribution to the challenges of our time may be.
I extend particular thanks to some mentors and trainers that have irreversibly shaped my way of seeing the world:
My long-term mentor and teacher Francis Weller, his soulful work at the wild edge of sorrow and the importance of grief and ritual in our lives.
My main Gestalt Therapy mentors Malcolm Parlett and Peter Philippson
Babette Rothchild and Janina Fisher for their training in trauma therapy
Thomas Huebl and the Pocket Project for my training in collective trauma
The Animas Valley Institute for soul centric earth based nature connection
Clarissa Pinkola Estes for her teachings and her guidance on finding one’s ‘original voice’
My training and experience as a Psychotherapist have allowed me to work with clients who come with a wide range of issues, such as:
Whatever you come with, my aim is to work together to transform fixed patterns, so that you can live a fuller and more satisfying life.
“I can’t believe how long I have waited to start Counselling. Now that I come to the end of it, I can say that it was one of the most important things I have done in my life, apart from getting married and having children of course!”
‘I am so glad I found your website. I can’t thank you enough for the change that has occurred in me’
‘It is a long road, but I feel I have my life back on track'
'Who would have thought that it was going to be so much easier than expected?'
In February 2019, BBC Current Affairs correspondent Aisling Gallagher interviewed Gestalt psychotherapist Steffi Bednarek about how she works with climate-change anxiety. This is an edited and extended version of that interview.
Registered with Counselling Directory
