About therapy

Often we contact a psychotherapist or a counsellor because we want to find a different way of relating to something in our life. This may be something specific; it may be a long-term issue or tendency; it may be something ancestral from our family or forebears; it may be a combination of these; it may be something else, or we might not really know, but just have a sense of ‘something’. It may have arisen through trauma, bereavement, loss, or abuse, or we may have no idea where it came from. Therapy offers a safe space where we can look at these things in relationship with a therapist; someone who is fully committed to being alongside us in whatever we bring to each session. A good therapeutic relationship allows us to feel able to say anything and everything, and to know that what we say has been really heard. A therapist is not a friend, a family member, a co-worker, or a business partner, so we do not have to worry about how what we say will affect another relationship or role we hold in our life.

Mindfulness based Core Process Psychotherapy

How I work with clients in our sessions starts from mindfulness. Mindfulness is about coming back to the present moment, not thinking about the future (to do lists, what’s happening tomorrow morning), the past (why did I say that last week/month/year? Why didn’t I do something different? Why did my life not go as I expected and planned?) or another place (I wish I were away on holiday somewhere warm/cool).

With a client in a therapy session this translates to paying really close attention to what is going on right here and right now, in the client, in myself, and in the space in between us. I am interested in what’s happening for you/in you/with you right now, and in how that is for you. I am interested in more than just thoughts; I am interested in feelings, including emotions and embodied sensations. While you are talking, I am noticing what is going on in me, and any embodied responses or emotions that are arising in me. This is the process of ‘mindfulness in relationship’ which is one of the key aspects of Core Process Psychotherapy. The therapeutic relationship, the connection between client and therapist, is an essential part of this way of working.

Core Process Psychotherapy combines Western psychology and Buddhist philosophy, psychology, and spirituality. It is important to say that neither clients nor therapists need to have a Buddhist orientation to work in this way, although they may.

The Western theories within Core Process Psychotherapy that particularly resonate with me include the effects of our early experience with our mother/caregiver on us now (Attachment theory); how our relationships with ourselves and others in the present can relate to past relationships or relationships with different people entirely (psychodynamics); how trauma affects our nervous system and can continue to live in our bodies (polyvagal theory, the neurobiology of trauma); and the effects of our earliest days, months, and years (pre- and perinatal psychology).

Buddhist ideas about how suffering comes about through holding on or pushing away (attachment and aversion), and about how one thing can lead to another then to another also resonate with me. Central to this way of working is the idea of what we are as individuals; that at the core of each of us is the potential to be well, to be happy, no matter what has happened to us, and no matter what our current mental or physical circumstances are. This is sometimes referred to as ‘inherent health’, or ‘brilliant sanity’. Therapy allows us gradually to find our own way towards that core of ourselves; it is a process of becoming more fully who we are.

Core Process Psychotherapy can be described as a psychospiritual approach to therapy, based on the idea or experience of something that goes beyond us as individuals which can support us. For some this is Buddha/the Buddhas, for others it is God, or Nature. Again, there is no requirement to have any spiritual beliefs to work with a Core Process Psychotherapist, but if you do, and you want to bring your spirituality or beliefs into your therapy sessions, this is welcomed.