About
My goal is to introduce you to working from the heart, a creative way of addressing the needs of the mind, body, and soul of individuals facing psychological challenges. I cannot think of a single activity that wouldn’t be enriched by the presence of true deep caring, and by maintaining a connection to our intuition alongside our minds.
Due to the vastness of the subject I have included resources both verbal and artistic for those that want to explore the topic in more depth. In addition to resources and education into Heart-Centered Psychotherapy, supervision is offered to fully licensed counselors seeking personal and professional growth and development, self-care and resourcing, case consultation, and collaboration.
At its core, Heart-Centered Psychotherapy is about approaching the work of clinical psychotherapy as a creative endeavor. In the early years, most of us rely on our knowledge base heavily, and only gradually, with years of seasoning, begin to trust and rely on our intuition and wisdom. We are naturally influenced by our training programs that are eager to fill us with information in hopes of creating educated, ethical, professional clinicians, which inadvertently leaves the heart behind. This process is akin to young creatives leaving art school unable to access their authentic, fearless creativity that gets shut down with all the criticism.
When it comes to the work of psychotherapy, the natural gap that exists between theory and practice has to do with the complexity of being human that often asks of us for more than information. Our clients need a relational experience that is safe, imbued with understanding, empathy, and true deep caring. This requires authentic emotional responses, inspired soulful ideas, and a true open mind that calls for the willingness to temporarily suspend, and possibly permanently let go of previously held convictions.
We need to develop the skill to be comfortable with ambiguity, with not knowing, with feelings of helplessness and inadequacy just as much as expertise, if we are to do justice to the witnessing of the unique needs of the individual before us. Afterall, people are not puzzles to be solved, but rather mysteries that unravel in their own time, and rarely completely. Heart-Centered Psychotherapy cultivates these skills, teaching us to rely on our instinct, intuition, and inspiration alongside our knowledge base, in a more balanced way.
In the words of Thomas Moore, “Can we strive to offer soulful experiences that stay in the memory and touch the heart? Can we share a philosophy of soulful living that sees dignity and peace as emerging from acceptance of the human condition, rather than strives for perfection or salvation?”
Moore writes that the soul lies midway between understanding and the unconscious, and that its instrument is neither the mind nor the body, but imagination.
He argues that if we exclude the soul from the work of psychotherapy its gifts of rewarding relationships, fulfilling work, personal power, and relief from symptoms will continue to remain elusive. Heart-Centered Psychotherapy aims to address the needs of the soul/spirit, and strives to hear the voices of the deeper layers of the psyche and body, alongside the expressions of the conscious mind. We are invited to become seekers of wisdom alongside knowledge.
In summary, Heart-Centered Psychotherapy believes in the value of leading from our hearts as opposed to our heads, in tapping into wisdom alongside knowledge, in bringing our true deep caring into our work, in deepening our ability to access and trust our instinct, intuition and inspiration, and in being authentic human beings, rather than neutral professionals, skilled in the use of ourselves in service of our clients. Heart-Centered Psychotherapy is holistic, client-centered, humanistic, transpersonal, somatic, imaginal (Jungian), and strives to practice the art of the science.
It is not a new modality with specific techniques, but rather invites us to contemplate and expand the ways we approach our work regardless of theoretical orientation, bringing the focus from what we do, to how we go about doing it. It can easily be applied to many of the existing modalities in a way that your work can become richer, deeper, more grounded, and enhanced.