LIFE MATTERS Counselling & Psychotherapy Centre

Counselling/Psychotherapy is underpinned by the following trainings:

• Somatic Experiencing Practitioner Training®

The Somatic Experiencing Professional Training is fully accredited three year program by the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute. Successful completion leads to certification as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP).

Developed by Dr Peter Levine, PhD, Somatic Experiencing (SE) is an effective approach to therapy and after decades of scientific research and clinical application, is regarded as one of the most effective therapies in the field of the trauma field. It is recognised as a pioneer for offering techniques that go beyond talk therapy and enhances the clinician’s ability to heal trauma, pain, anxiety, and a wide range of hard-to-treat conditions. SE is a step-by-step approach designed to treat shock trauma and the resulting nervous system dysregulation. It is a progressive and gentle approach that supports the biological completion and discharge of the intense survival energies of the body’s fight-flight responses.

• NeuroAffective Relational Model® (NARM)

Developed by Dr Laurence Heller, NARM is a theoretical and clinical model for addressing attachment, relational, developmental, cultural and intergenerational trauma, by identifying the survival patterns that cause life-long psychobiological symptoms and interpersonal difficulties. Supported by a greater understanding of the long-term impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), NARM has become a leading model within the Trauma-Informed Care movement. NARM is one of the first models specifically designed to address Complex Trauma.

• Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy (PACT) - Couples/Relationship Counselling

Developed by Dr. Stan Tatkin, PACT is a fusion of attachment theory, developmental neuroscience, and arousal regulation. PACT has a reputation for effectively treating the most challenging couples. PACT helps develop secure-functioning relationships through cutting edge research in neuroscience, attachment theory and the biology of human arousal. PACT training empowers therapists to work more deeply and effectively to improve outcomes for couples.

Key features of this approach:

1. The focus will be on moment-to-moment shifts in your face, body, and voice, and ask you to pay close attention to these as a couple.

2. The therapist will create experiences similar to those troubling your relationship and help you work through them in real time during the session.

3. PACT tends to require fewer sessions than do other forms of couple therapy.

4. PACT sessions often exceed the 50-min hour and may last as long as 3–6 hours. Longer times allow for the in-depth work of PACT.

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Developed by Dr Pat Ogden, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a treatment of trauma which equips therapists to better understand the symptoms and issues related to trauma and traumatic attachment and to work with them in a more effective way. With a neurobiological understanding of the presenting problems, clinicians are equipped with interventions that speak directly to how the issues are driven by the body and the nervous system, and work with clients with a range of challenges from stabilization to resolution and integration.

Clinicians provide simple, body-oriented interventions for tracking, naming, and safely exploring trauma-related somatic activation, create new competencies, and restore a somatic sense of self. Clinicians learn effective, accessible interventions for working with disruptive behavioural patterns, disturbed cognitive and emotional processing, and the fragmented sense of self experienced by so many traumatised individuals. Techniques are taught within a phase-oriented treatment approach, focusing first on stabilization and symptom reduction.

• Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is considered one of the gold standard treatment interventions for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

A substantial portion of individuals experiencing recent traumatic events suffer from acute traumatic distress, with symptoms of intrusion, avoidance and hyper-arousal, associated with significant impairment in daily functioning. Many will recover spontaneously, but some will go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mood disorder, or other psychological and physical disorders, with associated functional impairments. Research suggests the possibility that early intervention, using EMDR, reduces or eliminates acute distress, and may prevent the development of subsequent disorders. 

• The Rhythm of Regulation - Polyvagal Theory

The Polyvagal Theory, developed by Dr Stephen Porges, explains the relationship between the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and social behaviour. The ANS is the neurological architecture of the mind-body connection. Through its sensory and motor components, it provides the physiological foundation of embodiment and the neural basis for feeling. It regulates our internal milieu and assesses safety or threat internally, in our relationships, and in our environment . The ability to detect degrees of safety is known as neuroception. Neuroception selectively engages specific neural circuits (Ventral Vagal, Sympathetic, Dorsal Vagal) that shift depending on whether we feel safe, in danger, or under life threat. The Polyvagal Theory maps these circuits and the ways they combine into neural platforms of behaviour. It affirms that human well-being is largely social in nature, and it, holds significant implications for improved understanding and treatment of our physical and mental health.

Developed by Deb Dana, The Rhythm of Regulation introduces the Polyvagal Theory as a practical application, and offers co-regulating resources and concrete ways to help individuals find and savour experiences of safety. A Polyvagal theory-guided approach to therapy begins with helping individuals map their autonomic profiles and track their moment to moment movement along the autonomic hierarchy, and supports the interruption of habitual response patterns and establishing safety in a state of engagement.

• Internal Family Systems / Parts Work

Developed by Dr Richard Schwartz, Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a powerfully transformative, evidence-based model of psychotherapy. IFS uses Family Systems theory—the idea that individuals cannot be fully understood in isolation from the family unit—to develop techniques and strategies to effectively address issues within a person’s internal community or family. This integrative approach assumes each individual possesses a variety of sub-personalities, or “parts,” and attempts to get to know each of these parts better to achieve healing.

By learning how different parts function as a system and how the overall system reacts to other systems and other people, individuals in therapy can often become better able to identify the roots of conflict, manage any complications arising, and achieve greater well-being. 

• Sandplay Therapy & Symbol Work

Developed by Margaret Lowenfeld, and Dora Kalff, Sandplay Therapy is a hands-on, expressive counselling and psychotherapy modality that has been in use for over seventy years. Sandplay forms a bridge between verbal therapy and the expressive therapies, combining elements of each. Sandplay Therapy creates an external expression that reflect an individual’s inner thoughts, struggles, and concerns. This supports deeper aspects of the psyche to be worked with naturally and in safety, often providing insights and information for healing. The modality is highly effective in reducing the emotional causes behind difficult behaviours. Representing an issue symbolically often provides a new perspective and potential solutions. Symbols - objects from nature, figurines, ornaments etc. are arranged in the sandtray to communicate and process feelings, explore issues, and assist with decisions.