Neurodiversity
Neurodiversity has become a new buzzword, and here, I would like to keep it quite open. Rather than trying to address the anxiety of 'do I have this or that thing?' I prefer that my practice is open to many ways of making sense of and living the world.
This means I am playful and flexible, and I have many alternatives to proceed at any given time. Some clients like the verbal experience, and we may go deep into narrating emotions, ideas, or stories.
Other clients are less verbal, or there are moments when verbal communication becomes difficult. Here, I usually offer something I think you may like, like drawing or describing things using colourful stones and maybe moving our bodies or dramatising our inner conflicts and dialogues.
For some, clear explanations of what is happening and developing a functional model seem to calm them down, and I use my years of academia to help them make sense of things at an abstract level.
Using various techniques means that I have taken things from here and there as inspiration, tried them and made them my own, and developed coherent theories and explanations for how they work together. This allows me to feel confident in what I do, understand why something works or does not, and make ethical decisions at any time during the session.
So, I am open to trying new things, but always from a place of coherence, where I have tried those things myself and read the consequences and context in which those practices have emerged.
Psychotherapy is so varied, and we have so many paradigms, techniques, and approaches that I can delve into in different areas of the profession, depending on the qualitative needs of my diverse clients. From there, I make a coherent and informed creative decision to allow us to explore and move forward.