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Sarah Hanison – Counselling and Psychotherapy

Sarah Hanison BA Hons. PG Dip Psych. MBACP

Counselling and Psychotherapy

Counselling and Psychotherapy in Rickmansworth and Croxley Green, Hertfordshire.

Tel: 07985 541 213

I warmly welcome you to Sarah Hanison Counselling and Psychotherapy. I am an experienced accredited Counsellor and Psychotherapist registered with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, (UKCP), and a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). My approach is holistic and integrative, drawing on transpersonal training.

I am also an accredited Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) practitioner registered with EFT International, and Matrix Reimprinting and Matrix Birth Reimprinting practitioner .

I currently see clients from the Chiropractic & Wellness Centre in Rickmansworth

I also offer online therapy via video and voice conferencing, email or instant messaging, and telephone, and am a professional member of the Association for Counselling and Therapy Online (ACTO).

I practice in a warm, compassionate and person-centred way. My role is to appreciate what life is like in your shoes as we work collaboratively to understand your experiences; to process your sorrows and pain; to help unearth the inner resources and personal qualities you already have (but might not know it yet); and in doing so, to help you discover new ways of being and relating; that transformation is possible, and that life can be lived fully and authentically.

First and foremost, our work together is centred on building a relationship where you feel safe and more at ease. This is about your story, about weaving together the narrative of your life; it is you who knows your experiences, your thoughts and feelings. So bearing this is in mind, and deeply respecting your individuality, we can work in a variety of ways; as well as the traditional ‘talking cure’, our time together might also include EFT, Matrix Reimprinting, Matrix Birth Reimprinting, Multi-Modal CBT, mindfulness and meditation, body and breath work, creative visualisation, symbolic drawing and art, and exploration of personal dreams and archetypal material.

I am absolutely committed to providing therapy in a safe, confidential and non-judgemental space. I have supervision for my work, a professional ethical requirement, and any material discussed is presented anonymously and is strictly confidential.

TRANSPERSONAL INTEGRATIVE THERAPY

My training is integrated within the major theoretical frameworks, and in particular the transpersonal approach. This means I work under an umbrella of different methods to create a grounded and holistic approach to the work I do.

The transpersonal relates to the non physical experience of going ‘beyond the limits of the personal ego’ into deeper and expanded awareness. C J Jung named this the archetypal Self in which insight, wisdom and creative inspiration lie, and the potential for connection and healing.

In therapy we work towards an outcome of greater wholeness and identity that’s in deeper and improved relation to self, others and the world at large. In other words, more harmony and less stress.

Each person brings a different set of issues and goals to therapy and these influence the process and modalities I use; transpersonal ways of working may form a significant part of the experience, or not at all. This is one of the many advantages of an integrated approach – that I tailor my skills to match your needs.

If you are interested please find a summary of the approaches I use in my practice, and a more detailed explanation of how the transpersonal is applied to the psychotherapeutic process:

PSYCHODYNAMIC: How the past and particularly how our early childhood experiences have shaped our present lives and sense of who we are. Through making conscious the unconscious or forgotten aspects of ourselves we are able to fit together the missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle so that we begin to feel more integrated and ‘whole’.

The dynamics and attachment patterns of our early relationships may get replayed in our current relationships and therefore by default, the therapeutic relationship. The role of therapy is to make conscious these dynamics through the therapist and client interpreting together what is taking place between them. This gives us the awareness and choice to change any behaviour that might now be counter-productive and help us evolve in the way we relate to ourselves and others.

This approach does not necessarily mean getting hung up on our past: it can be enough to stick to what is happening in the here and now and use this as the key to understanding our past.

I only use the psychodynamic approach with a light and gentle touch, and in relation to attachment theory and relational interplay between myself and the client. I do not employ the traditional ‘blank screen’, saying very little, adopted by some psychodynamic therapists as this can appear quite cold, harsh and unyielding to those who are feeling acutely vulnerable or have been through hard and traumatic experiences.

The greater body of my approach is drawn from the following: the humanistic, existential and transpersonal.

HUMANISTIC: An umbrella term for a number of theories/therapies – e.g. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Rogerian – person-centred, Gestalt, Transactional Analysis – that centre on growth, health and realising potential. Therapy is centred upon the here and now with not as much focus on the unconscious and the client working towards taking responsibility for their life and experience. I mainly draw upon the following:
Rogerian (person-centred): Carl Rogers wrote in On Becoming a Person;

“It is the client who knows what hurts, what direction to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences are deeply buried.”

The Rogerian approach is non directive (on part of the therapist) while the client is in charge and directs the process of therapy. The therapist’s role is to offer unconditional positive regard, non judgement, and deep empathy for the client’s story. The therapist’s attitude provides the safe conditions required for the client to explore his/her world resulting in empowered personal growth based on trusting their experience (locus of self-evaluation).

Gestalt: An approach which focuses on present-centred, phenomenological awareness; becoming mindful, without judgement, of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and actions as they happen in the present moment. This process allows us to consciously feel the effect we have on ourselves and deepen the connection to our experience. It allows us to shine a light on the unconscious, tap into our inner resources and find creative solutions. Gestalt means ‘whole or complete’: simply ‘being present’ to our inner world and processing what arises can help reintegrate disowned or lost parts of ourselves and complete unresolved experiences and unfinished business.

EXISTENTIAL: This approach explores our personal meaning about life. It views personal problems as being rooted in existential concerns. I draw particularly on the work of Irvin D. Yalom who proposes that a person’s basic anxiety, whether emerging consciously or unconsciously, is a coping mechanism for some of the harsher and unavoidable givens of existence, and that by confronting these givens in therapy we can harness powerful change:

  • The inevitability of death.
  • Freedom (or lack of) to create the life we want. That we are completely responsible for ourselves.
  • Isolation and aloneness. To create a sense of belonging in and to this world.
  • Lack of meaning.

For example a fear of death might be underpinning a general fear of change and moving forwards in life, or a lack of meaning might be underpinning a feelings of being stuck and an inner emptiness. And when, for example, the inevitability of death is faced, we wake up and begin to live life fully and authentically, no longer sleep walking through existence, or unconsciously distracting ourselves from the certainty of our demise.

The existential approach helps to face reality, take responsibility, accept limitations, and find meaning and purpose.

TRANSPERSONAL: The transpersonal considers all of life’s experiences as valuable and offers a positive way of understanding our difficulties. ‘What is the purpose of this problem?’ ‘What qualities am I developing or need to develop?’ ‘What can I learn from this?’ Tough times and challenging, traumatic events can offer unique opportunities for growth, and greater awareness. Sometimes we need to break down to break through – a dark night of the soul is not unlike like shitty manure heaped on cold winter soil; it fertilises and incubates new potential and life.

Therapy works by discovering and expanding core qualities of the personality through connecting with the authentic Self. But how do we connect with this aspect of ourselves? By working with the language of the unconscious (symbolism, colour, sound) utilising some of the following tools:

  • Dream work
  • Archetypes
  • Body and breath work
  • Creative visualisation*
  • Mindfulness (meditation)
  • Gratitude
  • Symbolic art and drawing
  • Writing and journaling
  • Inner child work
  • Working with nature and the elements
  • Working with the cycle of life, death and rebirth
  • Working with different planes of consciousness

Accessing the inner Self allows transformation and a balancing of the personality. It helps us to transcend the problems we face, clear difficult feelings and find new meaning; most significantly it precipitates an opening of the heart, leading to greater compassion for self and others, a deeper appreciation of life, and an overall wholeness of being.

* A note about visualisation techniques. You don’t have to be a highly visual person to benefit from this. The word ‘visual’ is a little misleading as visualisation involves all the senses, not just internal ‘seeing;’ and the whole person, not just the mind. It is enough to simply have ‘a vague sense of something.’

TRAUMA THERAPY

Trauma is defined as any distressing experience – often an unexpected, dramatic and isolating event – in which we feel powerless and have no control or strategy to cope with what is happening.

When we experience a traumatising event the body’s survival response of either flight, flight or freeze is activated. If we are able to confront or escape the situation we are more likely to process the event after it has happened. We cry. We shake. We lick our wounds. We grieve. Our nervous system returns from being aroused at the threat of danger to a state of ‘rest and digest’, and we move on and put the event behind us.

However, it is often the case we can’t fight or escape the situation, and instead we freeze, the body completely shutting down and effectively ‘playing dead’ so that we can survive what is happening. The freeze response is an entirely appropriate and normal reaction to a threatening experience and the brain doing its job to protect us. However the consequence of this reaction is that trauma isn’t processed, remaining ‘live’ in the body and mind, and which then leads to an array of stressful symptoms and fragmentation of self.

Trauma symptoms can range from feeling sleepless and restless, angry and tearful, anxious, hyper-vigilant and over-aroused; to experiencing panic attacks, a sense of detachment or ‘out-of-bodyness’ (dissociation), intrusive thoughts, nightmares and flashbacks; and to full-blown depression and dissociative and anxiety disorders ranging from PTSD to DID (dissociative identity disorder).

Trauma is particularly damaging when experienced in childhood, and especially during the first six years of life; and where a child has experienced an unstable, abusive and neglectful environment, violating the boundaries of the emerging self, and damaging the bond with the parent. Multiple trauma in childhood is also known as complex trauma and disrupts a child’s development, sense of self and the ability to form secure relationships.

Unprocessed trauma and its resulting symptoms is inevitably re-triggered by similar situations or people. It’s important to note that as an adult we can perceive an event quite differently to our childhood self – it might seem insignificant as an adult now but to the child it was frightening and threatening.

Trauma ultimately cuts us off from the roots of our deepest self so we feel disconnected and orphaned from our centre. Healing trauma is the integration of all the unprocessed feelings and sensory information at the time of the event, reconnecting us back to the body, to authentic experience and to a sense of safety in the world.

For smaller traumas simply talking through the experience and working through the accompanying feelings is enough to process the event. However, and especially with big trauma – the life threatening events – it often isn’t enough to simply talk it through, and could have the opposite effect and risk re-traumatisation. This is why I am trained in three specific therapies, which I combine together, and that are very gentle, safe and effective for processing trauma:

  • Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
  • Matrix Reimprinting
  • Matrix Birth Reimprinting

The Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT (also know as Tapping), was founded in 1995 by Gary Craig, through simplifying Dr. Roger Callahan’s Thought Field Therapy (TFT). It’s a form of psychological acupressure based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture, but without the needles. It involves gentle tapping with your (or your therapist’s) fingers on specific points of the head and upper body while you think about your issue and voicing your experience.

The Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT (also know as Tapping), was founded in 1995 by Gary Craig, through simplifying Dr. Roger Callahan’s Thought Field Therapy (TFT). It’s a form of psychological acupressure based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture, but without the needles. It involves gentle tapping with your (or your therapist’s) fingers on specific points of the head and upper body while you think about your issue and voicing your experience.

In therapy I integrate EFT into my practice and along with Matrix Reimprinting and Matrix Birth Reimprinting, also offer it as a ‘stand-alone’ therapy. I use EFT to gently clear the root causes of trauma symptoms, core issues, unhelpful behaviours and limiting/negative beliefs resulting in significant improvements in physical, mental and emotional well-being, and freedom from traumatic memory (for example, abuse, rape, birth trauma and war)
Overall, EFT is effective for trauma, PTSD, anxiety, anger, depression (and all manner of mental and emotional issues), fears, phobias, addictions, and physical conditions (e.g. menstrual issues and pain, fatigue, insomnia). EFT is also very helpful in supporting clients towards their goals including general self-development (more confidence, self-esteem, peace and calm), fertility, and gentle birth.

Matrix Re-imprinting

Matrix Re-imprinting is a powerful therapy which combines EFT with visualisation to process and release the chronic effects of past trauma and stress in the subconscious mind. It is effective and gentle. In contrast to other therapies, it doesn’t require the client to necessarily relive the event and risk re-traumatisation. It works by acknowledging and releasing the emotional charge from the trauma, identifying the negative belief made or strengthened at that moment, and then creating new positive images, outcomes and beliefs in relation to the original event and reimprinting these in the mind and body. The effect is often a profound transformation in physical and emotional wellbeing, freedom from the traumatic memory, and a cognitive shift in insight, belief and perception through the deep reframing of the event.

Matrix Re-imprinting was developed by EFT Master, Karl Dawson, in 2006, and takes into account scientific developments in the fields of cell biology (in particular, the work of Bruce Lipton who correlates the connection between beliefs and biology), trauma psychology, neurodevelopment and quantum physics. The term ‘matrix’ comes from quantum physics and refers to the understanding that the universe and everything in it (including our bodies, emotions, thoughts, memories) are forms of energy connected in fields of information.

As with EFT, Matrix Re-imprinting is effective for trauma, PTSD, anxiety, anger, depression, fears, phobias, addictions, and physical conditions (e.g. menstrual issues and pain, fatigue, insomnia). It is also very helpful in supporting clients towards their wellbeing and other issues such as fertility, and gentle birth.

A note about visualisation techniques: You don’t have to be a highly visual person to benefit from this. The word ‘visual’ is a little misleading as visualisation involves all the senses, not just internal ‘seeing;’ and the whole person, not just the mind. It is enough to simply have ‘a vague sense of something.’

Matrix Birth Re-imprinting

The experience of life and how life is perceived begins in the womb. In utero, a growing baby absorbs its mother’s feelings and emotional responses which may influence its developing attachment relationship. Inside the womb, a baby is already learning whether the world is either a safe or an unsafe place to be. Babies have what’s known as implicit memory. This is memory that isn’t within consciousness but which can be accessed later in life through the felt-senses in the body. Therefore if a baby is handled roughly at birth it creates an imprint, an implicit memory, that the world isn’t safe and which may then influence a whole range of fear-based, negative beliefs throughout life. In fact any issues that happen in utero, during and immediately after birth, and during the hours and days after being born may become precursor and root cause of emotional and physical issues later in life.

Through working with the sub/unconscious mind and metaphor, Matrix Birth Reimprinting (utilising EFT) gently releases pregnancy and birth related stress and trauma bringing relief to present day symptoms and unhelpful beliefs.

Matrix Birth Reimprinting is helpful for the following, for both women and men, whether their own experience or their child’s:

  • Infertility issues
  • IVF
  • Antenatal depression
  • Issues during pregnancy (including issues with partner and wider family/friends, bereavement)
  • Birth complications
  • Birth trauma
  • PTSD
  • Post natal depression
  • Miscarriage
  • Abortion
  • Loss of a child
  • Loss of mother at birth
  • Abandonment at birth
  • Lack of bonding and attachment
  • Loss of parent, bereavement after birth
  • Adoption

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Please contact me and we can have a preliminary chat (there is no charge for this). I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
If we decide to work together I will send you a pre-therapy questionnaire, therapy agreement and GDPR agreement. The pre-therapy questionnaire allows me to get to know a little more about you before our first session and is treated in the strictest confidence. The therapy agreement is a practical guideline for the framework of therapy while the GDPR agreement details how I use and store your personal information.

You may decide I am not the right therapist for you, and that is absolutely fine; I will respect any decision you make. Likewise, if I feel that I am not the right therapist for you then I will make this clear and suggest other relevant therapist names and avenues of help.

HOW LONG IS A SESSION AND HOW LONG DOES THERAPY LAST FOR?

Counselling and psychotherapy sessions last 50 minutes and are usually weekly. Therapy can take place for an agreed time period or on an open-ended basis. I usually encourage regular reviews so we can assess how therapy is helping you, and on this basis whether to continue or end.

I incorporate (if required) EFT, Matrix Reimprinting and Matrix Birth Reimprinting into psychotherapy sessions but also offer them as stand alone therapies too.

HOW MUCH DO YOU CHARGE?

I charge £45 for in-person and online (video, voice, email, instant messaging) therapy sessions. I also offer low cost spaces which are negotiable and dependent upon your circumstances.

CAN I END THERAPY AT ANY TIME?

Yes, of course you can. The decision to end therapy is always open to you. However, what I do suggest in the case of longer-term therapy is that when an ending has been agreed we spend at least 4 weeks working towards this. Our relationship will potentially be a significant one and an important aspect of our work together is to address the ending of the relationship.

CORPORATE SERVICES & HEALTH INSURANCE

I work directly with companies and employee assistance programmes (EAPs) and am registered with the following healthcare providers; Bupa, AXA PPP, Vitality and Aviva.

Work often centres on work-life balance, stress, changing limiting beliefs, goal setting, professional relationships, bullying within the workplace, redundancy, self care and wellbeing, and personal issues that can bleed into our work life.

As with my private clients, I offer creative ways of working: multi-modal CBT, emotional freedom techniques (EFT), matrix reimprining, mindfulness, relaxation and visualisation: it is important that employees have new strategies and tools after therapy has ended.

If you would like to collaborate with me please get in touch, or you can call me directly on 07985 541 213.