What to expect in Sessions

Sessions can be quite variable in style depending on the individual needs.

Most sessions will be 1 hr over Zoom (with the exception of couples work and in-person somatic work).

Zoom Sessions

For Zoom sessions, which incorporate my trainings in both IFS and PST, expect to be sat in a quiet space in your own home or office, on a video call with me. We will take your system wherever it is ready and resourced to go that day, which can be variable and impacted by your level of resourcing and current state of process in regards your life.

We will sometimes contract ahead (at the end of the last session) for what part or theme in your life we are looking to further explore.

We will always conduct work within the scope of your original Positive Outcome (agreed in the early session/s) or discuss changes of direction. You can raise questions or concerns about the direction of sessions at any time.

We will always respect and include your protective system, dealing with it’s fears and concerns, before going deeper into the system.

I will lend my Self energy and my nervous system to you for the course of the session to give you the additional support and container your parts needs for whatever processing, witnessing, releasing or understanding they are requiring.

Sessions often start with a check-in and then can progress to Insight work (Where you are supported into deeper connection with one or more of your parts), Explicit Direct Access (where I speak with one or more of your parts directly with you present in the background) or Implicit Direct Access (where I speak with one or more of your parts in a blended state, as if they were you, which will appear as a regular conversation).

I may encourage you into connection with your body, movement, breathe, sounding or posture.

I may support you to deepen your capacity to tolerate various emotional states and to move through them to insight without interruption and self abandonment.

We may work on self-regulation and self-awareness or resourcing.

We may develop a safe space for your parts to go to when working with other parts.

We may pull together cognitive maps to make sense of your system or your experience.

IFS work focuses on the individual parts, how they configure with each other, their experiences, gifts, burdens and their relationship with your Self energy.

A Focus on PST and in-person somatic sessions

Psychosexual Somatics ® Therapy also works to integrate the lost connections between the mental, physical and emotional elements of our human experience, with more of a focus on the body intelligence that often gets overridden with adaptive behaviours/protectors that mask our capacity to read and accurately interpret internal and external sensory data.

There are lots of different ways we might support the awakening and mobilisation of your body intelligence in any session and if you have space in your own space via working with Zoom or we choose to meet in person we are likely to spend more time up and out our chairs and re-learning how you connect with your body intelligence through movement, sensing and an increased capacity to listen to the signals your body is already giving you.

Psychosexual Somatics ® therapy works to re-wire the nervous system, evolving from our trauma-based, unconscious, reactive behaviours, towards more consciousness, choice, agency and capacity for being relational and for experiencing pleasure in our everyday lives.

Expect to learn to sense and be informed by the intelligence in your body and to get in touch with truths and a capacity to act in the world which may impact your close personal relationships.

In person, my physical presence acts as “the other” which we can use as a mirror to discover and evolve your self-protective strategies in a safe environment.

In-person and touch-inclusive work can be intensive on the nervous system. Pacing is critical and I will adapt my approach based on my discernment of what your system can tolerate and integrate. Less is sometimes more. This is not for available or suitable everyone and will always be discussed ahead of time.

Elements of the work may include:

• Psychotherapeutic techniques.
• Sensate tracking.
• Reflecting and clarifying,
• Exploring the relational field in the therapy space.
• Regulatory exercises.
• Deep tissue bodywork and myofascial release.
• Boundary work.
• Breathing and movement explorations.
• Gentle, compassionate holding.
• Supportive Touch.
• Grounding Practises.
• Shaking.
• Visualisations.
• Emotional processing.
• Embodiment work.
• Parts or Mini Character work

I will not offer touch-inclusive sessions with all clients

All clients coming in person for sexuality related treatment will undergo a Sexual History Assessment to ensure suitability for treatment plus, if bodywork is deemed appropriate, an exploration of your boundaries, in order that we understand your patterns and can be confident of your ability to remain in agency, in vocal capacity and in your own body during touch therapy.

If there is any discomfort for me as a practitioner I will not go ahead with in-person or bodywork sessions. Sessions involving touch are more intensive on the nervous system of both the practitioner and client. I take the power of touch for healing very seriously and I can also feel more strongly impacted by your process and release. I need to feel as safe and resourced as you do to proceed. If this is not made available please do not take this personally or make up a story about yourself. You can take home instead that I take your safety and healing very seriously and that I am not the person to take that next step with you.

I do not currently offer bodywork sessions to male-bodied clients with whom I do not already have a long-standing relationship with. I am sorry for the implicit gender bias here. However Gender and sexuality is a real variable that impacts efficacy of treatment and poses more threat to unconscious boundary violations on both sides. 

Expect to safely explore your growth potential.

Expect to be comfortable, relaxed, in choice at all times as to the direction of therapy, to be guided into the wisdom of your body, taken gently into the uncomfortable places and guided safely to the other side.

Psychosexual Somatics ® Therapy is based on a model centred around 5 key developmental stages and their impact on the development of our psyche. During sessions I will share information with you, as appropriate, that helps you understand the inner workings of your bodymind in relation to this framework and to normalise your experiences of yourself inside and outside the therapy space. The same goes for Psychoeducation about your Internal Parts, who will have developed their burdens and roles in response to these developmental plus consequential and unrelated adult traumas.

Sessions will support the client between states of deep relaxation / down-regulation and mild activation, just enough to allow what wants to be given some attention to reach the surface, gently and safely.

Expect to be sitting, standing, lying down, talking, crawling, dancing, growling, silent, crying, trembling or laughing. Whatever needs to happen is welcome in the space. Your vulnerability is welcome in the space and will be treated lovingly and respectfully. You will not be made to do anything you do not want to do.

All parts of you are welcome.

What may feel unusual or uncomfortable to be expressed in front of others is welcomed in the therapy room, which becomes a safe practise space for bringing yourself more fully as we work together to expand your range of emotional and somatic tolerance. What you discover in therapy can be taken with you back into your daily life.  From there you'll need some time to be with this more expanded version of yourself and to practise discernment in your relationships as to where these new parts of you are safe and welcomed or where you might need to make changes or step up your Self-care to protect their integration into your system.

That said, verbal, emotional or physical intrusion towards your practitioner will not be tolerated and will result in the termination of sessions. Learning to find and respect the boundaries of others and to respond to them and make repair when they are crossed can be part of the therapeutic relationship. Harassment, seduction or unwanted touch, in either direction, can not be part of the therapeutic relationship.

Our intention is Embodiment and Expansion.

The focus of the work is around embodiment, tuning into the emotional and physical sensations of the body, as this is where the potential for healing and integration waits to be expressed. As such, and unlike traditional talk therapies, I will support you as client to step away from story-telling and to drop into the body's expression, although a cognitive frame for the experience is maintained at all times so that your analytical parts can understand what's going on and your mind is kept in the loop. Over time the dominance of your decision making and personal expression could move down the body, less heavily oriented to thinking and more oriented to Intuition, Gut feel, Compassion and Aliveness.

Difficult feelings will be felt in a safe and manageable way, touching them just enough that they can inform you of what's been unfelt and support you into choices that are more accepting of your whole self and not just the culturally acceptable parts. 

I'm not here to here to “fix you, because you don't need fixing. I'm here to guide you back into connection with yourself. Your body will do the work and set the pace.  I'll keep reminding you to trust yourself and to relax into and to allow your own process.

Session Boundaries

Boundaries operate on many levels, including physical, emotional, energetic, and sexual, and managing these consciously are essential to healthy functionality and successful therapy.

The following boundaries are upheld in Psychosexual Somatics® Therapy and Internal Family Systems

• Touch is one-way from practitioner to client, only if agreed in previous sessions and always within consent from ALL parts.
• There is no genital touch, although clients may be invited to hold their own genitals where appropriate to connect with them.
• Any bodywork requires client consent in advance of the session and there is no renegotiation of agreed boundaries within a session
• The client pays the agreed fee for the session, upfront, with no exchanges or gifts
• Sexual energy is welcome and there is no sexual contact between client and practitioner at any time, including after the termination of professional work.
• All sessions are conducted with clothes on at all times, for client and practitioner.
• The practitioner holds unconditional positive regard for the client at all times and stays in their own centre
• The practitioner and client work to the same agreed and shared therapeutic intention and purpose
• Any physical touch is conducted with the intention of increasing the clients capacity to hold and release suppressed emotions and not with erotic intent.
• Both practitioner and client work within their own personal boundaries at all times and are responsible for vocalising any adjustments needed during the session to maintain this.
• There is no social interaction between client and practitioner.
• If client and practitioner meet outside the therapy space by chance, acknowledgment of each other’s presence and then returning to their own space is appropriate. (There is a high risk of the client projecting parental issues onto the practitioner unconsciously and so social distance must be maintained between sessions and for 2 years subsequently).
• Client and practitioner are not to connect and communicate via social media.
• Communication between sessions is minimised and as agreed between practitioner and client as needed to maintain appointments.
• There may be scope to meet in person in a non therapeutic setting briefly for the purposes of in-person introduction in the instance of a long-standing virtual relationship that is long distance in nature.
• The practitioner can be contacted by arranged phone call, text, or e-mail only, using email as the primary communication mechanism aside from last minute appointment changes or travel notifications.
• For all communications within 1 day of an upcoming appointment please text and ensure the communication is received.
• The time boundaries of the session are agreed upfront and maintained. Short over-runs can be suggested by the practitioner only in the event that the system has not sufficiently regulated to be left unattended at the end of the session AND the practitioner is able to accommodate a few additional minutes with adverse effect for the client, clients family, practitioner, practitioners family or subsequent client.
• The practitioner reports with regularity to a supervisor and will share client session information as required. Otherwise client confidentiality will be maintained at all times.
• The client is welcome to bring a chaperone to the session for additional support.
• Any additional psychotherapeutic support the client is undergoing should be disclosed to the practitioner in order a communications approach can be established that avoids splitting during therapy.