“I’ve had years of therapy and understand my trauma but still feel stuck. What should I try?”
That is often exactly where my work begins.
Many people I work with already understand a great deal about themselves. They know their history and can see the dynamics.
And still, something does not shift.
My interest is not only in understanding the story cognitively, but in what is still operating underneath it: in the nervous system, body, learned adaptations, family dynamics, trauma responses and deeper ways of relating to yourself and the world.
Insight matters. But sometimes we need to work at the level where the response is actually being generated.
You may be thinking things such as:
“I’ve had therapy before. I know my history. I don’t want to spend another year talking about it.”
“I know what happened to me. I want help changing what is still happening because of it.”
“I know the story. I want to work with what is still running underneath it.”
I’m tired of retelling my history. Is there a more experiential kind of therapy?
You don’t have to tell your whole story all over again.
I understand that many people have told their history repeatedly and are tired of starting again with every new therapist.
I need enough context to understand what has brought you to me, what you are experiencing now and what you would like to change.
We can gather the rest as it becomes relevant.
Sometimes we explore these dynamics through conversation or parts work.
Sometimes we work more experientially or use Family Constellations to make roles, loyalties and relationships within the system more visible.
What kind of therapy should I try if talk therapy isn’t helping anymore?
We talk, of course. Language, insight and understanding matter.
But I don’t assume they are the only levels at which change happens.
I also pay attention to what your body and nervous system are doing, your emotional responses, learned adaptations, family and relational dynamics, trauma and the deeper systems that may still be shaping your experience.
The aim is not only to understand why you respond as you do, but to create the possibility that the response itself begins to shift.
If you are looking for something more integrative than the therapy you have had, My Approach sets out how I bring different ways of working together.
What kind of therapist works with the body as well as psychology?
Our bodies often respond before our conscious minds have made sense of what is happening.
You may know rationally that you are safe and still feel activated.
I pay attention to those responses as part of the work.
The body can give us information that cognition alone sometimes cannot.
Depending on the person and what emerges, I draw from psychological, somatic, trauma informed, relational, systemic and experiential approaches.
Not just understanding yourself differently, but having more freedom, agency and capacity to live differently.
Testimonials
"I came to be in therapy with Renee at a very chaotic time in my life. I was at the height of my eating disorder and involved in a very toxic relationship with a using heroin addict. I was completely lost and enveloped in my sickness. Renee was incredibly professional. She first explained what her limitations as a therapist might be - which I really respected. What is funny, is that I experienced her as being exactly what I needed and could find no fault in her. I found her to be incredibly supportive. I have had several therapist, some of whom claim to specialise in eating disorders, and no one has ever come close to having the insight Renee had into my eating disorder and the exact nature of my behaviour, motivations, struggles and insanity. She was also equipped with solutions, not only was she practical she also used other kinds of deeper therapy, so I felt I was working with the problem as well as the cause. She helped me understand the choices I was making and assisted me seeing the whole pictures so that I was better able to make my own decisions. The result of therapy is that I am free from my eating disorder; I am more balanced; I released my relationship; I am approaching life with a more positive attitude and I feel incredibly grateful."