Scottish psychiatrist Dr. R.D. Laing wrote: “Psychotherapy must remain an obstinate attempt of two people to arrive at a re-covery of the wholeness of being human through the relationship between them.” Pastoral psychotherapy honours that relationship, and also makes room for whatever you hold sacred, if and when you want it in the room.
The art of the therapist is to create a truly safe and harmless space where deep relaxation, curiosity and honesty are supported by relating with skillful ease, candidness and genuine compassion. Here, you are recognized as a unique person-to-be-welcomed, and not an object-to-be-tinkered-with. We can sit back and explore the terrain of your feelings, thoughts and experiences together, with no need to change anything in this moment — and notice the transformation that is already underway in us and between us.
Who it’s for
Some people come looking for warm, skillful human connection and an approach to their life that includes their faith. Others want to explore their life in reference to their own unique experience of spirituality, whatever its tradition or shape, and to have a wise companion for that reflection. Still others come, not because they are religious or even consciously spiritual, but because they are drawn to the grounded loving-kindness, non-judgment and non-shaming that form this relational container for personal transformation.
Faith enters our work only as much as you want it to. Nothing is assumed, and nothing is imposed.
When faith itself has been a source of hurt
Many people have been raised in ways that damaged their sense of their own place in the world: through frightening religious views, human betrayal and hypocrisy, and teachings about goodness that were built on punishment and obligation rather than grace and love.
That includes people whose sexuality, gender or way of loving was condemned by the community they grew up in. You will not be asked to defend who you are here.
Because I have been trained in theology as well as psychotherapy, I can help you make fine distinctions for yourself between helpful and unhelpful expressions of faith and doctrine. I can help you feel into where your beliefs are supporting your health and well-being, and where they feel like they are creating problems for you — whether you want to keep your faith, reshape it, or set it down.
Whole, hale, holy
Healing is one of many English words like whole, hale (and hearty), health and holy that developed from the same ancient root. True healing is about allowing the whole of our experience to be integrated, to live without hiding parts of ourselves away as unlovable. To allow everything in us that needs a voice to be allowed to speak. To see and be seen. To experience profound wellness in body, mind, spirit and relationships.