Mandala Health -Naturopathy & Counselling Psychotherapy
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Natural Therapies & Treatments
Naturopathy & Functional Medicine
Naturopathy is an effective therapy in the treatment of many acute and chronic conditions.
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Digestive disturbances – indigestion, pain, bloating, diarrhoea, constipation, reflux, SIBO/ dysbiosis, low acid production, food intolerances, leaky gut, irritable bowel, intestinal infection/infestation, inflammatory conditions, chronic fatigue syndromes.
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Stress and mood disorders – chronic stress, psychological and spiritual concerns, relationship conflicts, grief, trauma, anxiety, depression, adrenal exhaustion, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic sleep disorders
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Poor immunity and chronic infections – respiratory tract infections, colds and flu, urinary tract infections, chronic skin conditions, acne, post viral syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome.
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Autoimmunity, allergic reactions & inflammation – dysbiosis, arthritis, myalgia, SLE, eczema, psoriasis, hay fever sinusitis
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Toxaemia – poor elimination of toxins by liver, kidney, skin, digestive and respiratory tract. Toxins accumulate from our own metabolism, digested food, chemicals in foods, antibiotics, hormones, gluten, glyphosates, pesticides, herbicides, absorption by intestinal bacteria, air, water and drugs.
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Metabolic syndromes and hormone conditions – cardiovascular disease, blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, hypoglycaemia, gout, menstrual hormone disorders, PMS, infertility, weight management
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Naturopathic treatments can be expected to follow a logical therapeutic order
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Remove all obstacles to health – i.e., poor diet, lack of sleep, digestive disturbances, chronic stress, spiritual disharmony, etc
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Revitalise the natural healing ability of the body, using modified diets, nutrition therapy homeopathy and herbal medicines.
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Strengthen weakened systems, tissues and organs using botanical and nutraceutical medicines. In this phase the goals include strengthening the immune system, decreasing toxicity, normalising inflammatory functions, optimising metabolic functions, balancing regulatory systems, enhancing tissue regeneration and repair, and harmonising the life force. Use natural substances to restore and regenerate as needed.
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Recommendations for correct structural integrity, using body manipulation, postural correction, exercise therapy, and other physical therapies.
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Refer for any medical assessments and/or pharmacological substances, if required, to halt progressive pathology, or other invasive modalities, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy etc,
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Use naturopathic supportive therapy, to complement more invasive forms, to decrease side-effects and support recovery.
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Counselling Psychotherapy
Counselling psychotherapy is a useful therapeutic approach for clients seeking relief from psychological and spiritual problems and the full spectrum of overwhelming human emotional concerns - caused by the litany of life challenges, current and developmental circumstances, relationships and events.
The roots of my psychotherapy training reach back to the depth-oriented and psychodynamic school of Soul-Centred Psychotherapy, based on the teachings of Carl Jung about the self-organisation of archetypal stages in development and individuation; to Humanistic, Existential and Transpersonal-Experiential Psychotherapies outlined in principle by the philosophical psychologists, such as, Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, Carl Rogers, Eugene Gendlin; as well as the Ericksonian school of Hypnotherapy and Trance-state psychotherapy, practiced by Milton Erickson.
I work with individuals and couples with communication and relationship problems, in conflict or relationship break-down; and those in recovery from addiction, injury, complex trauma and PTSD. I am experienced in the use of many psychological interventions including hypnotherapy, and other trance-state methods, reframing and mindfulness processes; Gendlin’s experiential-focusing; kinesiology and muscle testing and specific trauma-based interventions such as: EMDR (eye movement desensitisation reprocessing) and TFT (Tapping-Thought Field Therapy).
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Counselling psychotherapies help individuals with psychological, emotional and spiritual concerns
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a proven therapy that is effective for a broad range of conditions, including:
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depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms and sleep disorders
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confusion and unresolved anger
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sadness, grief, despair, hopelessness, shame and/or isolation
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substance-related disorders (alcohol or opiate dependency), eating disorders & sexual problems
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personality disorders
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trauma - complex (childhood/ developmental) trauma; and/or post traumatic stress disorders (PTSD)
Psychotherapy can also help people to:
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experience, explore and discover previously unknown aspects of the self - new insights, meaning, inner strength & purpose.
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access creativity and find meaning in unconscious archetypal motifs, symbols, life-metaphors, synchronicities and dreams
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find support during a stressful time or crisis,
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find relief from deep experiences of: sadness, despair, hopelessness, grief, loss and disappointment
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process a relationship conflicts, intimacy and commitment issues and understand attachment and bonding dynamics.
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develop a positive resource or life-skill, resolve an important decision or engage a developmental task or life transition, such as leaving home or country, getting married, pregnancy, parenting, mid-life issues, divorce, retirement, menopause
Sometimes the reason to engage in psychotherapy is not entirely clear. Yet, there is a desire to simply have someone to speak to, to have someone who will listen and be genuinely interested.
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Sandplay Therapy
In Sandplay, figures and objects representing all aspects of life and nature, are used to symbolise events and situations in our inner and outer lives. People use objects and sand to create scenes that reflect and express their innermost world of psychological processes. Sandplay is a proven and effective therapy used with children, adults, couples, families, and groups.
Symbolic materials used in Sandplay serve as a common language. People often do not have the capacity to speak about what they know or are experiencing inside. Often there are no words for inchoate experiences and feelings. Sandplay provides a language for those that cannot express pain, desire, happiness, fears, shame, loss, joy, via language. Sandplay provides a forum for clients to express unconscious thoughts and feelings. Sand and water tap prenatal, perinatal, and preverbal consciousness and language skills that are not necessary for understanding the expression of the psyche. For this reason, Sandplay can be used across languages, cultures, races, ages, and developmental levels.
Sandplay therapy creates a transcendent bridge between the conscious and the unconscious. During Sandplay, the conscious mind relaxes control and allows material lying underneath the unconscious to emerge. The unconscious awakens through the selection of the figures and the shaping of the sand whilst simultaneously silencing the ambitiousness and purposeful qualities of the conscious mind.
Sandplay helps clients address fears that stem from a range of psychic injuries that have destroyed positive self-development. The deeply disturbed and often more primitive aspects of the personality can be expressed in Sandplay where the client develops an understanding and re-ordering of the terrifying qualities. During the course of Sandplay, inner integration develops gradually out of the chaotic circumstances observed in the earliest sand tray scenes of the client. For example, sand pictures that originally expressed loneliness and emptiness may begin to show new life and growth; hidden despair can turn into expressions of nurturing, thus decreasing aspects of psychological destructiveness.
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The sandplay process consists of two central stages.
The first stage involves the construction of the sand picture. The sandplay images are generally considered to be a projection of the client's internal experiential world and a representation of his/her world view. The second stage of the process involves the client's communication about individual symbolic elements, or the whole sand scene they have created. This stage of the process allows client to clarify personal meanings and to integrate new feelings and insights that may have emerged through the creation of the sand picture.
Couples Relationship Therapy
Marriages and committed partnerships are complex and universally difficult. Without a common approach for mutual cooperative learning, they can be the most difficult relationships to navigate in life. People don’t choose conflict or to be at a relationship impasse, with stress and pain for both partners and all family members. Rather than being limiting and painful, we all want relationships that are enriching and joyful, and filled with health, abundance, and love.
Relationship counselling is highly recommended as a preventative therapy for happy couples, who want to establish enduring strategies to maintain a strong and happy relationship through difficult times.
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Many people only enter relationship counselling after struggling with ineffective patterns in their own relationship or when it is already in serious distress. Separation or divorce may have become a risk and one partner or both are concerned about the significant amount of personal and social repercussion for themselves, their partner and their children, likely to stem from the relationship breakdown and dissolution.
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Relationship counselling offers constructive steps to establish a solid relationship foundation to increase the levels of satisfaction in a marriage or partnership. It engages a couples in constructive learning processes for more effective communication. It works to reopen channels of affection, and reestablish trust, kindness, care and love.
Trauma Therapy
Trauma is and enduring emotional response to distressing event(s), where an individual's life has been threatened and their ability to comprehend the event and cope is overwhelmed. Trauma can result in intrusive memories and painful feelings of fear, anxiety, hopelessness despair, isolation and depression.
Psychotherapy is proven effective for helping individuals process trauma and developing new narratives of inner-strength, hope and connection.
Clinical Supervision
Clinical supervision is an essential component of ongoing professional development and education, and an ethical requirement of the profession, that continues after psychotherapy training is complete.
Supervision involves a therapist reflecting on various aspects of their clinical work with a more experienced therapist or mentoring advisor. It can be one of the most significant and influential relationships for a therapist in their career.