Helene Fletcher
Feminist embodied psychotherapy and ecopsychology

Working in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, U.K.

EMBODIED PSYCHOTHERAPY

I will encourage you to relax and stay with what you are experiencing in the present.

I encourage dialogue in imagination with those you find hard to relate to. Dialogue with aspects of oneself is also a good way to tackle internal conflicts that seem to stop you getting on with your life. I do not advise or judge, but try to help you find the underlying cause. So we also look together at the family history, spoken and unspoken beliefs that were passed on you.

We may also work with the way you breathe and with your posture. Many repressed emotions get stuck in our muscles. Releasing the stuckness by breathing deeper, making a sound, hitting a cushion or moving however you feel can be very freeing.

As you speak, we will stay with a sudden movement or body symptom so you can explore for example emphasizing or reducing them in order to find out what needs to be expressed.

I focus also on how we relate during our sessions, and what this tells us about your style of relating in general. To catch this process "red hot" in the room can be very transformative.

Psychotherapy gives us the opportunity, in a unique, challenging and supportive relationship, to deeply feel our pain about being alive so we can reclaim our power and allow ourselves also to feel the joy of being human .

FEMINIST PSYCHOTHERAPY

Often women see their desires as being the problem and the therapist may collude with that view.  In doing so, our defence mechanisms are restructured and strengthened to silence those desires more effectively.

The intent of Feminist Psychotherapy is to adress women's desires and the way we defend against them both in and outside therapy.

Women have all been the object of someone's life. I will be encouraging you with my support to find ways to become the subject of your life.

ECOPSYCHOLOGY

I incorporate exploration of your relationship with "non human " beings" we are sharing the Earth with: trees, plants, animals, mountains, lakes, the sea, the land......

I also welcome the expression of feelings about the current crisis on climate change and about other cultural, social and political issues.

At the moment, a lot of people feel hopeless about what is happening in the world.

We feel so anguished and despairing that it is very hard for us to explore the meaning of living a sustainable life, not just practically but also emotionally.

It is my aim to provide a safe enough space for you to have all your feelings so that we may find together ways of healing yourself and reclaiming your power.

I did experiential work on these issues with Joanna Macy and John Seed (Despair and Empowerment, Council of All Beings), Process Oriented Psychology (POP) and Mary-Jane Rust ( Jungian Analyst and Ecopsychologist).

WORKING WITH TRAUMA

Some of us have experienced events that were threatening to our survival, either bodily or emotionally.

Under attack, we fight back, run away or if these are impossible, we experience a kind of physical and emotional freezing. We share these survival mechanisms with the animal kingdom. But our effort to 'make sense' often gets in the way of recovery.

I support you in getting back in touch with your body sensations when you are thinking or talking about the traumatic events. Together we find out what triggers these sensations and what changes them, so that you have more control over some of the symptoms of traumatic stress (flashbacks, palpitations, heat and cold, shaking, etc).

I also encourage you to experience what you could not express during the event (running, fighting back, screaming, shaking, crying).

By befriending your own natural reactions to trauma, you can become more comfortable with your bodily and emotional states. Then 'making sense' can be a helpful rather than unhelpful process!

WHO I AM

I was born in France and have lived in England for 35 years. I have two children and two granddaughters.

I have worked as a therapist for 12 years, and hold a Diploma in Counselling and a Certificate in Bodywork, as well as an Iridology Diploma and a Certificate in Herbal Studies.

I am part of a full member group (the Burley Group) of the Independent Practitioners Network .

From April 2003 till September 2005, I worked as a counsellor for STAR, an organisation which supports women and men who have been raped or sexually assaulted. From September 2005 till 2006, I was a psychotherapist for the Women's Counselling and Therapy Service in Leeds. In September 2004, I moved to Mytholmroyd where I live now and have my private practice.

FEES

30-40 pounds per hour, sliding scale (short and long term work).

Methods of payment are open to negotiation.

CONTACT ME

You can phone me on 01422 886 525; or email me at helene@ecopsych.org.uk.