Theoretical Orientation and Positionality
About the therapeutic and healing process.
Theoretical Orientation
My approach to the therapeutic process is guided by:
feminist and person-centred principles that foreground clients’ strengths and resiliencies;
(complex) trauma theory and therapies which include the structural dissociation model;
embodiment practices and somatic awareness;
emergent research from neuroscience;
attachment theory;
compassionate self-inquiry; and
the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary field of ecopsychology.
On a more personal note, I am deeply inspired by time spent in wild places—whether in the presence of granite or golden hour, mycelium or mushrooms, humans or a whole litter of coyote pups, thundershowers or the thrumming of crickets singing in the late-September kind of whisky heat. Those experiences teach me, continuously so, to hold it all in my two hands: the grief and the gratitude; the joy and the pain; the known, the unknown, and the unknowable. To be out there is something special to me: a clear-eyed vision and heighted sense of respectful abandon that comes from being adjacent to such vast beauty—more than adjacent, immersed in it; a meaningful and searching meditation on love, on responsibility, on individuality and morality; a demanding, or in some other way humbling, course of study; a lifeline from the yawning space of fear in a life riven by discontinuities to some rock face where the psychic crampons hold.
Positionality
In the field of counselling, it’s encouraged that we, as clinicians, recognize that our lived experiences inform our practice as well as our ontological and epistemological beliefs (in other words, our worldview). In training, we are often required to explore and explain our positionality—the subjective contextual aspects—that may influence how we arrive in therapeutic encounters, approach counselling processes, and navigate interpretations and understanding our clients in session. Fostering reflexivity when it comes to our “situatedness” in personal, relational, cultural, and societal domains is an exercise in awareness that, ultimately, is never fixed and will necessarily change over time.
To meet with me as a counsellor does not require adherence to any set of beliefs or perspectives, nor does it require a shared enthusiasm about or subscription to the things that have inspired me personally and professionally. It is my intention to tailor my approach to meet the unique goals and strengths of each individual client and to explore the complexity and nuances of your story in such a way that positions you to glean insights and skills for adapting, managing, and making meaning of your own experiences. With this in mind, I do believe that a point of integrity, safety, and professionalism rests in the ability of counsellors to be able to speak to the information, research, and/or clinical framework that undergirds their therapeutic decisions and movements at any point in the therapy process. As such, I do encourage you to ask questions like, “Why are we doing this?”, “What are we doing right now?”, “How does this fit with my goals for therapy?”, “What is the history and/or supporting evidence for this therapeutic approach and what is it meant to achieve?” if you feel unsure. While my answers to those questions will reflect my (ever-evolving) personal and clinical understandings, it is my hope that dialogue surrounding the process of counselling allows for more trust, more collaboration, more connection to what you are experiencing in therapy, and more empowered and agentic involvement in your own healing.