OUR MIND AS A SPONGE
We work to unravel the conundrum of the unconscious. Our mind when we are born is but a blank sponge knowing only how to fear.
This mind is a sponge: it mops up every experience from its surroundings from the point of birth and under some circumstances from conception. Our minds and our very selves are based on relationship. This relational sponge shapes our assumptions about ourselves in our world; about people and how we relate to them and, perhaps especially, our expectations of how they will relate to us.
Where we are failed in relationships at the heart of many of the presenting issues that we work with is fear: fear of how we are perceived, what others think of us, that we are bad or flawed, that we are worthless and other similar convictions that leave us unable to be ourselves. Fear quite literally holds us prisoner. Our role is to create with you the hope that will set you free: a hope that comes from understanding, empathy, compassion and the shared journey of therapy.
CONNECTION AND MEANING
The degree to which our sponge leaves us with an understanding that the world is a safe place where we can expect to have our physical, social and emotional needs met defines the extent to which we believe we have meaning, a sense of our own worth. Relational connections literally form positive neural connections and a strong sense of self. At the heart of Counselling is the creation of a deep therapeutic connection.
Where we are failed, where we are left fearful, our assumptions are that life is unsafe, that we are clearly not worth being cared for or about. There is no ability to believe in connection or our own meaning.
This is why The Cheltenham Centre for Trauma Therapy exists: to bring meaning where there is none; to create worth for those who feel worthless; to create a sense of self for those who feel they do not exist.