I would like to invite you to a safe space of a co-created relationship, where you can talk without being judged, make meaning of what you have been going through, and co-discover this meaning in free association. Creative counselling acknowledges the unity of body, mind and spirit, and is aimed at improving your overall health and well-being.

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Creative counselling appreciates your whole self, helps you express inexpressible and contributes to:

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• becoming healthier

• coping with your stress related issues and traumatic experiences

• improving your sleep

• connecting your body and mind, thoughts and feelings

• being more and doing less, escaping the hamster wheel

• becoming aware of your destructive automatic responses to distress and developing new ways to respond

• enriching your self-expression 

• developing your self-esteem

• regaining interest in life and the ability to experience pleasure

• understanding suppressed parts of your personality and relationships patterns 

• identifying and resolving the underlying issues 

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Healing power of expressive arts can help you in connecting the external and internal worlds of your personality into a whole. As American psychoanalyst Dr. Nancy McWilliams put it, therapy is an art. 

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I have been engaged in expressive arts since the 80s. I was a stage director and an actor in a theatre and have been practicing Cuban, African and Afro-Cuban dances for over 20 years along with Qigong, yoga and modern dance. This resulted in the research on dance and well-being I did at the University of Derby, UK. I apply research findings and specific interventions, which I have been developing throughout my experience as researcher and practitioner of expressive arts. I also use visualisation along with therapeutic writing interventions that grew out of my experience in writing poetry and prose. I love visual arts and am interested in art history. I particularly focus on the sensory opening activities, developing and enhancing embodied self-awareness, which is pivotal in treatment and prevention of many mental health issues and traumatic experiences. 

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Talking about interventions, though, Dr. McWilliams pointedly stresses that therapy is a healing relationship in the first place, and not a set of techniques. 

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On the one hand, I use gestalt, which is an experiential, holistic and relational as well as a profoundly embodied approach. Gestalt is a German word for the sum of parts that makes a whole, and the approach was applied to psychotherapy in the 20th century. You are accepted non-judgmentally in an equal relationship and the interaction is focused on the here-and-now. You are seen in your totality of body, mind and spirit, along with your environment. Gestalt approach emphasises having an embodied presence and increasing awareness of what is being experienced in the moment. It often leads to stunning and helpful insights.

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On the other hand, I am psychoanalytically informed and involve unconscious mind to assess how unresolved dynamics from the past may impact your present. According to the Academy for the Psychoanalytic Arts, psychoanalysis is "a collaborative inquiry, the purpose of which is to further self-discovery and contribute to the greater understanding of one's self, relationships, and life". In in-depth conversations, we will explore your emotions, feelings, relationships, fantasies that constitute your life story to understand possible root issues, which are important to identify in order to change a destructive dominant pattern and develop a new way to respond to yourself. Psychoanalysis and related therapy help free you from the fetters of past experience to live more fully in the present (Shedler, 2010).

 

"Psychoanalysis sets the human being in motion rather than at rest," wrote Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher and phenomenologist. I warmly invite you to the slow motion of your self-exploration and growth. Therapeutic relationship, developed together with you gradually, is what unites meaningful therapeutic approaches as the key healing factor. In following diverse concepts and rejecting a dogmatic way, I engage in this unique relationship and involve what is the best for you in your particular case and situation, and approach you as a whole person. 

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What not to expect:

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• that ​I will make you happy: it is therapeutic relationship that contributes to the psychic integration or becoming a whole, balanced person. This is what constitutes healing and fulfilment, and thus happiness, as Greek philosophers and contemporary psychoanalysts describe this subjective state of well-being (Lear, 2015). 

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• that I will push you to achieve an enforced change: paraphrasing Carl Rogers, a humanistic psychologist, change cannot occur by trying harder to be something different, but by becoming more of who you are. When we become aware of and accept ourselves as we are, change happens naturally.

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• that I will follow any kind of a hype: the waves of the flood of pop psychology and self-help books seldom wash something serious and valuable ashore.

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• that I will fix you: psychological counselling is not about fixing one-off issues nor is it just a way to solve a problem. It is rather about a deeper understanding of yourself, of what can and cannot be changed, and accepting the latter: this means growing (McWilliams, 1999). You are developing throughout your life as a human being, and psychological counselling helps you in developing and growing. 

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Please reach out to me via phone +41 78 910 25 73 or email nb@psycounselling.com. I look forward to talking to you. 

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I am in full-time private practice in Switzerland, registered to provide psychological counselling for private clients. I have a lot of experience in working online with diverse individuals from around the world, and work in English, German, Russian and Ukrainian. 

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I am engaging in continuing professional education and supervision, and am a professional member in good standing of Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) along with American Counseling Association (ACA). Besides, I am a member of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP) and The British Psychological Society (BPS, MBPsS). I am CISM Certified (Critical Incident Stress Management) by the ICISF and University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and trained by the ICISF in assisting individuals in crisis and group crisis interventions.