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Gestalt Counselling & Psychotherapy
The method of counselling I offer is called Gestalt, a profoundly relational and embodied form of humanistic therapy. By emphasising awareness as the driving force of change, Gestalt encourages us to see ourselves not as separate entities, but in relationship to other people, environment, and our hopes and fears.
In our sessions, we work together in a curious, kind way to increase awareness, take action, and live with more fulfilment. Through this understanding rooted in experience, there's the opportunity to develop more self-trust to create the conditions for a more authentic and enriched life.
About me
I'm Charlene McAuley, an Advanced Trainee Gestalt Psychotherapist in Training (GPTI & UKCP) in the UK. Having completed the four year core training at the internationally well regarded Manchester Gestalt Centre, I am now working towards UKCP accreditation. I am also a Senior Yoga Teacher, Embodiment practitioner with training in Body, Mind Centering, and a Meditation guide. I have a BA in Journalism and Politics, and an MA in International Relations and Globalisation.
I was introduced to Gestalt by my Yoga teacher during a month long Yoga intensive in Rishikesh, India, 2013. I was struck by the immediacy of the exercise we were doing, how I felt so alive with sensation and insight as I moved with my co-participant. Everything felt like technicolour. To this day, I remember clearly how this made me feel. Soon after returning, I began therapy with a Gestalt psychotherapist. Over the course of 10 years, alongside Yoga and Embodied movement practices, Gestalt has been a prominent part of understanding, accepting and being in the world; learning in what ways I can be automatic and stuck, and how I can find the resources within and the support around me to take risks for growth and closer relationships.
In our sessions, I work with you to explore what has brought you to counselling. This may be:
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anxious feelings
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consistent low mood
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feeling stuck
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upsetting behaviours
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problematic relationships
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ambivalence about life choices
I provide therapy online and in-person counselling sessions in Graz, both offered on a sliding scale dependent upon income between £35 (€45) to £50 (€55).
Want to know more about Gestalt? Read below. Ready to get in touch? Feel free to send an email to hello@sensesbeyond.com
'Mr Duffy lived a short distance from his body', so said James Joyce.
I love this quote because it sums up how many of us can experience life: thinking, narrating, feeling like a shell with excessive thoughts. Sometimes overwhelm can push us back into the body with such unexpected force that we're stunned by the noise and signals within. "How did it get to this?", is often asked. Gestalt counselling is a way to slow down, and return to the wisdom of the mind-body as one.
The touchstone of Gestalt Therapy is the here and now, how we're relating to the past in this moment, how we're relating to the future in this moment and what this means here and now.
Experiencing and trying new things out is a big part of Gestalt because it isn't through abstract thinking and talking about that we experience change, but in doing. With a gentle, accepting attitude for however the experience unfolds, there's a tangible way to embody the dilemma at hand to gain a new perspective.
With Gestalt, there's the opportunity to increase our presence, a vital ingredient for learning how to be grounded, and with this, we can also learn to take compassionate self-responsibility.
Empowered is an overused term, but with this emphasis on awareness, presence, and self-responsibility, we have the potential to empower ourselves to make change. We do this not by only theorising, but by noticing how we are and taking action. Gestalt is a method of inhabiting our lived experience so we can live more fully.
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