curiosity, dialogue, creativity
Gestalt psychotherapy in Dublin city centre
Welcome, and thank you for visiting.
My name is Jennifer and I work as a relational gestalt psychotherapist, with individual adults (18+). I offer both short-term focussed contracts and longer contracts, working with each client to decide what will be most useful to them. Starting out, my interest is in what each client wishes to gain from investing in psychotherapy.
We all experience times of difficulty in our lives. Relational gestalt psychotherapy explores how we each make sense of our experiences, both through our relationships outside the therapy room and the unique therapeutic relationship we form together.
Gestalt psychotherapy aims to raise awareness of our relationships and how we live our lives, through exploring how we make sense of our current situation. This is achieved through dialogue which focusses on what we are noticing in the here-and-now.
Each client is unique and so each therapeutic relationship is different. The aim of raising awareness is to raise choice, in a supportive environment.
Trained at Metanoia Institute in London and awarded an MSc Gestalt Psychotherapy through Middlesex University.
Member of the Irish Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP) and the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).
Currently working as an Assistant Tutor in the Gestalt faculty of Metanoia Institute.
How I Work
I trust that most of us have the ability to make rewarding contact with others and lead satisfying and creative lives, yet sometimes we get stuck when fixed patterns and beliefs about ourselves get in the way.
Practicing relational gestalt therapy means working collaboratively with clients, to explore patterns in their life and significant relationships. Taking an embodied approach, I seek to stay with my own and my clients' felt sense of the present moment. Maintaining sensitivity to my own physically felt experience, I'm interested in how we live as our bodies, making sense of our world in an embodied way.
This approach can be especially helpful in exploring times when clients become dysregulated. My approach to working with clients who have experienced traumatic events is to explore how our nervous systems work. I understand the shame processes which often accompany these safety-seeking responses.
Rather than being interpretive, I seek to meet clients with an open mind, remaining curious about their unfolding experience. A process focus explores *how* things are happening, rather than focussing on the content of *what* has happened / could happen or *why*. My faith in dialogue means attending to what emerges in the therapeutic relationship, even when this might sometimes feel difficult. To foster a relationship of mutual trust, I take an open and honest approach, which sometimes includes the sharing of my own experience, when I believe this could be helpful.
Dialogue encompasses how we are with each other, often past the spoken word. We might communicate through silence, or tracking our embodied experience, or mark making. Experimenting creatively in our therapy space allows clients to explore their experience; seeing what happens when we try something new can be transformative. I am here to support your process and to explore what meaning you create.
What can gestalt psychotherapy help with?
People come to me for support with a wide range of issues. Here are a few of the more common difficulties that can be supported through psychotherapy:
Exploring anxiety processes
Relationship problems
Grief, loss or bereavement
Trauma and post-traumatic stress
Abuse
Depression
Problems with confidence or self-esteem
Anger management
Issues relating to sexuality
Difficulties at work or in retirement
Problems with family or school life
Addiction and codependency
Fees & Availability
I work on a weekly basis with clients, as this is the most effective way to promote therapeutic change. I seek a commitment from clients to our weekly slot.
Sessions last fifty minutes and I charge €70 per session. I offer a limited number of reduced rate sessions, please ask when getting in touch, if you are financially constrained. I’m an accredited psychotherapist, so the major insurance companies accept claims.
I’m experienced working with clients on brief therapeutic contracts (3 - 12 sessions) and longer-term contracts; this is negotiated and depends on the individual needs of each client.
Getting in touch
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about how gestalt psychotherapy works, or to arrange an initial assessment appointment. You can also call me on 089 256 7525 if you would prefer to leave a message or speak to me first.
I work from private offices located in Dublin Gestalt Centre in Leeson Street Lower, Dublin 2.
© Jennifer Connolly
powered by WebHealer