For those who have never seen a psychotherapist or counselor, or don’t know what to expect from someone who does “energy psychotherapy” (whatever that is…!) the prospect of starting can feel intimidating. Here’s how it works in my practice.
Our first contact is usually with an email, where you let me know that you’re interested, wonder if I can be helpful, get your questions asked and answered, and set up a first appointment. I don’t like paperwork, so there are no lengthy questionnaires to fill out. When we meet, I’ll get contact information (I should already have email, and so cell phone number is helpful).
My office is in the Acupuncture Healing Center, Carmela Mager’s clinic in Chapel Hill, NC, and she likes people to take off their shoes at the door to keep the sound soft and quiet. There is a waiting room right there, where I will come and get you.
The cliched version of psychotherapy is of someone lying on a couch with the therapist/analyst behind them, taking notes, their face a blank screen, asking the client every five seconds, “How does that make you feel?” So awful. No, I don’t do that. For one thing, no one “makes you feel” anything, but that’s another blog.
We have a conversation. You tell me what’s been going on, what you’re feeling stuck or frustrated with, and I tell you how I think I can be helpful. We figure it out together. We come up with a plan. It’s interactive. I assume you are an adult with gifts and strengths and skills and intelligence. You will have your own way of reconnecting with those resources, and as I see it, my job is to help remove whatever is in the way of your doing that.
I have to tell you straight out that I am not a mainstream kind of gal. I am, actually, quite good at what I do, but I’m not traditional, as you can tell by the methods I use. My language can be..let’s say, “colorful” (not around kids — I’ve raised two, and know how to curb it). I welcome quirkiness, weirdness, the scary things, the things we’re terrified to admit. It’s all good with me.
As for incorporating the energy psychotherapy — we talk, I look for stuck places or energetic patterns (we’ll talk about those) and I’ll teach you some techniques that help clear them. So we talk, we clear, we talk, we clear. It’s very dynamic, lots happens. Most of the time, people feel a lot better after each session. Occasionally stuff gets stirred up that we don’t have time to clear enough of to experience relief, but honestly, that’s rare.
We might decide that neurofeedback would be beneficial, or not. I like to do everyone’s Human Design chart, because it is so incredibly helpful to understand how you are wired so that I can know how to be specifically helpful in supporting you being you — not how society or your mother thinks you should be, but how you really truly, and gloriously are.
At the end of the session, you pay me, I give you something to file insurance with if you want, and we’ll set up another time to meet, if that feels right. And then you leave, knowing that you’re giving yourself the opportunity to free yourself from whatever has been holding you back, that you’re on your way to the life you’ve wanted to live, and that you had the courage to take that first courageous step!
I look forward to talking with you!
Martha
