Paola | MNZAC Counsellor, NZQA Master in Clinical Psychology, EMDR Certified Practitioner

Registrations

• ACC - ACC Registered Counsellor / Provider
• EMDRNZ - The NZ Association For EMDR Therapists
• NZAC - New Zealand Association of Counsellors

I offer therapy in

• ✓ English
• ✓ Italian

• ✓ French
• ✓ Spanish

Specialisations

I provide a safe and highly specialised environment where to navigate the tides of your personal therapeutic evolution. In therapy, change comes in waves and when working with us, clients report experiencing a soothing and safe way to cruise those important changes in their life.

I provide therapy for anxiety, depression, grief, ADHD and other Neurodiversities, and a vast array of mental health conditions. We also specialise in Trauma Therapy.

Psychological trauma was originally considered to be an experience out of the standards of common life. But as evidence has accumulated, it has become clear that a majority of adults and an important minority of children are exposed to traumatic events in their life.

Trauma can cause changes in emotions, mind, body, and relationships. Depending on its severity, trauma can include experiences of dissociation, emotional dysregulation, somatic distress, relational and/or spiritual isolation, challenges on the level of self-development, and a relevant alteration of attachment patterns. Trauma can also imply a fundamental sense of betrayal, generated by the break of trust in early relationships, when that break could have been perpetrated by someone close to the victim.

My task as a  therapist is to establish safety for the therapeutic work to be effective. Coming to terms with the trauma story must await the development of a secure base in the present from which the past can be safely approached. Once that base is established, the client can then come to terms with his/her own trauma story. Finally, the client accesses the ability to repair and imrpove his/her own sense of inner and outer connection.

Acknowledging the trauma and naming its consequences begins the process of meaning making. Clients come to understand that their symptoms make sense in the context of what they have endured.

At Therapy Tides we give priority to a strengths and reesilience-based philosophy of personal empowerment and self-determination. I  seek to understand the individual’s unique experience, its specific meaning and the relationship to symptoms, distress, and therapeutic goals. Clients have authority over the meaning and interpretation of their personal life history, needs, preferences, and goals for the future.

I'm  an active, empathic, and responsive listener who guides to enable clients to express openly, analyse, and therapeutically work through feelings of confusion, shame, or other emotions that have been suppressed or forbidden. I create the relational conditions in which clients are emotionally validated and feel “seen” and appreciated.

The working alliance with clients of each gender and different ethnocultural, socioeconomic, geographic, and other backgrounds allowsme to approach the therapeutic work in a culturally competent manner, and through a secure and well-bounded connection.

The repair and restoration of clients’ adaptive self-development is not a general “feel

good” sensation; rather, it is the result of a very delicate, deliberate, precise, and mindful

intervention. There is a sacred trust that is established in the theraputic process that requires the extraordinary mental, emotional, spiritual, and ethical dedication from both therapist and client.

Most common issues I support people with:

The benefits of working with me could include:

• psychological safety and stability;

• enhanced self-esteem and trust;

• reduced severity of PTSD symptoms;

• reestablishment of normal stress response;

• deconditioning of anxiety/fear;

• processing of emotions and traumatic memories;

• recovery from comorbid problems;

• maintained or improved adaptive functioning and social relationships;

• reengagement in life;

• enhanced social support;

• development of a relapse prevention plan;

• overcoming developmental deficits;

• acquiring skills for emotion experiencing, expression, and self-regulation;

• restoring or developing a capacity for secure, organized relational attachments;

• enhancing personality integration and recovery of dissociated emotion and knowledge;

• restoring or acquiring personal authority over the remembering process;

• enhancing physical health.

If any of the above speaks to your heart,

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Fees

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