Our vision is to offer quality, effective and integrated psychotherapies influenced by both traditional and contemporary thinkers to individuals, and couples, in Melbourne. Contemporary therapists know that making sense of our life history changes our relationships with others and ourselves. Research has also shown that the best indicator of a child's emotional health is in how their parent made sense of their story.

It's been a life mission to create a like-minded therapeutic space for psychotherapists and a safe therapeutic environment for people interested in exploring what motivates them and the role the body can play in psychological growth and transformation. A deeply held vision for less suffering, and greater unity, in the world is at the work's core.

"... we come to resonate with one another. The whole we create together is truly larger than our individual identities. We feel this resonance as a palpable sense of connection and aliveness. This is what happens when our minds meet..."
Dr Daniel J Siegel, MD

My first formal psychological study was in the field of trauma whilst writing a master's thesis in 2004. I was naturally curious about what happens to the psyche when negative experiences repeatedly occur outside ones control. When a human being is totally helpless. I found, consistent with research at the time, that childhood trauma negatively impacts how we view others and ourselves later in life. The journey then took me to working with families suffering, deep, multigenerational trauma. Change happened in very small windows.

Over the past decade I have trained in psychodynamic theories, infant and child development, Jungian mind, body and soul work, trauma therapy and the meditative practices of Zen and Yoga. More recently I've exposed myself to the contemporary leaders of our trauma field and absorbed the 'new' wave of research/clinical interest in consciousness integration and body-centred psychotherapy. Needless to say, these are not new ideas. It helps me to think that each generation digests past wisdom, adds current research findings and presents a 'contemporary' map for navigating human health and healing.

As it's unfolded, the cultivation of calm in mind and body has become my life's work. We know that a felt sense of calm, or the lack of, is directly associated with the hyper and hypo arousal states our autonomic nervous system activate to cope/survive experiences like: child abuse and neglect, growing up in families affected by alcoholism or violence, being bullied at school or work, the affects of active addition, the sudden death of a close friend or relative, change because our partner leaves us, or our work has lost direction or we're transitioning to a new stage of life. Many clients walk into my rooms literally burnt out in mind and body from decades of living on adrenalin and stress. The other extreme might be feeling a chronic sense of flatness and/or disconnection. Or we may oscillate between the two. Our aim is to discover, and continually rediscover, our optimal arousal zone - that sweet spot where we can think and feel clearly and simultaneously. Eastern Contemplative Traditions have known for more than 2,500 years that awareness of breath and body sensations calms our nervous system, which helps us connect with thoughts and feelings from a more contained, safe place within.

Experience in the Now is being absolutely in my body in primal sensation in conscious awareness listening from the inside. This is my work – this is my living.

ADULT PSYCHOTHERAPY

I see therapy as a collaborative journey, where together we find creative and novel ways to deal with old, stuck, patterns.

My view of symptoms is they reflect how we have tried to adapt – depressions protect us from hurt and disappointment, spacing out helps us feel less overwhelmed and worry helps us feel more in control. I draw from, and integrate, different schools of thought – psychoanalytic psychotherapy, structural dissociation, sensorimotor psychotherapy, trauma-sensitive yoga, internal family systems and attachment theory.

Since every client's adaptation to their life experience is unique to them I like to, together, create a therapeutic map that fits with already known strengths and other parts that might be available for change. My commitment is to bring an attentive, curious and embodied presence to the therapeutic relationship.

"I can give you nothing that has not already its origins with yourself. I can throw open no picture gallery but your own. I can help make your own world visible – that is all."
Herman Hesse

Ron Kurtz (1992), the founder of Hakomi Therapy, offers therapeutic principles that have become the building blocks for both the work and my own personal life -

Organicity: The belief that we all have the inherent capacity to grow, heal and change. We honor this principle by acknowledging the inborn intelligence and wisdom of the body.

Non-Violence (change without force): Holds a non-judgemental attitude, a compassionate heart and an awareness of our needs in relationships.

Mind-Body Holism: Mind and body influence one another. They interact. 

Unity: Holds that we are all interconnected and part of a unified whole. 

A model of Trauma

When faced with perceived or imagined danger the brain automatically turns on an adrenaline stress system  – our thinking brain shuts down and we go into survival mode. Sometimes we can put this experience behind us. Other times, if the experiences have been repetitive, we can be left with intense symptoms that tell our story without words and without the understanding that we are remembering events and feelings from long ago. The activation of survival response can also become a habit, for example withdrawing or hiding may have originally been adaptive but later in life it may contribute to excessive isolation and sadness.

The Structural Dissociation Model (Van der Hart, 2006) helps us identify and work with different parts of the psyche that had a particular job to do in order to survive. Honoring the different, and sometimes conflicted, parts in a nonjudgmental way can help integration and healing. 

Internal Family Systems, developed by Richard Schwartz in the early 1990's, is rooted in the assumption that symptoms and unresolved issues reflect disowned and unintegrated parts of the self. This assumption of inherent multiplicity is helpful to trauma survivors baffled by the paradoxical symptoms with which they struggle, while it's mindful pace creates a feeling of safety.

"No matter what modality we use, the goal of trauma therapy is finally to 'here' and not 'there'"
Bessel van der Kolk, M.D

Sensorimotor psychotherapy

Sensorimotor psychotherapy, developed by Pat Odgen PhD, focuses on the way the body holds emotional and traumatic memory and learning new ways to release stress and anxiety. Easily integrated into traditional talk therapies, the therapy utilises mindfulness techniques to facilitate resolution of trauma-related habitual body responses first before attempting to re-work emotional responses and meaning-making.

For further information www.sensorimotorpsychotherapy.org

"No ray of sunlight is ever lost, but the green which it wakes into existence needs time to sprout, and it is not always granted the power to live to see the harvest. All work that is worth anything is done in faith"
Albert Schweitzer

Caroline Browne
Suite 208 Level 2
122 Toorak Road, South Yarra
Victoria 3141

Telephone 03 9804 5000
 

BRAND MARK

(Designed by RoscherCreative)

The well-known Rorschach Inkblot Test inspired the Caroline Browne brand mark. The pattern the inkbot makes is mandala like in shape, which taps into Caroline's use of Eastern philosophies and methods in her approach to therapy. The inkblot is the coming together of two faces, two profiles. This speaks both of the collaboration of client and therapist and also the layered nature of the human psyche. The colours, from the magenta bottom to red heart centre, stretch up to the enlightened gold. The shape is uplifting and suggests progress and evolution.

It is an inkblot test.

So what do you see?