Welcome

Therapy & counselling for adults, young people and children: compassionate, client-led approach combined with evidence-based interventions. Online and in-person in Basel, Switzerland. English, French, Spanish, German.

My approach

I am a gpk-registered art therapist. I offer possibilities for talking, moving and/or creativity in therapy to adults, young people and children. I also offer EMDR.

My theoretical orientation is broadly psychodynamic phenomenological (experience-focused) and systemic in the context of an embodied approach.

As for all trained and registered art therapists, I work with a wide range of issues. I have a special interest and additional experience in: neuroaffirmative therapy for ADHD/AuDHD, autistic, PDA individuals, complex trauma & medically unexplained symptoms.

Dance movement therapy sits at the ‘crossroads’ of creative arts and somatic therapies and art and science (Tantia, 2013; Payne et al., 2016).  The therapeutic action of creative arts therapies has been explained by reference to models derived from verbal psychotherapy (Johnson, 1998). For more on this approach please see:

Johnson, D. (1998). On the therapeutic action of the creative arts therapies: the psychodynamic model. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 25,2, 85:99.

Payne, H., Warnecke, T., Karkou, V. & Westland, G. (2016). A comparative analysis of body psychotherapy and dance movement psychotherapy from a European perspective. Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, 11:2-3, 144-166, DOI: 10.1080/17432979.2016.1165291

Röhricht, F. (2014). The state of the art in body psychotherapy. In About the science of body psychotherapy, ed. C. Young, USA: Body Psychotherapy Publications.

Tantia, J. (2014). Mindfulness and Dance/Movement Therapy for treating trauma. Mindfulness and the Arts Therapies, Laury Rappaport, (Ed). 2014. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley.  

Tantia, J. (2015). The interface between somatic psychotherapy and dance/movement therapy: a critical analysis. Body Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, DOI: 10.1080/17432979.2015.1109549.

gpk-registered art therapist

EMDR

movement therapist

Image: a photo of gold and pale blue silk pattern

A close-up photo of a silk and paint pattern with colours of gold and pale blue.

Qualifications

*The above lists formal training and accreditation. The below are modalities listed I have experienced personally, been influenced by, or trained in, that shape my approach to therapy.

 

. . . it becomes necessary to understand the lived experience of the body in the world as never politically neutral

- Professor Rae Johnson

  • Survivor/professional Carolyn Spring uses lived experience and training to deliver online and in-person training to survivors and professionals on recovering from abuse, shame, suicidal ideation/behaviour and trauma (including DID).

  • Encounter-centered Couples Transformation® is an integrative and interdisciplinary model for relationship building created by Hedy Schleifer. Its approach incorporates the philosophy of Martin Buber, Imago relationship theory, Appreciative Inquiry and relational neurobiology.

    For Hedy “relational intelligence puts partners on the path to relational maturity and is at the core of having successful relationships both personally and professionally.”

    https://www.terrywein.com/therapy

  • Drawing on my work with survivors of torture and ill-treatment at Amnesty International, the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and elsewhere, and the work of Dance Movement Therapy pioneers Dr Amber Gray and Dr Kim Dunphy, who have defined this model in recent years. Human Rights Therapy is informed by the experiences of survivors of torture and mass human rights violations and transitional justice, and other fields at the intersection of healing and justice that value the healing, cultural and political benefits of survivor-affirmative testimonial practice. Human Rights Therapy does not separate counselling and psychotherapy from advocacy. It calls for therapists to be informed about the legal, economic and political realities facing their clients and for awareness of the client’s orientation, culture and values, and therapist’s own bias, towards ego-centric or socio-centric models of self and being. It critically examines power within and outside the therapeutic relationship.

  • Polyvagal-informed Dance/Movement Therapy is the approach developed by Dr Amber Gray, the dance therapist who has collaborated, shared ideas with and taught with Professor Stephen Porges for many years.

    For Amber, “Polyvagal-informed DMT is a humanitarian approach based on the universality of our physiology to working with dance, movement and rhythm that is helpful for children and adults, as well as individual and group psychotherapy or work. The core of this work is breath, sound, and movement as a direct access to regulate the nervous system following traumatic exposure. …”

    In Restorative Movement Psychotherapy (RMP), Dr Gray integrates “Polyvagal Theory, movement as primary language, dance as creative expression, with mindfulness and arts based therapies. This holistic approach focuses on the creative process and embodiment as focal to the restorative process. This psychotherapeutic practice does not focus solely on somatic awareness or theory; the contemplative and indigenous influences enhance clinical intuition, deep listening, embodiment and creativity in therapeutic and healing practices. RMP does not shy away from the power of the human spirit in healing.”

  • For Maria Rivera, "… Afro-Caribbean dance provides access to four levels of empowerment: The Self-Body Power, The Collective Power, The Socio-Political Power, and the Spiritual Power... Within Afro-Caribbean dance traditions, symbolic imagery is evoked by the embodiment of forces of nature, or themes of struggle, revolution, liberation, pride, and celebration... By making the commitment to understand how social and political systems influence our clients’ life, then we begin advocating for a culture of visibility, inclusion, and equality." - Maria E. Rivera, MS, MA, BC-DMT, LCAT

    My personal experience of Afro-Caribbean healing dance comes from living and working in Kingston, Johannesburg and South London.

  • Lundy Bancroft on domestic violence and abuse

    The Freedom programme

    Jude Mills, Helen Knowles, and the Conspirituality Podcast on spiritual abuse.

  • Jenny Pearson, a Jungian psychoanalytic psychotherapist trained in the Sesame method for Jungian drama therapy.

    Patricia de Young’s pioneering work on understanding and treating chronic shame.

  • ‘Parts’ work is an approach that includes Internal Family Systems (Richard Schwartz), Gestalt therapy (Fritz Perls), and the Structural Dissociation Model for clients with dissociative disorders and post traumatic stress. It seeks, in different ways, to uncover and address conflicts between different ‘parts’ if you; the part that wishes to heal, for example, and that which feels stuck and unable to change. Experienced and trained with Leslie Potter for application in the context of parenting.

  • Professor Sabine Koch, foremost DMT scholar researching phenomenological approaches to embodiment and serious mental illness, in collaboration with Professor Thomas Fuchs.

    The Moving Cycle originated from award-winning author and founder of the somatic psychotherapy department at Naropa University, Professor Christine Caldwell. It is a body psychotherapy approach that originated from Professor Caldwell’s intuition of the need to find more effective ways to approach, and work with, those hospitalised for serious mental illness, that is based on her premise that supporting the body’s natural adaptive movement promotes healing. As such, the role of the therapist is to act as midwife, to support the restoration of the client’s bodily authority.

    Gendlin & felt sense experiencing

    Core Process Psychotherapy

  • adrienne maree brown - the work of Black feminist author, doula and activist emphasises the importance of drawing on emotional and erotic energy, hope and love to challenge oppression and despair.

    The Nap Ministry - Tricia Hersey’s work on rest as a spiritual and social justice practice, and a form of reparations for Black women, based on the principles of Black Liberation Theology, Afrofuturism, Womanism, somatics, and communal care.

  • Pat Ogden’s method for working with the body’s natural intelligence.

  • Dr Peter Schindler

  • Bria Campbell’s approach using experiential learning and DMT to work with PTSS (Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome).

    Guilaine Kinouani and Race Reflections.

    Radical Therapist Network

    Gillian Schutte

    Resmaa Menakem, who created somatic abolitionism as an individual and collective practice to dismantle white supremacy and racism.

  • Professor Christine Caldwell and Professor Rae Johnson is a scholar and therapist at the forefront of embodiment and social justice action. They have researched everyday embodied experiences of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism. Their models for research and practice incorporate the lived experience of the body and focus on learning.

 
 

  • Theravada and Emoyeni Retreat Centre. Rolf Gates.

  • NARM is a model for understanding attachment, relational and developmental trauma.

    Allan Schore, Daniel Stern (vitality affects), Daniel Siegel, Ed Tronick, Sue Johnson.

  • Description text goes here

  • All dancers I have trained, worked, created and performed with (release, Cunningham, Limon, Horton, ballet, dancehall, flamenco, salsa, tango, Hip Hop, jazz). Gratitude to all, especially Jorge Garcia Perez, Catherine Habasque, Chris Lechner, Eve Neeracher, Kevin Richmond, Marc Rosenkranz, Stuart Thomas.

  • Dr Cathy Malchiodi

    Shaun McNiff (arts-based research) - see ‘How art heals: integrating practice and research’.

    Dr Jennifer Tantia

    Eve Neeracher

  • Those questioning and naming iatrogenic trauma and diagnosis and asking us to question our current understanding of mental distress.

    Dr Jay Watts on EUPD/BPD.

    Dr Ahmed Hankir on Muslim mental healthcare, dual identities and lived experience within mental health care.

    Power meaning threat framework.

  • Pete Wharmy, autistic speaker and writer

    Association of neurodivergent therapists ANDT

    Neurodivergent rebel

    Dr Ed Hallowell

 
 

Wisdom and awareness is a collective experience. It is not a unitary experience.

— Maura Sills

Working Together