Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapy provides a large range of practical and concrete tools of intervention. It allows an efficient resolution of present and past issues with the active participation of the patient in the treatment.
The focus is set on the interpretation that the person has of the situations that he/she meets and on the subsequent emotional impact. With the realization of the link between thoughts, emotions and behaviors, as well as the core beliefs that maintain the issue, the person will progressively diminish his/her sufferings and find a greater inner freedom.
Therapeutic approach specialised in the liberation of traumas, developed about twenty years ago, particularly recommended to liberate oneself from sufferings related to a simple trauma (car accident e.g.) or complex trauma (child abuse e.g.). Besides PTSD, this approach can help in a great number of pathologies, such as phobias, pathological bereavement or anxiety.
This approach is based on the theoretical model of the adaptative treatment of the information: a great number of pathologies comes from traumatic events, stocked in a dysfunctional manner in the lymbic system. These experiences, printed mainly during the early years of life and non integrated in the nervous system, influence the beliefs, interpretations and behaviors of the person.
Based on a strict protocol, the psychotherapist allows the patient to re-live and rapidly change the emotional charge of the trauma. The memory, being integrated in the nervous system, allows the person to go back to his/her memory without any painful emotional charge.
The practice of Mindfulness stems from Buddhist tradition and fits naturally into psychotherapy. The state of Mindfulness consists in living each moment fully in a non-judgmental state by simply observing the internal events (thoughts, sensations,...) and external events (any situation that we come across) just as they appear in the consciousness.
During the session, the person learns to perceive his/her operating system while in "automatic mode" and to progressively get out of it through meditation and with the contribution of mindfulness in every moments of the daily life.
Mindfulness can be regarded as a technique to better handle stress or emotions but it is mainly an "art de vivre" that brings to the person that practices regularly the feeling of being fully responsible for his/her life.
EFT is a combination of tools originating from different psychotherapeutical branches (CBT, Gestalt, Focusing, Hypnosis, EMDR). A noticeable difference is brought to this approach in the resolution of emotional issues: the energetic aspect of the human being.
EFT is part of a new wave in the field of psychotherapy: the Energy Psychology that bears witness to the intelligent merging of occidental and oriental therapeutic approaches.
By associating the guidance of the psychotherapist with the release of the Energy via the tapping on specific acupuncture points of the body, the emotional suffering of the person rapidly and durably gives way to a state of serenity.
The techniques of cognitive defusion aim at modifying the attitude which we have with regard to our thoughts, our images and our internal movies rather than to try to modify their contents.
During states of stress, anxiety or depression, we allow ourselves to be drawn into a tendency to take the thoughts as absolute truths. This habit constitutes an important factor of maintenance of the psychological disorders. The mental experience taking more and more place on the directly accessible experience by the five senses.
The techniques of defusion consist then in getting loose from its thoughts by observing them without passion, that is by reducing them to their quality of thoughts (" I am hopeless. "Vs" I have the thought that I am hopeless. ").
The result of the defusion is usually a decrease of the credibility of these thoughts or beliefs and the power of the latter.
Hypnosis is a work on the modified states of consciousness allowing to reconnect in the deep resources of the unconscious. This approach groups a set of techniques (visualization, relaxation, breathing, age regressions, suggestions etc.) bringing to a restructuring and a reconnection to oneself.
Among the various techniques, the Regression in Age is a particularly effective tool to look after " the inner child " and develop the benevolence to oneself.
Dissociative disorders are quite frequent in the psychotherapeutical settings but are still underdiagnosed. These disorders are mainly related to traumatic events in childhood : abandonment, physical, emotional and/or psychological mistreatment, negligence etc.
The person often feels somatic problems in parallel of her psychological pain and can use self-agressive behaviors (self-mutilation for instance).
Two theories allows us to understand well the dissociative disorders :
The theory of structural dissociation of personality (Pierre Janet) suggests the idea that a trauma generates a fragmentation of the personality in different dissociative parts when the integrative abilities are not suffisant. The traumatic experiences are then contained by one or different dissociative parts that are frozen in these experiences and that can become more and more autonomous. The work of the patient will be to overtake progressively the avoidances put in place by the person to achieve integration of the personality through synthesis and realisation.
The ego state therapy, suggested by Federn then by Watkins and Watkins, relies on psychoanalitical notions, on the concept of dissociation from Janet and on hypnotherapy. This theory also suggests a model based on the multiplicity of the human psyche.
Sexuality is a human experience that stands in the crossroad of different dimensions. A positive and fulfilling sexuality is a source of joy and pleasure. But, according to one's history, beliefs, vulnerabilities, traumas etc., sexuality can also become a source of pain for oneself and/or the couple.
Sexoloy allows to approach any problematic that is related to sexuality and intimacy that triggers a personal or relational suffering.
The problematics that are approached in sexology are :
PAP or psychotherapy assisted by psychedelics (MDMA, Psylocybin, LSD etc): taking psychedelics (or entheogens) to explore one's psyche dates back several thousand years in different regions of the world. In the West, it was in the 1950s that their use in psychotherapy was important until the 1970s, at the instigation of Nixon, when their use had to cease completely. We have been witnessing since the 2000s what is described as a renaissance of psychedelics in the field of psychotherapy. Considered as extremely effective therapies for post-traumatic stress, addictions, depression and anxiety disorders, these therapies are currently only possible when carried out by psychiatrists and under very specific conditions in Switzerland. Not having the legal right to prescribe a substance, I can nevertheless offer you a non-judgmental space for sharing your experience, whether it was positive or difficult (“bad trip”)