Blog

From working with resistance to understanding the role of integration, therapy and yoga have much to say to each other. In the third part of her series on yoga for ‘talk therapists’, Counselling Psychologist and former yoga teacher Cleandra Waldron shares how yoga has helped her reflect on the function and goals of therapy, the common threads of human distress, the ‘extraordinary powers’ of trauma survivors – and the ‘permission’ from which all therapy clients can benefit.

For many therapy clients, and practitioners too, finding five minutes a day for a mindfulness practice can seem like an impossible task. Counselling Psychologist and former meditation teacher Cleandra Waldron explores why this might be, and shares her approach to introducing mindfulness in sessions – including compassionate understanding, a trauma-informed lens, and the no-nonsense metaphor that can help keen and curious clients to commit.

When does stuckness give way to change in therapy? How does a resisting client become a working partner? The key, of course, lies not in exerting pressure but rather in exploring the cost of old patterns and empowering a sense of choice. Susan Warren Warshow, psychotherapist, author and founder of Dynamic Emotion Focused Therapy, reflects on the painful intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of repressing feelings – and how identifying these with compassion can help our clients leverage their healthy internal force.