Are you
tired of
spending time in therapy analysing your problems but find you're not able to
change them? Do you have lots of "insight" that doesn't seem to help you
actually get a handle on your behaviour?
When you come in for your first appointment,
you may have a lot to say, or you may be so nervous that you don't know what
say. Trust is a key issue that may have to be revisited because it is not a
static thing - it comes and it goes, and generally has to be earned to be
meaningful. We start by exploring and enhancing your strengths and resources. Much of what you need to work on may not be
accessible to direct verbal processing. Problems "trapped in the body" do not go
away simply by talking. For example, even if you "know" that you are
physically safe place, until your body calms down enough to take in new
information, you
won't be able to make use of this intellectual knowledge because those
centres of the brain may be "off-line". For this reason, PSI addresses issues of
perceived safety and trust first, and teaches self awareness and self modulation of physical activation levels
throughout the work.
PSI enables you to re-embody yourself, identify and establish personal
boundaries, match the right “feed to the right need”, and frees up energy
entangled in obsessions and compulsions, or drained by body memories and
reenactments. It helps you work with
behaviours that feel out of control by helping you reconnect to disowned aspects
of self, and develop internal cooperation and shared goals.
Individual sessions are charged at $135 per 50
minute session GST inclusive. Longer sessions are pro-rated accordingly.
To make an appointment, call
(09) 835-1929 orclick here
About Judy
Judy Lightstone has
been providing
individual, group, couples and family therapy for the past 24 years
specialising in eating and body image difficulties, and issues resulting from
severe stress and trauma. She received her PhD in Humanities with a
specialisation in trauma psychology in 2006, and now offers counselling services
in West Auckland. She has also been providing supervision and training for
professional therapists throughout the U.S. since 1986 and in New
Zealand since 2006. She trained under Francine Shapiro (Founder of the EMDR -
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Pat Ogden (founder of
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy), and The Women’s Therapy
Centre Institute in New York City founded by Susie Orbach
(author of Fat is a Feminist Issue and Hunger Strike) and Louise Eichenbaum . She has integrated these approaches to mind and body healing
and developed and now uses and teaches PSITM,
(PsychoSomatic Integration) a form of therapy that address the whole person
Click to learn more
about this approach. Clients describe her as gentle and compassionate in a
strong way, tempered by an easy sense of humour.
Individual sessions are charged at $135 per
50 minute session GST inclusive. Longer sessions are pro-rated accordingly.
Individual Therapy for Eating
Problems
Eating and body image problems can express some of our deepest experiences as
women and men. Issues such as staying true to our hunger/s; defining ourselves
within and outside of relationships to others; and taking up space and being
visible in a sometimes dangerous world, may show up in our relationships to food
and body.
When you come in for your first appointment, you may have a lot to say, or you
may be so nervous that you don't know what say. Trust is a key issue, and you
may feel afraid to trust or you may want to dive right in. Either way, we will
both come to understand that trust is not a static thing - it comes and it goes,
and generally has to be earned to be meaningful. While we are exploring these
complexities, it's often a relief to start talking.
We begin by helping you explore your
personal experiences of food, feeding, fat, and body size, and why these issues
are so painful. You may have been put on diets or diet pills, forced to eat when
you weren't hungry, weighed and lectured by well meaning (or not so well
meaning?) doctors or relatives, or felt otherwise disrespected and intruded
upon. I will not be weighing you or telling you what or what not to eat. This
may feel like a relief, or you may not like that. Some people become dependent
on others to tell them what to eat. I will simply be encouraging you to sense
your hunger and satiation points, and to notice when you can follow them as
guides, and when it seems too difficult.
The PSI Approach to
Eating Problems
We may choose to include journal, art,
or movement work, and guided fantasies to help you express what the eating
problem has been trying to say. Ultimately, you will learn to eat when you are
hungry and stop when you are full. But in the meantime, when you cannot always
do this, we will use the symptoms to point us to the triggers and issues in your
life that you have been using bingeing, starving, and/or purging to solve. We
work these through one by one, until you feel stronger to face these
difficulties without depriving or punishing yourself with food.
Individual sessions are charged at $135 per
50 minute session GST inclusive. Longer sessions are pro-rated accordingly.To make an appointment call (09) 835 1929 or click
here
Eating and body image problems can
express some of our deepest experiences as women and men. Issues such as staying
true to our hunger/s; defining ourselves within and outside of relationships to
others; and taking up space and being visible in a sometimes dangerous world,
may show up in our relationships to food and body.
Gender roles, the victimization of
"fat", and cultural stereotypes all play a role in the development of eating and
body image problems. These influences interact with our genetic endowments,
family upbringing, and experiences with peers in a multitude of ways. All of
this must be brought into our explorations of how your particular problem with
food developed the way it did.
Throughout we will be working toward
increased self esteem and body size acceptance. Acceptance does not mean the
same as approval. Like trust, it comes and goes, and has to be earned to be
meaningful. But this acceptance can be earned as you struggle to attune yourself
to your body's internal signals, work through exercise resistance or compulsion,
and prove to yourself that you can become a reliable self-feeder.
If you are having difficulty standing up for
yourself or asking for what you really need and want, you must first understand
what is getting in your way. In addition to working to remove these impediments,
there are many different skills and techniques that can be learned and practiced
in a therapy setting. Judy led her first Assertiveness Training Group as a
counselling intern in 1980; she helped design and run an empowerment curriculum
for displaced homemakers from 1981-1983, and has been learning new skills ever
since. Self-empowerment is a natural outcome of individual therapy, and
many of the approaches used in workshops and groups are applied in one to one
counselling, or when the issues interfere with your relationships,
couples or family counselling may offer the best solutions.
Individual sessions are charged at $135 per
50 minute session GST inclusive. Longer sessions are pro-rated accordingly.Couples and family sessions are charged at $162 per 60 minute session, GST
inclusive.To make an appointment call (09) 835 1929 or click here
Links We Support!
Nurturing projects to
end intimate violence
Committed to ending
child sexual abuse in 5 generations
