Relationships:
"Out beyond ideas, Of right doing and wrong doing, There lies a field. I’ll meet you there." - Rumi 13th Century Poet and Sufi Master
I provide relationship counselling and therapy, both face to face and online, for::
- couples at the begginiog of their reatiomnship wanting to establiosh a sound foundation.
- couples struggling with their relationship, communication difficultiers, periods of lack of connection, affection and intimacy.
- couples .trying to decide whether to seperate or find a way to stay together
- couples already seperated and wanting to see if they can re-establish their relationship or just to maintain their friendship or perhaps find a way to co-parent in a positive, more connected way.
- individuals whose partners do not want to attend counselling
- individuals who are not currently in relatiomjship and struggling to maintan them
- siblings, parent and son or daughter.
The therapeutic "space" I provide is confidential and unbiased and engenders respect, sensitivity, understanding and empathy. I see the dynamics, both positive and negative, in every relationship, as being contributed to equally by each partner. I work with each individual to help them see this for themselves, as this may not always be obvious at first, and to make sense of the repetitive and reactionary patterns in the the rtelatiomnship. I provide them with the tools to move beyond these patterns to a more connected, conscious, harmonious and fulfilling relationship.
As far as couples are concernedI, I believe that the reason we are attracted to each other, and engage in relationship, is because we recognize in the other, intuitively and often immediately, the opportunity for our healing and growth. The recognition of this potential is usually unconscious and because of our innate drive to heal and grow the attraction is very powerful. This leads us to fall in love, often seeing each other as our "perfect" partner. It is not usually until the romantic phase has passed, which it inevitably does, that we start to feel challenged by each other, often in a reactive way.
Our reactivity is actually growth trying to happen, but instead of growing our survival instinct adopts a defensive attitude and causes us to either withdraw and close down, to retaliate, to go numb or to give in. Our reactivity in turn triggers our partner’s reactivity, and so on. This behaviour can often look and sound very childish. It is! We are touching each other’s unresolved childhood sensitivities.
By understanding how and why we so skillfully push each other's buttons, and how each of our buttons got there in the first place, we can start to make sense of what brought us together and the underlying dynamic in our relationship. The partner we have chosen is indeed "perfect" because he or she holds the blueprint for our healing and growth. With this growing awareness we can begin to move beyond reactive behaviour into a more connected, conscious, mature, understanding, empathic and respectful way of relating. And with these qualities more firmly and consistently established, intimacy can develop, love deepen and vitality abound.
A large part of the work I do with couples is also based on Imago Relationship Therapy in which I am a fully qualified clinical practitioner. Please see the Imago Relationship Therapy page.
I am also a qualified and experienced pareting coa\ch whch can be useful for couples with children.
Sessions:
Sessions are couples are normally 90 minutes long and for individuals, 60 mins. .Please contact me for my current fees, I have a few concessionary places for those with limited financial means. I also see couples and individuals online, on Zoom. Please see the Zoom page for further details.
"Bryan is an experienced and present therapist who works sensitively and responsively with couples issues. The Imago system he uses is an effective system to enable couples to deepen their understanding of areas of misunderstanding and find places of authentic connection, and so unravel the tangles."
Sarajane Aris, AFBPS, CPsychol,
Consultant Clinical Psychologist,
Brian Pearse, Head Teacher ( retired)