Working Experientially in Psychotherapy

There is an increasing consensus in this field that an individual's cognitive insight (thinking) alone is often insufficient to create transformational, lasting change. In other words, in therapy we need to make room for a much broader range of client's experiences, including not just behaviors, thoughts and feelings but also memories, impulses, somatic tensions and sensations, missing experiences, core beliefs, etc., as well as client's relationships with family and others and the pertinent, multifaceted social, cultural and transgenerational factors.

The more chronically stressed and busy our daily life has become, the fewer opportunities there are for these layered and intricated experiences to be felt, let along processed, understood or expressed. We are left with limited, truncated, fragmented experiences that, of course, don't "make sense" to us, don't feel satisfying, are conflicted, or aren't effective for our goals and needs. It would also be challenging to relate to others from this place or to relate to others who are at their own version of these places. Emotions don't get fully expressed or seen, words don't come or are misunderstood, conflicts are repetitive yet unproductive, and repairs are absent or incomplete.

Not to mention the past wounds we carry with us - whether it's our predisposed vulnerabilities and neurodiversities, family of origin traumas and multigenerational traumas, injuries from systemic issues such as race and inter-racial relationship, gender identity/orientation, immigration, socioeconomic injustice, and wars, or from accidents, illness, grief and loss, and the many different forms of just the wear and tear of living.

Working experientially in psychotherapy, we can use many tools to safely unfold, access, deepen into and reorganize these different layers or parts in our experiences. We engage different part of our brain and body. We work with both the conscious and the unconscious. We can experiment and gain new experiences and new insights. All of these are part of the healing process.

Examples of Experiential Approaches

Hakomi Psychotherapy

Sandtray Therapy

Expressive Arts Therapy

Drama Therapy

As a Certified Hakomi Therapist (CHT), I have received years of in-depth Hakomi training and am continuing monthly practice and case consultation for professional development.

In addition, I incorporate experiential techniques and interventions from sandtray therapy, drama therapy, expressive arts therapy, narrative therapy, and family system approaches as well as experiential wisdom from IFS (Internal Family Systems), EFT (Emotionally Focused therapy) and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment therapy). In fact, many of these different schools of psychotherapy share much in common in how they engage the "right brain" and connect to clients experientially.

More important than techniques and interventions, experiential psychotherapy is a stance, a philosophy and a mindset of the therapist that thoroughly shapes how I approach my work, how I show up in the session, how I relate to my client and how I myself as a therapist organize my experiences of working with you. An experiential approach is also deeply congruent with my commitment to being culturally attuned and trauma-informed.