Psychotherapy Concepts
A clinical reference library explaining the approaches, conditions, and ideas at the heart of our practice — in English and French.
Anxiety and Excitement — The Same Soup
Anxiety and excitement are not opposites. They are made from the same two ingredients — fear and faith — in different …
Feeling Has a Function
Many people come to therapy because they feel too much and want to feel less. But feeling is not the problem — it is the …
Getting Out of the Coffin
The coffin is the enclosure built when life became too much. Safe, but airless. The invitation — offered gently — is to …
HALT — Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired
HALT is a foundational recovery tool: four basic states that make relapse most likely. Recognising them is the first …
Know Yourself — The Purpose of Analysis
Psychotherapy is an opportunity to meet yourself — perhaps for the first time. The alternative is arriving at the end of …
Muscle Dysmorphia (Bigorexia)
Muscle dysmorphia, informally called bigorexia, is the male equivalent of anorexia — the same obsessive relationship …
Passion as Protection Against Addiction
Where there is passion — genuine engagement with life and meaning — there is less addiction. This is not a theory. It is …
Symptoms as Anaesthetic — Why Therapy Makes You Feel More
Many people use symptoms — restriction, substances, avoidance — as an anaesthetic against pain. Therapy removes the …
The Demon — Being in the Grip of the Split
The word demon comes from a Greek root meaning to divide. To be in the grip of the demon is to be divided within …
The Persona
In Jungian psychology, the Persona is the adaptive face we present to the world. Understanding yours is the first step …
The Shadow
The Shadow in Jungian psychology is not simply the darkest part of who you are. It is everything pushed out of the self …
The Tribe — Why Belonging is a Clinical Need
Human beings are wired for belonging. Without a tribe — without people among whom you feel known — psychological risk …
What Happens in a First Session?
The first session is not a test. It is a conversation — the beginning of a relationship in which you will not be judged. …
What is Addiction?
Addiction is not a moral failure. It is a cycle of acting in and acting out — a mechanism for avoiding pain that …
What is an Eating Disorder?
Eating disorders are not about food. They are about feeling — and the need to control or avoid it.
What is ARFID?
ARFID — Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder — is an eating disorder with no link to body image. It is driven by …
What is Countertransference?
Countertransference is the therapist's emotional response to the client. In skilled hands, it is not a problem to be …
What is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing — is a clinically proven approach to trauma. It processes what the …
What is Euphoric Recall?
Euphoric recall is the memory that lies. The brain replays the pleasure of the substance and edits out the consequences. …
What is Individuation?
Individuation is Jung's term for the lifelong process of becoming who you actually are — not who you were told to be, …
What is Jungian Analysis?
Jungian analysis is a depth psychotherapy that asks where your psyche is trying to go next — not just where it has been.
What is Mindfulness — Really
Mindfulness is not about stopping thought. It is the practice of bringing the mind to where the body already is — the …
What is Orthorexia?
Orthorexia is an obsessive preoccupation with eating only pure or healthy food. It is often praised rather than …
What is Psychotherapy — and How Does it Work?
Psychotherapy is not the medical model. The therapist is not the doctor and you are not the patient waiting to be cured. …
What is Recovery?
Recovery is not the disappearance of the urge. It is the ability to live freely in its presence — to feel what is there …
What is Relapse?
Relapse is not the moment of picking up a drink or drug. By then the relapse has already been underway for weeks. …
What is Shadow Work?
Shadow work is the process of meeting the parts of yourself you have rejected or never allowed to develop. It is about …
What is Shame — and How Does Therapy Help?
Shame says I am wrong — not I did something wrong. It is carried silently for decades. Its remedy is the very thing it …
What is Transference?
Transference is the unconscious transfer of feelings from past relationships onto the therapist. Understanding it is …
You Will Suffer Better
The goal of therapy is not to stop suffering. It is to suffer better — to have a different relationship with pain, one …