Sophie Waterhouse

I am a humanistic psychotherapist, in private practice since 2008, working with individuals, couples and groups, adults and teens. I first came to therapy as a client and it was my own positive experience with therapy that led me to train as a psychotherapist. I know that the self-reflection psychotherapy facilitates really can help us to develop our awareness, heal our wounds, build our resilience and experience much more joy.

My theoretical frames of reference include gestalt, which means that the focus of sessions is on the here and now and what is going on for you right now. What is working? What is not working? Events in the past may be influencing the present and where that is the case, we will look at that residue and whether there is unfinished business to resolve or self-defeating patterns and conditioning to move beyond.

I also pay attention to how emotions are embodied. Your mind is not separate to your body; how you think and feel affects how you are physically and vice versa. Gestalt and formative psychology together with expressive arts therapy all inform my work with the body-mind connection. In the past fifteen years neuroscience has begun to explain what it is precisely in these various therapeutic approaches that has a positive impact, helping where needed to build neural pathways that support a sense of being at home in yourself and to counteract the negative impacts of experiences such as trauma, neglect and abuse.

One of the central issues in life is how to be in relationship while remaining connected to ourselves, to balance the need for intimacy with the need for autonomy. I work with both individuals and couples on these themes. Couples work involves looking at what you each bring to the relationship, your histories, your patterns around relationship, how you communicate and how you manage difference.

Special interests

In addition to offering talk counselling and psychotherapy, I have a specialist training in expressive arts therapy and a particular interest in the role of creativity in mental health.

Other special interests include transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology. Transpersonal psychology is the point where psychology and spirituality meet. I have studied with teachers in the field of nondual consciousness and meditation is part of my own daily practice. Ecopsychology explores the role of contact with nature in mental health. Every other year I run a course in shamanic journeying, a practice that combines elements of both transpersonal and ecopsychology.

I have also run workshops for clients and for therapists on the psychology of money and how our relationship with money can impact our sense of ourselves, our self-worth and our relationships.

Training

I am British but trained in the United States. I have a Masters degree in Counselling Psychology with a concentration in Expressive Arts Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. CIIS is an accredited institute and its psychology training programmes fulfil the rigorous academic requirements of the California Board of Behavioral Sciences and state licensing laws for psychotherapy. I completed my clinical practicum at Berkeley Creative Living Center, a drop-in day care centre for chronically mentally ill clients in Berkeley, California.

Since 2007 I have continued my training, supervision and personal work with Spectrum Therapy, a humanistic psychotherapy centre in north London where I was a practitioner from 2013 to 2020. I also engage in CPD connected to expressive arts, neuroscience and transpersonal psychology with CIIS and other organizations and resources.

Fees

My fee for individual therapy in Hastings is £55 and for couples £70.