Sophie Waterhouse

I am a humanistic psychotherapist accredited with BACP. I have more than 15 years experience working with individuals, couples and groups. I have an additional training in expressive arts therapy and a special interest in the role of creativity in helping us navigate the challenges of life. Creativity is not limited to artistic endeavours. It takes creativity to sustain relationships, to resolve conflict, to initiate change in our lives. 

I became a psychotherapist because of my own positive experience with therapy. I know from the inside what a difference getting insightful support and developing greater self-awareness can make to happiness. When we're not struggling so much with ourselves, others and life there is a lot more room for joy.

What happens in sessions?

Therapy is a conversation in which you have the opportunity to be deeply listened to in a way that is different to talking with friends and family. Sometimes we feel we have to edit ourselves with loved ones because we don't want them to worry about us or we worry they won't understand or might disapprove. Loved ones also sometimes jump in with suggestions for how to 'fix' something when really we need the space and focused support to talk it through and find our own solutions.

The main theoretical frame of reference I draw on is gestalt, which means the focus of sessions is on the here and now and what is working or not working for you right now. What is happening in the present may well be influenced by the past, and where that is the case we will look at how exactly the past is affecting you and whether there is unfinished business to resolve or whether there are self-defeating patterns to end.

I also pay attention to how emotions are embodied. Your mind does not exist in isolation from your body, they are interconnected. How you think and feel affects how you are physically and vice versa. Gestalt and formative psychology and my training in expressive arts all inform my work with the body-mind connection. In the past fifteen years neuroscience has begun to map what it is in these approaches that has a positive impact, helping where needed to rewire the brain and build new neural pathways that counteract the negative loops we may have got stuck in.

Couples work:

One of the central questions we face as humans is how to be in relationship with others while also being true to ourselves. It is this dilemma between the need for intimacy and the need for autonomy that couples therapy fundamentally addresses.

Difficulties can arise through poor communication and through differences in expectations of what a relationship means and entails. Challenges can also arise simply through the fact of difference - we are not all the same and differences in how we operate and move through the world (literally sometimes the different speeds at which we do things) can create conflict that needs to be addressed and managed.

Couples therapy is an opportunity to take a closer look at what you each bring to the relationship, what you create together and what you would like for the relationship. People often think you should only resort to couples therapy if you have hit a rocky patch, but reflecting on your relationship is something that can be worthwhile at any time and can really serve to strengthen and deepen a relationship.

Special interests

I have a specialist training in the therapeutic use of the arts and if you are interested in including some arts work in sessions this is something we can discuss. I am passionate about creativity and how creative work and play support mental health and personal development.

My Masters training at the California Institute of Integral Studies also included exploration of transpersonal psychology - the area where psychology and spirituality intersect. This area has been and remains an important part of my own journey and I have studied with a number of teachers in the field of nondual consciousness (another area in which neuroscience is making interesting connections).

Ecopsychology explores the role of contact with nature in mental health. I have studied shamanic journeying since 2001 and teach a shamanic journeying course: Homecoming. Journeying can deepen our sense of connection with the natural world and combines elements of both transpersonal and ecopsychology.

My background:

I was born and grew up in London. I studied philosophy and history for my bachelors, focusing on French and African history. I then trained in film production before moving to live in Greece for several years and then in America. I returned to the UK in 2006 and now live in Hastings. Before becoming a psychotherapist, I worked in film. Creativity has long been an important part of my life. My current creative involvements mainly revolve around psychotherapy, writing fiction and poetry, experimenting with visual arts and cooking.

Creativity

Expressive Arts Therapy

Shamanic journeying

My standard fee is £70 per session for individual therapy, £80 for couples therapy. I do, however, take into account differences in local economies and charge a lower rate for Hastings-based clients of £55 for individual sessions and £70 for couples. 

If you would like to book a first session, please call me on 07877 453477 or send me a message as above.