Dimuthu Fonseka

Therapy holds the potential for us to explore new ways of being and relating in terms of facilitating a deeper connection to ourselves as well as another. It is when we are truly seen and heard by another that it allows us to most fully be ourselves.

Sometimes life can be overwhelming, and we may notice that the strategies which we have always used to cope, can hinder our living the life we aspire towards. These points of difficulty can often leave people feeling that they are suffering alone. It can be helpful in these moments to have someone supportive alongside you. I have personally experienced the difference that having an attentive, non-judgmental, empathetic person beside you, can make in life. This is what I aim to offer my clients.

PRACTICE DESCRIPTION

I am a qualified integrative psychotherapist and as such, I am familiar with a number of different psychotherapeutic modalities and draw on that experience to find what style would be best to meet your needs. I have trained in psychotherapy after a previous career as a lawyer. I am fascinated by how people make meaning in their lives, and how the adaptations we make to ‘fit in’ might actually hinder us from realising our full potential. I offer a safe space where you can explore how your experiences and beliefs might hold you back. How you respond to the situation can be more important than the situation itself. If we explore your patterns together we can understand the reasons they were created, this begins to open up more choice about how you wish to be in the world and move forward in life.

I particularly specialise in working with trauma through body based approaches. Alongside psychotherapy, I have also taught yoga and meditation for over a decade. I draw upon my bodywork background in understanding how trauma can be stored in our bodies; often unsymbolised, beyond language, and on the edge of our awareness. Working sensitively with the body in this way, allows us to potentially re-integrate those parts which may have been denied or forgotten.

Finally, having been raised in Australia I am familiar with the experience of being a migrant in a foreign land and the issues of home and belonging this can give rise within us. As a woman of colour, I’m sensitive to how difference can leave us feeling excluded or isolated. Having grappled with some of these issues in my own life, I feel it has given me a genuine curiosity and widened my understanding of difference and diversity. I feel it is possible to gain our power by working through issues which once caused us our deepest pain.