Helen Hawthorne

I offer psychotherapy, arts psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, counselling and clinical supervision in Bristol. I am an experienced Integrative Arts Psychotherapist, Counsellor and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.

It can be difficult to seek support, and I understand how daunting it can be to find the right person to work with. I offer a supportive space; a place to explore together what may be preventing you from living a more fulfilling, nourishing life. I always work in response to you rather than a particular ‘approach’. Everyone’s story is their own, but there are strands of our experience of being human that connect us.

It’s often this connectedness that can get lost in today’s hectic lives leading to ‘dis-ease’ and disillusionment. I work relationally, using our relationship to explore your past experience of relationship which will influence how you relate to yourself and others today. Building connection in a therapeutic relationship can offer healing; journeying inwards can help us see ourselves and our problems in new ways. Often the feelings we are most afraid of have been cut off, leaving us feeling detached from our self. Exploring, understanding and reintegrating can help us feel part of our lives in a new way, where we no longer react, but respond.

Using the arts can help get beneath what words alone can convey. Using the body-oriented approach of Somatic Experiencing helps us fundamentally change stress responses in the body, particularly in response to trauma. So much of what affects our everyday thoughts and behaviours is unconscious or held in the body; harnessing our imagination and creativity and working directly with the nervous system, no matter where we are in our life, can enable deep and profound change.

We might use art, imagination and metaphor, clay, poetry/ writing, sandplay alongside listening to the experience of your body in bodywork and movement, depending on how you feel. Equally, we may simply speak and listen – there is never any pressure to do anything, and there’s no right or wrong way to approach our work.

I offer longer term psychotherapy, short term focused counselling, or specific Somatic Experiencing sessions to explore challenges including:

anxiety, depression, feeling lost or stuck, relationship issues, stress, trauma, complex trauma/ PTSD, abuse, bereavement, low self-esteem, personality disorders, OCD, self-harm and suicidal thoughts

Unresolved trauma can result in a host of physical symptoms including headaches, migraines, jaw and back pain, chronic pain, stomach or digestive difficulties, insomnia or sleep disturbance, hypertension, heart palpitation, fatigue, fibromyalgia and medically unexplained symptoms. Somatic Experiencing is particularly effective in easing such symptoms, as trauma is discharged from the body.

Please feel free to call or email me with any questions you might have. Having a chat can help both of us intuit if it feels like we might be a good fit or not. I offer a free exploratory session to do this.

Concessions sometimes available, so please ask.

In person sessions are held in my private therapy room. This is in a home where there are pets (a cat and a dog). Whilst not in the therapy room, please be aware they are in the vicinity, in case this is not comfortable for you.