How we workA dynamic, individualised, yet highly structured process, starting with somatic therapy, followed by philosophical counselling.
Somatic Therapy is for you if…
What happens in a Somatic Therapy session?
What will we focus on during a typical session?
You feel overwhelmed, dysregulated or always on edge.
You feel emotionally distant, numb or disconnected.
You experience anxiety, chronic pain, fatigue or other mindbody (psychophysiological) symptoms.
You have low self-esteem.
Your internal dialogue is filled with pressure, criticism and negativity.
You obsess about your looks, always trying to present yourself perfectly.
Your self-worth depends on external validation or status recognition.
You feel like you have no purpose, doing a job just to get by.
You are a people pleaser, having a hard time saying no and setting boundaries.
You don’t experience joy or fulfilment in your life, even though things are going “well”.
You keep finding yourself in unhealthy relationship patterns (intimate, family, friends, colleagues).
You are hyper-independent and being vulnerable feels weak, scary or impossible.
You have a hard time opening up to real connection, intimacy or love.
You tend to overthink and ruminate over past events or what you could have done differently.
You get triggered easily, acting out of alignment or proportion.
You are living a life that doesn’t feel truly yours.
We will move through a uniquely tailored but sequential approach, blending various Somatic Practices; movement, tactics for nervous system regulation, and gentle touch (optional).
We follow what your system is ready for that day, making sure you feel grounded and safe at all times.
Although talking plays an important role in Somatic Therapy, it is not prioritised. We will focus on attuning to bodily cues; sensations, emotions, tensions or aches.
While doing this we allow them—through various techniques—to ‘speak’, soften, express, shift, move and eventually, integrate.
How can Somatic Therapy help you?
We will work on undigested experiences.
We will work on emotional range and capacity.
We will work on self and body awareness.
We will build the capacity—progressively, safely, as directed by what you are ready for on a given day—to go towards what may have previously felt difficult or dangerous. Through this you will begin ‘teaching’ your nervous system new ways of interpreting the world; establishing a more systemic sense of safety and resilience in the process.
You will learn to identify your triggers, patterns and conditioned behaviours more easily.
You will learn to stay present through difficult sensations and emotions.
You will learn to self-regulate, both proactively and reactively.
You will learn to inhabit your body, space and time on your terms.
You will learn to feel freer and less inhibited by past conditioning and limiting beliefs.
After some time, we typically recommend a little philosophía.
It is, however, entirely your choice where you start.
Philosophical Counselling is for you if…
The world isn’t making sense.
You feel locked into a trajectory not of your choosing.
You worry about the future.
You feel there is a disconnect between what you value and how you act.
You are unsure what it is you truly value.
You don’t know which beliefs are yours or simply the beliefs you have inherited.
You feel disconnected from the people around you.
You feel disconnected from the more-than-human world.
Life feels less than truly meaningful on more occasions than you care to admit.
There’s no higher purpose that genuinely enlivens you.
You feel stuck in a job, or worse, feel a strong sense of moral dissonance at work.
When you attempt to envisage the future, very little comes to you.
You feel like you have limited agency, authority or authorship in your life.
The creative capacities of your being feel stifled.
You don’t trust yourself to face life’s inevitable difficulty with courage.
Your capacity for criticality and reasoning aren’t quite serving the way you’d like them to.
You are truly excited by life’s big questions; What is real? What can be known? What truly matters? How should I act? How can my capacity for both abstract thought and concrete action serve a whole far greater than myself?
What happens in a Philosophical Counselling session?
A philosophical counselling session is a dialogue; a journey towards shared meaning. The process requires each party to pay attention, listen deeply and respond thoughtfully.
The counsellor’s role is to attune, deliberately question, and productively challenge. Through the process of doing this, your ideas are tested, broken down, tested again, and refined in a process that leads to anything from a deep recognition of uncertainty (which is entirely okay. A wonderfully refreshing point from which to begin a new process of exploration that serves your life) through to a crystal clear idea that might now shape your entire being going forward.
What will we focus on during a typical session?
If you opt for a less structured Socratic approach, a session could focus on any topic, challenge or insight of your choosing. It’s common for clients who select this method to prioritise this approach because they have a very specific thing they want to speak about.
If you opt for the SMILE_PH Method (Sense-Making Interviews Looking at Elements of Philosophical Health), developed by Prof. Luis de Miranda, we will progressively explore your relationship to your body, your sense of self, your sense of belonging, your sense of the possible, your sense of purpose, and finally, the philosophical process and structure that brings the 5 previous topics together. This often takes its form in the Tetractys of Philosophical Health (Miranda).
How can Philosophical Counselling help you?
Every person’s philosophical journey is entirely unique. What is universal, however, is that this is a meaning-making process likely to enhance the coherence of your thoughts, your speech and your actions. Your thoughts. Your speech. Your actions. This is a process that can inspire and empower you to live with greater authoricity; a healthy, dynamic combination of authenticity, authorship and authority (Miranda). And it’s a process that often proves to existentially enliven people in ways they were previously unaware of.
It has been claimed that philosophical health will be to the 21st century what mental health was to the 20th. Let us work together to see if that proves true.
Why ioēs
Somatic therapy helps people heal emotional wounds, build the capacity to meet life’s difficulties, and exercise greater freedom. Whereas philosophical counselling helps clarify values, clearly articulate a life purpose, and develop strategies for living a truly meaningful existence. Philosophical counselling cannot support the re-organisation of the nervous system. Somatic therapy can. Somatic therapy doesn’t clarify meaning, purpose and values that can be acted up. Philosophical counselling does.
Together, we believe these approaches can serve you in navigating life’s beauty and difficulty with patience, kindness, courage, resilience and coherence. And this, this is exactly what the world, what all of us, truly needs.