I am committed to helping individuals and organizations develop sustainable mindsets and engage in valued actions. Kindness and compassion, respect and tolerance, democracy and social justice, science and sustainability form the cornerstones of my professionalism. As utopist, I imagine a bright planetary future for everyone. As optimist, I believe in the power of love, courage, and trust. As realist, I accept that limits exist and not every goal can be attained. Seeing chance in crisis, strength in weakness, and success in failure, I believe, that if one door closes, another one will open.
The human story
As consequence of painful past experiences, however inevitable or severe, we develop coping mechanisms along the inherited fight and flight responses ensuring survival in life threatening situations. Due to our human condition as heavily dependent individuals for a long period during infancy and childhood we are prone to chose avoidant strategies promising fast relief, instant gratification, and protection from feeling vulnerable. The problem is that attempting to escape from challenging internal experiences (painful thoughts, strong emotions, weird sensations, etc.) is not goal-leading for many reasons:
- We may stop thinking things through, which hinders problem solving and causes more worrying.
- We may cling to unhelpful beliefs to avoid cognitive dissonance but suppress vital doubts that could motivate us to reassess and change something.
- We remain in our comfort zones, oblivious of the transient nature of unpleasant feelings and sensations unwilling to engage in valued behaviors that require their acceptance.
- Last, but not least, avoiding feeling intense feelings may prevent us from letting go, living in the present moment and pivoting toward what really matters to us.
Now, here is the solution: opening-up to a trained listener offers a safe space for exploring neglected aspects of the self, working with difficult experiences, embracing new perspectives, and experimenting with valued behaviors.
Principles of practice
Informed by efficacy research I my practice follows seven main principles:
- Valuing diversity with regards to all aspects of client’s lifestyle, orientation, identity, and sense of belonging
- Creating a relaxed, warm, and natural conversational space and flow of ideas
- Providing quality time to experience and express oneself authentically without being judged
- Enabling to take a healthy distance to a problem and strengthening commitment to planning concrete steps to transform vision into action
- Inspiring by meaningful content, the creation of new categories for structuring perception and by introducing the client to novel ways of thinking, acting, and relating
- Activating resources and empowering through enhancing self-esteem, optimism, and problem solving
- Being engaged and accountable as professional and appreciating feedback from clients to continuously improve service quality