body-oriented psychotherapy
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In our early development, the way our family and society functions shapes our personality and creates survival strategies. In order to be accepted, loved or just to survive, we learn to dissociate from our body and feelings, be focused on needs of others instead of our own, carry the weight and responsibility, become cautious and distrusfull in connection, or become focused on our performance and achieving perfection, and cutting ourselves off from our emotions.
These patterns that are adopted in our childhood and further defined in our early adulthood, becomes part of our personality, but also ingrained in our bodies, in our systems, through patterns of muscular contraction and blockages. Although they are initially created as a self protection - and they often were self-protective at the time, as we move on with our lives they become the limiting factor producing psychological and psychosomatic symptoms, and blocking our full expression and authenticity. Through melting the protection and transforming the patterns, we start to access more aliveness, more energy, bigger capacity to give and receive love, and to follow our own path in life.
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Our survival patterns are so deeply ingrained that, although we can understand them rationally, it can be hard to truly reach them just through reflecting and talking. Core Energetics is a body-psychotherapy modality that includes working with body awareness, movement, expression, breath and interpersonal relationship in order to open up our awareness and create a lasting change. This type of therapy also place big important on the human connection - we cannot do this work alone, we need to be received, mirrored, supported by others in order to make new steps. In my work I combine the depth of Core Energetics with the newest insights about nervous system and trauma, leaning on the wisdom of Somatic Experiencing approach developed by Peter Levine.
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My professional journey has always been closely tied to my personal healing. Having been trained in cognitive-behavioural approach to psychology where the focus is placed on the mind, I started with body-psychotherapy to address my patterns and traumas on a deeper way and connect more with my aliveness. Only by starting to fully include the body and spirituality in my development did I realize what it means to feel my full life force again, to really get to know my emotions and lovingly contain them, to deeply feel and know that I am part of something bigger, to really love my life and the fact that I get to be on this planet.
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This is what I wish to share with my clients through my work.
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Feel free to contact me for booking the first, exploratory session or free discovery call. The places where we are frustrated or in pain also hold the biggest potential for our development.
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Education / Work Experience:​
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Certified Core Energetics® psychotherapy practitioner (4-year training program, 2018 - 2023)
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Certified Somatic Experiencing® trauma therapy practitioner (3-year training program, 2020 - 2023)
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Psychotherapy Practitioner/Heilpraktiker fur Psychotherapie; Landesamt für Gesund. u. Sozial. Berlin, 2021)
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Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for professionals, Zagreb, Croatia (2015)
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MSc. in Psychology with a focus on clinical psychology; University of Zagreb, Croatia (2014)
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Psychological counselling on the SOS help-line, Zagreb, Croatia (2014)
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Gender studies, year programme, Center for Gender Studies Zagreb, Croatia (2014)
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Introduction to Gestalt Psychotherapy, Zagreb, Croatia (2014)
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Leading individual and group counselling for people with eating disorders (2011-2016)