Lisa Champion

A conversation with Lisa Champion

• What led you to choose psychotherapy or counselling as a profession?

  My career started in the field of exercise science. I specialised as an exercise therapist, helping people overcome chronic pain issues through movement and postural awareness, recognition of habits, re-connecting of brain and body and support to achieve their physical goals. I became increasingly aware of the emotional toll of chronic pain and decided to study counselling to better support my clients with their emotional experience. I loved the counselling so much, that I decided to make a career shift and focus on working more with the mind than the body. I have loved this journey and feel that it is an incredible honour and privilege to help people better understand themselves and find more comfort and ease in their lives. My career shift has been a wonderful experience and I feel like I have 'found my home' in my counselling and therapy work.

• Which philosophical approaches have influenced your professional development?

  I work in an emotionally focused framework and it is Emotionally Focused Therapy that has most strongly influenced both my personal and professional development. It's not widely socially or culturally acceptable to express emotion. People are often influenced by a 'whispered message' to not talk about or express how they are feeling. When emotions are suppressed for fear of not being accepted or being labeled as weak or irrational, people become increasingly more uncomfortable. Suppressed emotional experiences often lead to other behaviours like feeling low, becoming anxious, drinking or eating too much, drug taking, irritability, sleep difficulties, clamming up, becoming short tempered, arguing a lot, or a variety of other things. I believe that by offering a safe place to allow people to explore, talk about, feel and experience their emotions I can help them grow, heal and feel more comfortable. This was certainly my experience in my personal journey of Emotionally Focused Therapy.

• Which particular aspects of health or the human journey are you interested in?

  I am interested in helping clients on their journey towards feeling better, becoming more mature, learning to respond rather than react, and understanding themselves better. I am also interested in helping people become more aware of their emotional experience and, in doing so, becoming more familiar with how and why they respond to different situations the way they do. I also have a great interest in how experience is held in the body and enjoy helping my clients discover how their emotional experience is often carried as pain, injury or other physical discomfort.

• What methods do you use?

  I use a variety of methods - the most prominent one being simply talking. I work to deeply understand my clients' experience as I feel that when I seek to understand, they also gain understanding. I also use creative processes like objects, drawing, role play, visualisation and mindfulness when appropriate.

• When do you think the client will start to feel that progress is being made?

  Sometimes clients feel progress has been made from the first session! It's not unusual for clients to say that they feel so much better just knowing that they have a safe and caring place to talk about what is bothering them. Sometimes clients come with a specific issue that they need support for and within a shorter time frame they feel better and more able to navigate whatever is happening for them. Other times, clients need longer to really explore what their experience is and begin to feel more comfortable. I like to suggest that clients start with three sessions and then assess how things are going from there.

• How has therapy made a difference in your life?

  I have loved my personal therapy journey. I have had many 'light-bulb moments' where I have discovered the reasons why I think, feel and behave the way I do. I have seen how gaining insight and understanding into my experience has helped me mature, grow and change. I feel richer, lighter, more compassionate towards myself and more settled because of my therapy journey. My relationships have improved and I feel easier within myself. I highly recommend it!

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

  It is just such a privilege and honour to sit with people as they share their experience. I love listening, seeking to understand and asking questions that help my clients to better understand themselves. I am constantly amazed by the power of the human mind to learn, grow and change and I love helping my clients discover this as well.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

  Of course! I have days when I have lots on my mind or deadlines to keep or family matters to attend to - all of which can make me feel a bit unsettled. But, when I feel those things, I work to centre myself, to breathe and relax, to remind myself that I am a human being with human frailties and it's not a constant. It's so important that my clients know that I am also human with shared experiences - I never want my clients to feel that I 'have it all together' - because I know that a sign of growth is the ability to handle the ups and downs of life in a gentle, caring and compassionate way.

• What do you think is the most significant problem we face, in the world today?

  That's a big question! There are so many things, but for now I think I'll choose the disconnect that social media is causing. Texting and facebooking is not authentic communication. People say and do things on social media that they often regret - it's just too easy to send a quick message that is not helpful to the receiver. This is one of the things I think people feel when they come to counselling - it's an hour where we can just sit and talk - no distractions - we can look each other in the eye, we can laugh, share, cry or contemplate - and it's very real and genuine. I think we are losing this in the world dominated by social media.

• Can you share the name of a book, film, song, event or work of art that inspires you?

  There are so many! My favourite movie of all time is probably Out of Africa, but a close second would be Shadowlands, about the life of C.S. Lewis. I love Claire Bowditch's song Amazing Life and a favourite book is called The Discovery of Slowness by Sten Nadolny. It's historical fiction about the life of British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin but is also a story about praising "slowness" or difference in people.