Ms Lu Migliore

A conversation with Lu Migliore

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

  I originally dreamt of being a journalist but ended up in education. Education was a great forum for understanding child development and family systems. I have increasingly been interested in understanding dysfunctional families and how the power structures work. Internal Family Systems (IFS) offers appealing categories to help people understand the family as an ecosystem with a core self at the centre and a multitude of parts which interact in the ecosystem. It's hard to get your head around at first but after a while it really starts to make sense. IFS also takes the shame away from you behaving in certain unhelpful ways.
  I love my work because I find it meaningful and rewarding. I also like a challenge!

• Which philosophical approaches have influenced your professional development?

  I studied social sciences, languages and literature in my first degree so I have always been fascinated by people and how they interact in systems. I have been drawn to Terry Real's work and Esther Perel's work because they seek to understand and interpret why it is that people behave the way they do in relationships.
  Internal Family Systems provides an interesting framework for understanding family systems.
  The mind-body connection is an area which fascinates me. I have read foundational trauma texts by Peter Levine, Gabor Maté and Janina Fischer to name a few. I believe we can heal the mind by healing the body so I work somatically as well as doing "talk therapy".

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

  I am very interested in the euro-plasticity of the brain and wish I could study neuroscience. I would like to study neuroscience in my next life! All the latest imaging has given us so much data to help comprehend the brain and mind. Norman Doidge's work in this space is fascinating.
  
  I love the benefits of yoga both in managing the breath and how that calms the nervous system and in how working with an asana or pose helps you to calibrate your body. Yoga can help people who have been in domestic violence situations take back their body autonomy and reset their internal boundaries which were violated in their abusive relationship. Above all, I believe in our individual ability to heal ourselves. We have all the body wisdom we need. Often we just need to be reminded.
  
  Lastly, I believe in the healing powers of re-parenting your inner child. If you were not nurtured in your family of origin, as an adult you can take back control of your life and re-parent yourself. It's vulnerable but highly rewarding work.

• What methods do you use?

  I use an eclectic approach in my counselling sessions depending on the issue at hand. I use re-parenting inner child work for healing family trauma. I use parts work for family therapy and individual therapy. I use exposure therapy for anxiety. I use Solutions Focussed Brief Therapy for depression and short term counselling. I use widening the window of tolerance as a part of trauma therapy and also somatic therapies.

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

  I have noticed that when clients start to heal they start to find their voice. Their body language expands from being almost hunched up in pain to starting to expand their chest and hold their head higher. People start to unfreeze and start to face the difficult relationships they had been avoiding. People are able to let go of negative patterns of behaviour by identifying them and choosing not to go down negative pathways that had been previously unconscious and unexamined. Clients start to lead a more examined and balanced life. They are able to re-frame their life experiences and take the shame away.

• How has therapy made a difference in your life?

  Personally therapy has been foundational for me. I can't believe I am the same person who first had a counselling session at university as an 18 year-old. That was 40 years ago! I wish I could go back and speak to that girl and give her a hug and tell her she was great just the way she was!

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

  I love that I am able to walk alongside people often in their most vulnerable moments. It's been nearly 14 years since I first started counselling and I have not lost that feeling of being deeply humbled in the presence of the pain of others.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

  I often have days where it feels hard to show up for others and myself! On those days I try to be extra gentle with myself and get into nature, even if it is only a few minutes of staring up at the sky!

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

  I believe that AI is going to challenge our human systems which have already been under pressure since the digitisation of our world with the proliferation of the internet.
  What does it mean to be human? Our connection to one another is what makes us human. I worry about fragmenting and further weakening our fundamental connection to one another.

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

  I love high energy music as use it as a pick me up when I need a boost. I still love INXS' Burn for you!