Mr Ron Dowd
Psychotherapist, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist
Therapy Duo
Potts Point, Sydney NSW 2011
In Person + Online Therapy Australia-wide
Philosophy & Vision
I'm a Gestalt and Jungian therapist with a practice in Potts Point Sydney. I come from a background as an engineer, business analyst and artist. I have a long-standing interest in Jungian philosophies and dream work, and completed a MA (Hons) thesis on the imaginal (James Hillman & Henry Corban) and its relation to landscape. I'm interested in creativity, energy, Taoism, Zen, the experience of Eros in life, traditional western gnostic thought - and how we can live lives that are meaningful and soulful.
Background
I've worked with couples and individuals since 2006, and completed my Gestalt Graduate Diploma in 2008.
I commenced my practice at the GLOO project in Woolloomooloo, working with clients in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. This experience has continued to inform my practice. Since 2009 I have worked with my wife in Knox Lane, Double Bay, as well online and by phone.
Prior to this I studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts at COFA and completed a Master of Arts (Hons) thesis in an imaginal depth inquiry into landscape, using the work of James Hillman. I had three solo art exhibitions in Sydney before experiencing a desire to study Gestalt.
I've also worked as an engineer and business analyst, holding degrees in Engineering.
Services
I'm interested in what can be revealed in the therapeutic encounter and how this can help us recover a more real sense of ourselves... In finding out how we sometimes block ourselves from our own sources of creativity and aliveness. I'm interested in how we can strengthen our relational bonds.
My approach is an amalgam of Depth Psychology, the work of James Hillman and other post-Jungians, and Gestalt. I'm also informed by my own art and writing practice. I use Depth Enquiry, which facilitates fast and effective release of traumatic memories.
* Read more on my web site
* Read about Depth Enquiry
Quality Provision
Service Quality is for me about living my own life well, and letting that flow into my practice. Taoism speaks of the Watercourse Way, and how to stay true to it ...
After knowing the sons, keep to the Mother.
Thus one's whole life may be preserved from harm.
* See also my "therapeutics & imaginal" page.
Areas of Special Interest
Accreditations
- Graduate Diploma in Gestalt Psychotherapy - 2008 - Sydney Gestalt Institute / GPTS
- Master of Arts (Hons) - 2001 - University of Western Sydney
- Bachelor of Fine Arts - 1996 - COFA - University of NSW
- Master of Engineering - 1977 - University of Canterbury
- Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) - 1975 - University of Canterbury
Modalities
Art Therapy - Buddhist Psychotherapy - Dream Work - EMDR - Emotionally Focused Therapy - Existential - Experiential - Gestalt - Inner Child - Jungian - Marriage and Family - Meditation - Mindfulness - Psychoanalytic - Soul Centred Psychotherapy - Trauma-Informed
Therapy Approach
For individual and personal clients, my general approach is regular, 1 hour sessions (either once per week or once every 2 weeks). This provides the structure and therapeutic container within which deep exploration can occur.
For couple clients, my approach is weekly or every two weeks at the beginning, then reducing after 4-8 sessions to perhaps once per month or less frequent.
I work with here-and-now dialogue, dreams, fantasies, artworks - whatever is suggested by the deeper, uncensored levels of the psyche.
With couples, I use Gestalt approaches; I am also strongly influenced by attachment theory and PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy), as well as by Imago and EFT.
I also offer mediation for separating couples.
Professional Associations
- Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia
Practice Locations
Suite 5
32 Orwell Street
Potts Point NSW 2011
Train: Take the Eastern Suburbs line to Kings Cross Station and walk from there. It’s about a 6 minute walk.
Bus: Routes that cover this area include 323, 324, 325, 326 and 327.
Car Parking: The Kings Cross Parking Station is a 3 minute walk away.
Appointments
To make an appointment, phone, email me or fill in the contact form on my website.
Sessions are usually 1 hour in duration, but can be 1.5 or 2 hours.
Fees & Insurance
Please contact me for my fee scale. I offer some reduced rate places for people who are experiencing financial hardship.
Payment Options
Cash, EFTPOS, Visa, Mastercard AMEX.
Contact Ron
Please contact me to make an appointment
A conversation with Ron Dowd
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I feel it has chosen me. Although I worked for many years as a software engineer, I was reading Jung in my 20s and was fascinated, though I didn't understand a lot of it. I guess I was on the common "hero's journey" path, working in I.T. but also starting to make art. At a certain point I made a serious decision to study art and undertook my MA (Hons) thesis in landscape and imaginal thinking.
It was this study that opened up the world of Gestalt to me, particularly its ideas of figure / ground. It was odd how my art works (sculptures), as figures, began to recede and the "ground" beneath them became more important.
I studied Gestalt with my wife, and before we'd finished our study we had already started working with couples together. -
I originally did a Master in Engineering in AI and when I'd finished I was disappointed that I couldn't see a future in it for me.
Then I spent a lot of time reading Jung. I'm still very influenced by him, and especially by his studies in alchemy.
I undertook a Jungian analysis and was very influenced by my analyst's interest in James Hillman and by sand play.
The practice of art making over many years has also been very influential in grounding me in poetics and in the primacy of the soul.
Hillman's idea of the force of character, and the work that can be done to undo the blocks to our character development, have been influential for me.
More recently, the existential thinkers such as Camus, Nietzsche and Heidegger have influenced me. I like the insistent questioning of these thinkers - and their preparedness to test any assumptions we have made, both culturally and personally.
In couples work, the PACT approach and attachment theory have been a big influence. I like to see these as a parallel way of working to a depth-focussed, alchemical inquiry into what the couple has constructed and/or unconsciously agreed to.
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I'm interested in wholeness - which means inquiring into the dark as well as the light. James Hillman's interest on the underworld and on the nekyia (the underworld journey) has rubbed off on me, through my own work as a client, and through seeing its effectiveness in my own clients. You can see some of the fruits of these reflections on my art web site.
I'm interested in soul as well as spirit - in the lunar as well as the solar. In not jettisoning the imperfect parts of ourselves but in revisioning these as allies and internal strengths. In being polytheistic. Following the Tao.
I'm interested in death and what we do to mask our anxieties around it - then undertake useless journeys to keep our fear masked. I'm interested in what is under our masks. -
I use the relationship with my clients as primary. I look at the process that's taking place as well as the content. I use the awareness practices I learned in my Gestalt training and in my Art training to wonder and to inquire.
I use humble questioning, hoping to remain open to what arises.
I look for the depth, what's unconscious and what's striving to make itself known; in fantasy, dream, writing, drawing or symptom.
With couples I use Gestalt experiential exercises, PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy), attachment theory and reflective listening. I want couple partners to encounter each other with intimacy. -
With individuals it may take a few sessions for a relationship to begin to form. There are so many factors in play: each session is a "safe experiment" (to use the Gestalt phrase).
Many couples feel progress by the end of the first session, and report back positively on this. -
Psychoanalysis, Jungian analysis, Hillmanian analysis, buddhist-oriented psychotherapy: these have all been extremely important in me finding my way. From a very idealistic young man to a much more grounded, reflective participant in life in all its facets - as a husband, father, psychotherapist, artist.
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It's a privilege to be allowed by another person to work with them on their most valuable secrets, their deepest wishes; and for them to reveal their essence. I love that, and I have much gratitude for opportunities to work this way.
I love the moments when something greater than me comes to the assistance of the work that's happening in the room.
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They're more like 'bad hair' moments, but yes. I'm not 'perfect', never will be, and I'm fine with that.
'Bad hair' moments are the triggers that remind me what's important - and how I can gently return to my 'place', my home, to best serve myself and others. -
The loss of the relational standpoint; our inability to accept difference.
When we lose the relational, we lose empathy for others and for the environment.
When we lose the sense that we are all connected then we act from "me" rather than "I-Thou"; what follows is exploitation of others and of the earth.
When we think that a useful model for the mind is a computer then we have limited our lives significantly.
When we think monotheistically rather than polytheistically we have also limited ourselves.
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James Hillman's The Dream and The Underworld had a big impact on me, and continues to inspire me that we are so much more than we might think we are.
The existentialist classic The Outsider (Camus) is a novel that impresses me for its cool depiction of a man without depth, and happy that way - though by the end of the book he admits to the presence of deep mystery.
I'm also inspired by the works of C. G. Jung, especially his writings on gnosticism and alchemy.