Ms Tracy Clark

A conversation with Tracy Clark

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

  Psychotherapy and counselling was a natural progression for me after leaving my nursing career. I volunteered as a lifeline crisis counsellor for 5 years and discovered my passion and love of enabling people to change through listening and being curious. This led me to further studies in a Diploma/Bachelor of Counselling and recently diploma in Holistic Counselling and Psychotherapy that has given me skills to experience counselling at a deeper level.
  Counselling has given me the opportunity to connect with people and enable them to gain insight into their life situation and find effective long lasting solutions.

• Which philosophical approaches have influenced your professional development?

  The philosophical approach to my professional development is to form a strong connection to my client leading to wellness, growth and resilience . My personnel development and growth continue through therapy, inner work and self evaluation giving me a greater understanding of life and of life complications in general. I use approaches such as process oriented psychotherapy, somatic, loss and grief, holistic and process work. This self awareness has allowed me to assist my participants to also gain a new perspective of their life and life situation becoming conscious of a problem or issue.

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

  Aspects of the human journey I'm interested in are thought process and related somatic symptoms and the effect it has on ones journey through life. There are often repeated episodes a person can experience on a daily basis and we tend to push them into the background and if not acknowledged they will persist. To change ones pathway I hope to be a guide with my participant helping them explore and acknowledge these repeated annoyances in their lives giving them a way to move forward in a more positive direction.

• What methods do you use?

  The methods I like to use to enable a participant to explore their problem is a person centred approach to enable my client to achieve personal growth through enabling them to learn skills to heal themselves. I practice process oriented psychology, allowing the participant through deep thought and self-awareness to gain a profound insight into their life and universal connection to life. I use meditative drawing exercises to enable my clients to explore their deepest thoughts. Dreamwork to connect to ones subconscious and universal energies.

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

  Participant progress can happen in the first session just because they have been able to speak openly about whatever it is that has brought them to work with me or it could take weeks, months even years. The client will know when progress has been made when they feel a shift or change in themselves and their circumstances.

• How has therapy made a difference in your life?

  Therapy has made me a better person by improving my self worth and giving me insights into my life and life relationships. I have gained an understanding and awareness of how to let go of negative thinking and improve my positive thinking. The change in my thought process has given me great insight into the power of negative thinking and persistent annoyances, by using appropriate tools, I have become happier and more confident in life also making the people around me happier and more confident.

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

  I love being a therapist simple because it gives me the opportunity to give the participant the platform and ability in a safe compassionate and empathetic environment to openly discuss and explore their life circumstances. In using my skills I can help them make change for the better by the client learning and implementing their own set of skills.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

  YES!! I have "bad hair days" where the planets don't align or where my mojo is out of sorts. I really try to be aware of these days and if I turn up a bit ruffled I am upfront with the participant and usually things work out, ok or I am also one to acknowledge when a session didn’t work well.

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

  Loneliness. I think the way our society have become so focused on independence, using IT devices to find everything from love to food while sitting on the lounge alone. There is such an array of choice of material objects that actually creates anxiety at never being satisfied or fulfilled. The way our work life is structured, such as work from home or big organisations dictating work structure to capitalise on profit can be isolating. People become isolated in many ways leading to poor emotional and mental health and this can lead them to experience emptiness, isolation and low self esteem making it difficult for them to connect or reconnect with society.

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

  Book. The Alchemist. Paulo Coelho
  I loved this book as it taught me about following process and life path.
  Song. I know this is corny but Whitney Houston”The greatest love of all” because love yourself and self kindness are the greatest loves of all.