Individual and Couples Psychotherapy
Svetlana Vasilyeva      778-867-2865
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Therapeutic orientation

I am a certified Gestalt therapist.  I have done an extensive training in Gestalt therapy and find it very effective in providing individuals and couples with consistent long-lasting change that continues to happen even after they finish therapy. 
I am familiar with other therapeutic modalities, such as solution-focused therapy, narrative therapy, existential analysis, emotion-focused and Gottman couples therapy. I am trained in EMDR therapy, which is an effective contemporary therapeutic approach to trauma.

About Gestalt therapy

Gestalt therapy is the holistic humanistic psychotherapy with the main goal of helping the person to develop deeper awareness of themselves: of what they are sensing, feeling, thinking and doing, which is possible only in the context of dialogic therapeutic relationship. Dialogic relationship means that the therapist is present and available as much as possible, has no predetermined goal in mind on how a therapy session should go and committed to the relationship of transparency and understanding, where mutual differences are respected and utilized as the vehicle for contact and increased awareness.


Gestalt therapy is a way to examine our difficulties in the presence of a therapist, who will help us discover what we are experiencing and doing that creates current stress in our life. Once we become more aware of what we do and how we do it, the possibility of having a choice to do something different increases significantly.


What is required from those who come to therapy is to be curious about their inner and outer life. We are the experts on our experience, our interests and needs, and the therapist is professionally trained to help us to draw attention to things we haven't been noticing. Therapy can help us to see some parts of us that became a habit or routine, that are not supporting our growth and prevent us from having satisfying life in the present. 


During therapeutic work, we are able to learn more about who we are, how we make meaning of things, and what our responses are in specific situations. Consequently, we begin to have an opportunity to use these discoveries in whatever way suits us.


People seek therapy, when their ability to self-regulate (which means the ability to go after satisfying our needs within our environment in a healthy, respectful to others way) is interrupted. By learning more about the specifics of how we interrupt our self-regulation, we begin to be able to find and experiment with new ways of living, which are potentially more satisfying and meaningful. 




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