Welcome
I am a Core Process psychotherapist and supervisor working in Clifton, Bristol and Online.
Core Process Psychotherapy
CPP is a mindfulness based form of psychotherapy that integrates awareness of the body with modern integrative approaches to psychotherapy. In sharing and exploring difficulties in therapy, the invitation is to include awareness of feelings that arise in the body when needed. This can support a deeper inquiry into defences, vulnerable feelings and trauma. Find out more about Core Process Psychotherapy here.
To book an initial consultation with me, or to ask me a question click here.
You can also contact me at alanmstoddart@gmail.com, 07904019465.
Inner Inquiry
I work with clients seeking support with various kinds of difficulties. Much of our suffering relates to how we have been shaped by life in childhood, and how we are conditioned by these experiences. My work is therefore informed by psychodynamic and psychological theory in understanding how our defences can get in the way of us finding deeper meaning and happiness in life.
Through inquiring into suffering, we can become more aware of how these patterns and beliefs are leading us to act in self limiting ways and cause us suffering in our relationships. Bringing awareness of the body into the work can be supportive and revealing in this work, in helping us to slow down and tune into ourselves.
An Intuitive Orientation
With my clients we explore their intuitive orientation of what has brought them to therapy and what what they need. Over time we learn to trust ourselves more in therapy and the wisdom contained in what we feel.
Some of the areas I work with include supporting clients with trauma from harm experienced in childhood, identity issues, relationship difficulties, depression, anxiety, OCD, dissociation (disconnection from feeling) to name a few areas.
I generally work longer term with clients as this kind of work takes time and is intimate work. Included in this can be exploration of the the relationship between therapist and client and what may arise in the work. Permission to explore on this level can support a deeper inquiry in the sessions.
An Embodied Approach
Central to my work is the idea of wholeness, that all our feelings need permission to be seen and felt in our experience. Feelings of wounding, sadness and anger carry wisdom that we need to integrate but that we have learnt to reject as we did not feel permission to express and be with these feelings in life. In my work I will try to mirror what may be rejected by the client where possible through my own felt sense in my body. Read more about my approach here.
Experience
I am psychotherapist, supervisor and tutor at the Karuna Institute that offers trainings on Relational Mindfulness and Psychotherapy. I trained in 2017 at Karuna (the first mindfulness based training in psychotherapy in the UK). During this time I have held a busy practice first in North London and now in Bristol and online. I am accredited with the UKCP (UK Council for Psychotherapy) and ACPP (Association of Core Process Psychotherapists) and am fully insured to practice.
Prior to training as a psychotherapist I worked for fifteen years in Children and Families Social Work. This included holding challenging work in individual and group contexts. This has supported my capacity to hold difficult material as a therapist and has offered me diverse experience of working with individuals and in groups in challenging situations.
I receive clinical supervision on all of my work and have two clinical supervisors. I am committed to learning and development in psychotherapy, and also attend two peer supervision groups and a reading group that explores and questions how psychotherapy as a profession may need to change and be less rigid in certain ways. Since 2021, I have attended several group work retreats a year, doing a practice called circling, that offers the mirror of community to bring awareness to my own vulnerability in relationships, self-limiting patterns and beliefs.
To read more about me click here.