Michelle Morris

A conversation with Michelle Morris

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

  From a young age I have been very interested in people and fascinated by people's stories. I remember when I was around 10 years old being very moved by the film The Three Faces of Eve, about a woman with disocciative identity disorder, and from that time being drawn to this vocation. I deeply believe in the healing capacity of therapeutic work and offering what I can to help catalyse the self-healing process. In addition, I went through a couple of periods of feeling very distressed, stuck, and through working with a therapist found a way out of this.

• Which philosophical approaches have influenced your professional development?

  Transpersonal Psychology, which is a bridge between psychology and spirituality and focuses on intellectual, emotional, spiritual, physical, social and creative aspects of being.
  Jungian Psychology, a key element in this approach and Transpersonal Psychology, is helping people discover the healing capacity within.
  Buddhist philosophy/psychology in particular Mindfulness Meditation .
  

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

  Mindbody healing, creative expression, transformation through grief and trauma.

• What methods do you use?

  Embodied Imagination, a therapeutic and creative process of working with dreams, memories and physical symptoms. I have been fortunate to complete a three-year training with Robert Bosnak, Jungian analyst who pioneered this method.
  Mindfulness meditation, which gives clients simple but powerful tools, which are practical and very effective in helping in daily life.
  Sandplay Therapy a gentle but deep Jungian therapy for both children and adults. It is a wonderful, nonthreatening way to work with children. When we may not have words for our feelings, the sand and miniatures give shape to what may never have been articulated.

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

  This depends on what is meant by progress. Also people have different temperaments and experience, so it is hard to give a generic answer. It is often the case that clients can feel some relief after just one or two sessions. Unhelpful patterns that have been present for many years, can start to shift in a few sessions .

• How has therapy made a difference in your life?

  My own struggles led me to seek help from a therapist, which has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. Therapy has helped me to understand and be more accepting of myself and enabled me to extend this to others.

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

  I find it a privilege to get to know people and their unique stories. It is deeply fulfilling to see people, who have initially been unhappy, flourishing. The creative imagination, which is expressed through images is fascinating to me. So I particularly enjoy working with dreams, metaphors, Sandplay Therapy.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

  Yes, like other humans, there are times of challenge. But, these days I have more internal resources and skilful ways of responding and view these challenges or walls also as Windows/opportunities.

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

  Environmental problems, the pollution of the earth, our home, loss of species and humans disconnection from nature.

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

  There are many books, films and songs that inspire me. I also find Nature profoundly inspiring. I recently saw the film and read the book Tracks, this is a section I found particularly moving:
  I reviewed what I had learned. I had discovered capabilities and strengths that I would not have imagined possible in those distant dream like days before the trip. I have rediscovered people in my past and have come to terms with my feelings towards them. I learned what love is... I understand freedom and security. The need to rattle the foundations of habit. That to be free one needs constant and unrelenting vigilance over one's weaknesses. A vigilance which requires a moral energy most of us are incapable of manufacturing. We relax back into the molds of habit. They are secure, they bind us and thus contain us at the expense of freedom. To break the molds, to be heedless of the seductions of security in impossible struggle... is to be free to learn, to test yourself constantly, to gamble. It is not safe. I have learned to use my fears as stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks, and best of all I have learned... I want to remember all this. I want to remember this place and what it meant me, and how I had arrived here. I want to fix it so firmly in my mind and body that I will never, ever forget. (Robyn Davidson)