Veronik Verkest

A conversation with Veronik Verkest

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

  After a difficult period in my work life, I physically became unwell and was eventually diagnosed with a chronic illness. My habitual way of pushing through difficulties and ignoring my body signals was no longer helpful. With the help of a somatic psychotherapist, I started to come back to listen to my body and process the emotional pain I had habitually pushed aside. As my relationship with my self and others transformed, I wished to share my excitement with others. This path led me to train as a relational somatic psychotherapist.

• Which philosophical approaches have influenced your professional development?

  I have been influenced by Husserl and his philosophy of phenomenology. This sees me accepting and staying with each individual's subjective reality rather than 'treating' the individual as an object where symptoms are seen as problems to be fixed.
  
  I have also been influenced by the existential philosophers. For example, Maurice Merleau-Ponty who emphasised that the body is most important in knowing the world. As a somatic psychotherapist I track what is happening in the client's body and assist the client to start to trust their own inner wisdom. The body's sensations and emotions are happening in the moment and are a gateway to the unconscious, which can be incongruent with the client's words. By tracking the sensations and attuning to the emotions of the client, unprocessed memories can start to be integrated into the client's holistic self.
  
  Existential, mindfulness, psychodynamic, gestalt, self psychology.
  I work from an intersubjective perspective, attending to each individual subjective experience from a body and mind perspective.

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

  I am passionate about helping individuals find new meaning on their unique life journey. Too often, there is no one to hear our painful story. My aim is to help others to feel heard and seen - to work together to uncover hidden parts of self so that these maybe integrated into the client's whole self.
  
  I have a particular interest in easing the impact of stress and trauma on the mind-body.

• What methods do you use?

  We work together using intersubjective mindfulness to understand your unique ways of being in relation to others. Some of the ways of being are adaptive strategies that worked well in their past (when the brain developed very fast aged 0-2) but are no longer useful today. We explore alternative ways of being, responding rather than reacting from habitual ways.
  
  My approach is iinter-subjective, dynamic and brings in recent finding in neurobiology, trauma theory and attachment theory as required.

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

  Each client is unique and progress will depend on what the objectives are for the client.
  Most clients find that six-12 sessions gives them a sense of how progress is in process.
  

• How has therapy made a difference in your life?

  Therapy has opened my heart to more fully accept different parts of me and in turn others, with curiosity and without judgement. Therapy has enabled me to deeply listen to my body and trust my inner voice.

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

  I feel privileged to have my clients trust me to walk with them on their unique journey so that together we discover more bout their sense of self.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

  We all have times when we experience challenges. They make us feel frustrated, sad or lost. This is part of being human.

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

  Global warming and our view of unlimited growth that cannot be sustained with limited resources on this planet.
  
  Limited natural resources to feed and shelter an ever expanding population is one of the most significant problems we face today.
  
  Trauma and the impact on individuals who in turn perpetuate more trauma on others via wars, murder, violence etc.

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

  I am inspired by
  - painter Fred Williams and his ability to see and reproduce the many variations of the colours of Australian nature.
  - Erik Satie and his minimal sounds that resonate at a deep level
  - Virginia Woolf and her way with words in novels such as Orlando