WELCOME

My name is Maria,

I am a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and group facilitator with over 25 years of experience, including work with the NHS and in Higher Education.

In our busy lives, it can be difficult to find the time and space to pause, listen to ourselves and have meaningful, heart-felt conversations – both with ourselves and others. While this is very common and we learn to carry on, often we end up adjusting to different circumstantial constraints and putting our feelings and needs aside. And it is not until challenges, changes or difficult life experiences present themselves that we may need to stop, pause and pay attention to what is happening within us and look out for spaces where we can get support.

For me, the journey of therapy needs to start with us creating a space where you feel met, heard and understood and where there is room to explore what may be difficult to put into words. I aim to offer a relationship that is open, trusting and compassionate, in which you come as you are without needing to have everything figured out.

Working together with my support, we will pay attention to what is happening and begin to make sense and meaning of this experience

and look for new possibilities and choices.

Services

INDIVIDUAL THERAPY

‘The more creative solutions a person invents for a particular circumstance, the more adept a person is at the art of living’ (Bloom, 2001)

My main approach is contemporary Relational Gestalt Psychotherapy, an experiential, existential and relational approach that places importance on awareness of the person’s experience, the present moment and the therapeutic relationship. It is grounded in a field-emergent, phenomenological and relational understanding of Gestalt therapy.

Rather than focusing on what is happening in your life, we also pay attention to how you experience it: what you feel, think and sense in your body, and how you respond to the people and situations around you.

The relationship we develop in therapy offers an opportunity to explore these experiences with curiosity and compassion.

Our work also considers the effect of the current situation and the wider context. It helps to identify and understand patterns of relating with others outside of the therapy situation, present and past and gives the opportunity to look for new possibilities and choices available to the person.

Sometimes it can be difficult to articulate complex thoughts and feelings about us and others. It is like there are no words or they don’t seem to be enough to convey a particular experience. These are the times when I may suggest the use of creative media (objects such as shells and stones, or pastels or clay) as a way of translating our experience and beginning to explore the difficulties.

I am always client-led, which means that I am guided by you and the use of creative materials is entirely optional.

COUPLES THERAPY

‘Love dances in the freshness of the unknown’ Deeppak chopra

My approach to couples is based on Gestalt therapy theory and also draws on concepts from Emotion Focused Therapy. EFT is an experiential attachment-based and systemic approach that focusses on accessing and healing emotions and strengthening relational bonds by developing new ways of communicating and responding to one another.

We have probably all experienced relationships in which communication repeatedly breaks down, and we find ourselves reacting in the same or similar way time after time.

Couples therapy can help you explore these recurrent patterns and develop greater awareness of what happens between you. Together, we can look at ways of improving them while at the same time rediscovering.

and strengthening some of the ways in which you already relate to each other that are positive and fulfilling.

Sometimes, ongoing difficulties arise from significant differences in personality, values and needs. Bringing these differences in the open and developing a deeper understanding of one another can create new and satisfying ways of being together.

Following the gestalt therapy principle, the emphasis is on helping partners to become more aware of what is happening both within themselves and between them, and to understand the impact they have on one another.

With the support of the therapist, growth can happen by trying the unfamiliar and explore new ways of relating that foster greater understanding and connection.

SUPERVISION

In addition to my clinical work, I provide individual and group Clinical Supervision to qualified and trainee counsellors and psychotherapists.

‘(Supervision) is a form of retreat, where we leave our professional world for a while and we come to ‘stop and listen’, and it’s only then that things begin to make sense and we return different, and influence others to be different too’ (Carroll, 2001).

Like my therapeutic work, my supervisory work is grounded in a field-emergent, phenomenological and relational understanding of Gestalt therapy.

I see Supervision as a collaborative venture between two professionals, where the difficulties and challenges experienced with clients can be explored and possible ways forward can be learned in order to work as effectively, safely and ethically as possible, and ensure the best possible therapeutic practice for the client.

In this process, building a relationship that is open, trusting and enabling with the supervisor is very important for the work with the clients to be effective.

Contact

CONTACT

You are very welcome to contact me by email or telephone to arrange a time to speak.

I will aim to respond within 48 hours. I can be reach on:

Mobile: 07772 519277

Email: maria@mariajromero.co.uk

Alternatively, you can fill in the form here.

Please state the venue you will be able to travel to for face2face appoinments and when you will be available for sessions