Sophie Toutain

My aim is to support you on your journey to empowerment, response-ability, choice-fullness and engaging with life harmoniously. Self-awareness and paying attention to what is happening in the here-and-now are the starting point of the therapeutic process.

I work with:

adult individuals and couples of all ages and cultures.

I specialise in the following areas:

• trauma
• abuse
• relationships
• loss and grief
• anxiety
• depression

Counselling/Therapy Services

My role is to support your growth through self-awareness and paying attention to what is happening in the moment. It is a gentle process: it takes time to connect with all the aspects of ourselves. I am respectful of your pace and your need for emotional safety.

I am curious about what’s going on inside of you, what thoughts and emotions arise, what your bodily experience is in the moment, how much of yourself you bring forward and how much you hide or rein in. I am interested in how you find nurture and care in your environment or how you adjust to the lack of it. Who you choose to share time with, how you allow closeness or keep others at a safe distance, how you bring your differences into relationships and what your dance with an intimate other looks like – these are precious pieces of information we may discover in the process of therapy.

As a Gestalt therapist, I pay attention to body process. Our body is the vessel of our lived experience on earth. In our modern world, we too often want to be in control, so we let the mind override what our senses are saying. We can become disconnected from our body’s wisdom.

Counselling/Therapy Approach

Gestalt Therapy is about self-awareness, knowing who I am in the here-and-now, what I feel and how I respond to life’s challenges. I believe that, with the right support, each one of us has the wisdom and the resources to heal and live a more fulfilling existence. By slowing down, attending to body process, using the therapeutic alliance as a safe space, where we can experiment with new ways of being, we can tap into our creativity, be playful, take risks and reconnect with our true self. Gestalt therapy is a holistic modality exploring body, mind and spirit. It is both gentle and challenging. Gestalt focuses on ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’: the therapist’s aim is NOT to change you, but to support the gracious unfolding of who you truly are.

Background and Experience

I came to Gestalt Therapy through my own need to heal and my hope to experience a brighter and easier life. Therapy has allowed me to understand how, at a very young age, when we are extremely vulnerable and dependent on others, we develop ways of responding to life’s challenges and how these responses turn into patterns over time. These patterns leave us feeling isolated, not ‘good enough’ and shamed. Only with full awareness, of what we do, can we start realising that we are limiting ourselves to what we know, and later on, risk exploring different options.

I  worked in community agencies for 11 years. I have been in private practice in Central Christchurch since 2018.