Anne de Silva Therapy

Sometimes it’s worth the wait…

Being present in this moment, doesn’t preclude working towards something over the long term.
This month marks 20 years since I first graduated from a somatic psychotherapy training and with a postgraduate counselling qualification.

Alongside having and raising a family and working as a social researcher, over two decades I have fanned the spark and, after years working out of other people’s spaces, have just opened my own practice room!
She’s not finished, but close enough, and welcomed her first clients yesterday.

I look forward to welcoming you to my new therapy space soon!

It’s coming together….

My practice has found a new home, and a nurturing sanctuary is currently being created.

Can’t wait to unveil it in a couple of weeks!!

HAPPY MENOPAUSE AWARENESS DAY!

What does adolescence have in common with menopause? Soooo much. With one exception. Menopause is hidden, disregarded. And there’s a groundswell that promises to change that. And I want to be part of it.

I’ve been very quiet here while I’ve been going through a profound transition, a major rite of passage. Perimenopause and recently menopause.
As a therapist, I’m typically very private, but today, on menopause awareness day, I’m going to start bringing light to this incredible yet hidden evolution.

It’s been six years as a process for me, and will be shorter or longer than that for others, and one full of learning and growth. One that deserves honoring, space and support.

I can’t promise I’ll post regularly, but I hope that when I do, it makes the journey easier and richer for others. So… welcome!

Anne de Silva Therapy updated their information in their About section.

TO ALL THOSE IN LOCKDOWN, FEELING SOME LONGING RIGHT NOW

'Longing has its own secret, future destination, and its own seasonal emergence from within, a ripening from the core, a seed growing in our own bodies; it is as if we are put into relationship with an enormous distance inside us leading back to some unknown origin with its own secret timing for emergence, indifferent to our wills, and gifted at the same time with an intimate sense of proximity, to a person, to a future, to a transformation, to a life we want for ourselves, and to the beauty of the sky and the ground that surrounds us.”

- David Whyte

Mother’s Day is mixed for so many including me. These days I am more spacious and take the day more gently, adapting to my inevitably changing impulses.

Yes I’m excited!

Today was another step in supporting more children and young people who have experienced the death of a parent. Another caring school wanting help to provide the best possible care and learning support for the average 1 in 20 students who suffer devastating early loss before they reach adulthood.

I love this work because I KNOW that this helps. That the more we invite conversations about death, the more schools understand about trauma and learning, the more all children will thrive, no matter what suffering they experience.

Can’t wait to keep spreading this word! If you know of a school that would like support to understand how to be compassionate and supportive towards grieving students, reach out.

My little nest for the weekend.

A few days ago, I started training in NeuroAffective Touch. A subtle, powerful approach to working with developmental trauma. Developmental trauma are the wounds we experience early in life, through ruptures in the relational matrix.

Many of these exist beyond conscious memory and before cognition and words helped us make them into a narrative. But they are stored in the body, showing up in issues spanning from relationship challenges to physical symptoms, anxiety and depression.

And touch is the language they respond to. Our mother language.

So for my course, I took myself away to a nest-like Airbnb so I could immerse myself in the learning. And yes, you can receive touch work, even over zoom! This morning I am cracking the shell and coming back out into the world anew.

There’s another year to go for the full training, but I’m looking forward to bringing this more and more into my work.

See you there!

ANNOUNCEMENT
Today Feel the Magic’s ‘Let’s Talk Su***de’ program launches to the public!! The program I am beyond excited to have co-designed for young ones and teens whose parent or sibling has died by su***de. A most violent and tragic loss that inevitably causes traumatic effects. Often that last across the lifespan. Not least because of the stigma, aversion, judgement, anger, fear and complex paradoxical feelings su***de (still) arouses in everyone. Let's face it, su***de is UNCOMFORTABLE, in an extreme way. Few topics are as hidden and disconcerting.

And when we don't deal with this discomfort, this fear, we pass it on to those left behind. And when that happens when those left are still young, it makes the impacts worse. Including a much higher rate of su***de among those bereaved by parental su***de when young. I know the traumatic, far reaching impacts from the inside out, as part of my lived experience.

Let's Talk Su***de sets out to change all that. This is EARLY INTERVENTION, SU***DE PREVENTION.

Rather than shut it out, Let's Talk Su***de invites it in, in a safe container, held by people who really understand. We are outing su***de, the most hidden of losses, so that these children and young people, their pain and their beauty, can be seen and met and heard and loved. So that they can learn to feel their pain and hold it tenderly, without feeling overwhelmed. So that they can discern who, when and where to be vulnerable and open up, instead of remaining shut down. So they can connect to others who also feel deep paradoxical feelings far beyond their age or stage of development. So they can know they are not alone.

https://resources.feelthemagic.org.au/lets-talk-su***de/