On this page you will find a brief list of the main therapeutic models that Barrie could use during your appointment together. Every person is unique. Issues, problems, and life's little or big challenges are different to each person. Rather than applying a specific therapeutic model onto a client, we work with the unique individual. Then, each therapy session subjectively flows within its uniqueness. People deserve this respect, these are grown beliefs, through years of experience.

It is Barrie's aim to help you get back on track, rekindle the spark within your life, focus on the direction you choose, and help you to move towards a more positive future.

Occasionally, it may help you to attend more in-depth therapy to discover what is causing, and/or propping up your limiting feelings and beliefs around your dilemma. This is always your choice. Everyone is different, and deserves to be treated in this way, with respect, dignity, and without judgement. And of course, in strict confidence.

Let's take a look at how Steps 2 Healing could be able to help you...

Counselling and Psychotherapy

We have become who we are from our life events and the learnings we have taken on board ever since the day we were born. Our relationships with family, friends and colleagues are based upon who we are and how we have learned to behave, act or react through experience. Everyone has strengths in some form or another. Sometimes clients are not fully aware of the resources they have within their personality. That is why it helps to see a therapist (a professionally objective person) who can treat you as a unique individual, without applying a rigid method of working, because you are an organic being, not an academic text book.

The therapeutic relationship between client and therapist is the basis to helping you reach a successful outcome. Barrie is qualified to post-graduate level in multi-counselling theories. Barrie believes that attentively listening to you, possibly more sensitively and empathically than you have been taken notice of before, can help you to build a stronger foundation for change. This kind of trusting relationship requires a facilitator who will behave in an ethical and professional manner at all times.

Barrie always uphold respect and integrity, "I hope this is reflected within my genuine and honest approach to helping you reach a positive change". All client contact is treated in strict confidence.

When a person realises he has been deeply heard, his eyes moisten. I think in some real sense, he is weeping for joy. It is as though he were saying, "Thank God, somebody heard me. Somebody knows what it is like to be me. Carl Rogers.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing)

Francine Shapiro, a psychologist, developed EMDR in the 1980s, when she noticed that moving her eyes from side to side seemed to reduce the occurrence of her own distressing memories. EMDR is a highly effective model of psychotherapy, now a NICE compliant evidence based therapy too, widely used in the NHS and in private practice. Barrie is qualified in EMDR, Parts 1, 2 and 3.

EMDR is being used more and more by medical professionals within their work. This therapy helps the client 'link and connect' all parts of the mind and brain; which can help the person change how they think, feel and behave. This model can bring rapid results. EMDR could play a part in healing broken feelings within your Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Changing the memories that form the way we see ourselves, also changes the way we view others. Therefore, our relationships, job performance, what we are willing to do or are able to resist, all move in a positive direction." Francine Shapiro.

Focusing

Around 1952, the idea of focussing was established by philosopher Eugine Gedlin. He teamed up with psychologist Carl Rogers and they went on to develop Focusing and Experiential/Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy. Focusing is a therapy that can help guide you into a more concentrated awareness, a felt sense and bodily connection of particular feelings. This can be useful to gain a deeper awareness from within that area, to reach something that has been difficult for you to find the words to explain. Did you know that words are only 7% of our communication? Barrie is qualified in this area.

Every bad feeling is potential energy towards a more right way of being. if you give it space to move towards its rightness. Eugine Gedlin.

Clinical Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy and Mindfulness

These methods are a natural state of the mind and body, When used by an experienced professional, they are completely safe in every way. Remember, publicised hypnosis is very much sensationalised by the media, especially through movies, and nothing like professional ethical therapy, and certainly not about control!

When you are hypnotised, you are not asleep or out of control. You are in a concentrated state of deep relaxation, a focussed state of awareness. This is where you can link and connect your inner mind and resolve issues and problems you have been experiencing up to now.

Barrie believes this state of mind can often be the key to effective change; it is a state where a person can fully engage and tap into resources that may be needed to gain positive results. There are many tools within Clinical Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy that you can learn and take away with you to help live a more independent and healthier life.

Mindfulness was brought about at a later date, and is a new fashionable word for the same and very similar methods and techniques used within traditional Clinical Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy. Mindfulness has taken parts of brief psychotherapy tools, including Neuro Linguistics and Meditation, to make it a new and up-coming buzz-word of our time.

Within Barrie's qualifications of the different psychotherapy models, in the 1990s, he was awarded a Distinction, relating to his Diploma for Clinical Hypnotherapy, accredited by The British Medical Hypnotherapy Examination Board. In the past Barrie has also tutored for the London College of Clinical Hypnosis, as well as for other well known people, around the United Kingdom and South Africa. Barrie was also taught by the late Psychotherapist Wilfred Proudfoot, founder of the British School of Psychotherapy and Hypnosis training in Scarborough, and the UK Guild of Hypnotist Examiners, one of the oldest hypnotherapy organisations in the United Kingdom. Barrie facilitated workshops at the UK Guild of Hypnotist Examiners Annual Conferences, back in the 1990s. He was also a past Member for The Board of Trustees for the Guild.

Did you know that Barrie was invited by Danny Boyle's Screenwriters to help with the research into Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy for the movie 'Trance', resulting in an amazing opportunity to meet all the stars from the film and walk with them on the Red Carpet at Leicester Square for the Premier Screening. Maybe we can find a decent photograph and video recordings to write about this in our new blog.

The most important thing in changing human behaviour is the person's motivation. Milton Erickson.

Empty Chair Work/Inner Child

(Gestalt Therapy Techniques)

Fritz Perls, Laura Perls, and Paul Goodman, in the 1940s, developed Gestalt Therapy.

Gestalt therapy  is an experiential therapy, a humanistic form of therapy. This was originally designed as an alternative to conventional psychoanalysis. It is more concerned with helping the client 'experience' rather than understand. 'Understanding' itself might not be the key to change. Gestalt Therapy helps you to go through your own healing process to help safely resolve problems. Gestalt Therapy helps you to 'tap into your own flexibility and creativity'.

Often, when a child grows up traumatized, they may learn to hide that trauma and act normal because the grown adult is now frightened of experiencing the same emotional distress again. As an adult, unexplained behaviour can get in your way of living a happier life. Perhaps there are certain people within your life who you try to avoid, but would really like to understand why your feelings are so strong in this area. Working therapeutically with your inner child, internally completing the 'unresolved' can have a huge positive effect upon your life. "When you feel ready, we can sensitively and creatively assist you in communicating with that 'younger you' and help facilitate your healing." Both Barrie holds qualifications in this area.

The Gestalt Prayer: I do my thing and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful. If not, it can't be helped. Fritz Perls.

Relaxation/Mindfulness

We could all do with some relaxation from time to time. Progressive relaxation can help you to feel more comfortable within yourself. Relaxation and Mindfulness are interconnected with the above description about Clinical Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy and Mindfulness.

Used as a stand alone tool, relaxation and mindfulness can help with stress, anxiety and depression, and is sometimes the precursor to a therapy intervention. Taking a few deep breaths in through your nose, holding the breath for a few seconds, and then releasing it slowly through your mouth, can help you to let go of tension. Barrie and Paula-Anne do recommend most of their clients to practise relaxation methods, of their choosing. This gives each person a special time to consider themselves and their journey in life, whilst encouraging healing and developing well-being. This is not compulsory, only by recommendation, but if you would like to purchase a recording that could help with this process, you may wish to consider taking a look through the list of self-help recordings at www.self-hypnosis.com. (Please note, Barrie's brand/trade name, is 'Barrie St John' and not his birth name, Barrie Foster. Barrie St John is a trading name for international consumerism and past national and international teachings.)

...have the power of directing or concentrating nervous energy, raising or depressing it in a remarkable degree, at will, locally or generally. That in this state, we have the power of exciting or depressing the force and frequency of the heart's action, and the state of circulation, or generally, in a surprising degree. James Braid. Scottish Surgeon and 'gentleman scientist.' An important and influential pioneer of hypnotism and hypnotherapy.

NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) - the study of subjective experience, challenging language patterns and many useful therapeutic interventions

Founder, Richard Bandler, and co-creator, John Grinder, developed this method to understand and change human behaviour patterns. NLP is the study of subjective experience. This means working in or around the sensory systems of a person:

Visual - what you see,  (Ask yourself, 'What did I see today that made me smile?)

Auditory - what you hear, (Ask yourself, 'Which music helps me to feel happy?)

Kinaesthetic - how you feel, (Ask yourself, 'When I laugh, how does it make me feel inside?')

Olfactory - what you smell, (Ask yourself, 'Which smells invigorates my senses?)

Gustatory - what you taste, (Ask yourself, 'What is my favourite food or drink?)

and Digital - your internal self-talk. (Ask yourself, 'What would I like to say but cannot quite find the right words to express my meaning?')

Although NLP gives us many different techniques to help people, it is the flexible use of this approach that really brings results. There are many useful techniques within NLP. This approach can bring you rapid change, where other methods have failed to hit the mark. Barrie holds qualifications to Master Practitioner Level in Neuro Linguistic Programming. Barrie also has many years of experience in teaching within this area.

In the same way the client and therapist relationship is important in counselling and psychotherapy, building rapport and getting to know the client's primary sensory system is very important to producing change. Listening attentively to the clients words can be part of the solution to discovering what is happening for them at a deeper level of awareness. There is no point asking a client how they see (visual) themselves in one years' time, when the client can easily explain to you their financial forecast (digital). Parts of the NLP model is about discovering the clients main representational system, pacing and leading their language, and gradually bringing in all modalities, (ie. what they see, what they feel, what they hear/say to themselves, what they may taste or smell, how they may explain it internally or to someone else.) to help them get a better sense of how they might experience their life in 12 months' time.

I know that I'm fond of saying this repeatedly, but the best thing about the past is that it's over and when it's not over something is amiss in your mind. It's not the original event or perpetrator that's making you remember - it's you, making you remember - it's you, inside your own mind, holding on to terrible memories. None of us are exempt from this. Richard Bandler.

Creative geniuses are: 1. Comfortable with uncertainty. 2. Able to hold seeming opposites or paradoxes. 3. Persistent. John Grinder.

The presuppositions of NLP are:

• Have respect for the other person's model of the world. (We are all unique and experience the world in different ways. Everyone is individual and has their own special way of being).

• The map is not the territory. (People respond to their 'map' of reality, not to reality itself. How people make sense of the world around them is through their senses and from their own personal experience; this means that each individual's perception of an event is different).

• We have all the resources we need (Or we can create them. These resources can be internal or external, which is a useful reminder that sometimes, believing this enables us to be better empowered in any situation).

• Mind and body form a linked system. (Your mental attitude affects your body and your health and, in turn, how you behave).

• If what you are doing isn't working, do something else. (Flexibility is the key to success).

• Choice is better than no choice. (Having options can provide more opportunities for achieving results).

• We are always communicating. (Even when we remain silent, we are communicating. Non-verbal communication can account for a large proportion of a message).

• The meaning of your communication is the response you get. (While your intention may be clear to you, it is the other person's interpretation and response that reflects your effectiveness. NLP teaches you the skills and flexibility to ensure that the message you send equals the message they receive).

• There is no failure, only feedback. (What seemed like failure can be thought of as success that just stopped too soon. With this understanding, we can stop blaming ourselves and others, find solutions and improve the quality of what we do).

• Behind every behaviour there is a positive intention. (When we understand that other people have some positive intention in what they say and do (however annoying and negative it may seem to us), it can be easier to stop getting angry and start to move forward).

• Anything can be accomplished if the task is broken down into small enough steps. (Achievement becomes easier if activities are manageable; NLP can help you learn how to analyse what needs to be done and find ways to be both efficient and effective).

Solution Focused Therapy

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, also called Solution-Focused Therapy was developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg in collaboration with their colleagues at the Milwaukee Brief Family Theray Centre. In Solution-Focused Therapy we target the 'solutions' to your problem. Together, we use your current and future resources and hopes rather than the present problems and past causes. We may look at your own coping strengths to create more clear goals towards a resolution to your problem. Barrie is qualified in this area.

Almost every problem contains an element of solution. Insoo Kim Berg.

Find out what works, and do more of that. Steve de Shazer.

Timeline Therapy TM

Each life experience has an impact in some way or another, on how we approach our day-to-day living. Significant events can make our life 'now', less than fulfilling, and can stop us from achieving the results we want. A timeline therapist uses the client's own internal 'timeline' to elicit and facilitate a compelling and happier future. Barrie has completed Timeline Therapy Training and qualifications.

In order to have rapport with another person it is essential to respect their model of the world. Tad James, Contemporary Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming and the developer of Time Line Therapy (Registered Trademark)

The Work of Virginia Satir

Virginia Satir was an American author and psychotherapist. She was recognised for her approach to family therapy. She was known as the 'Mother of Family Therapy'

Barrie has attended Seminars and trainings involving the excellent work of Virginia Satir. "It was such an exciting opportunity to take part in several live and experiential 'part's-parties' to feel and sense the subjective experience of unconscious change", led by Wilfred Proudfoot at the UK School of Hypnosis and Psychotherapy in Scarborough. 

We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us. Virginia Satir.

I regard parenting as the hardest, most complicated, anxiety-ridden, sweat-and-blood-producing job in the world. Succeeding requires the ultimate in patience, common sense, commitment, humour, tact, love, wisdom, awareness, and knowledge. At the same time, it holds the possibility for the most rewarding, joyous experience of a lifetime, namely, that of being successful guides to a new and unique human being. Virginia Satir. 

Barrie also attended workshops led by the author, therapist and educator, John Banmen R. Psych, RMFT, author and teacher of Virginia Satir's legacy, when he visited the UK back in the 1990s.

Using Art in Therapy

Using our creativity can be very helpful in therapy, especially when words inadequately describe a feeling inside. Drawing, scribbling or squiggling with coloured pens, pencils and paint can be fun. Even playing with, moulding or massaging play dough, can be a good way to express how you are feeling. It can be a helpful distraction when dealing with trauma at a deeper level. Often the barrier to reaching our deeper awareness is the conscious logical and thinking mind. Whilst it can be helpful to 'understand' a situation, releasing and processing your emotions can be quite profound if facilitated by an attentive and competent therapist. Arts in therapy can be very simple and easy to use. This is a good way to help a young person, as well as an adult, with difficulties. This training and qualification was a part of Clinical Hypnotherapy and Counselling Training for Barrie. Did you know that Barrie was the first person in West Yorkshire to start up a Counselling Service for young people within a High School, back in the 1990s? This was a huge learning curve, and taught him many of his flexible tools while working within this environment. Barrie collaborated with professional bodies such as the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (at that time) to develop a productive way of working with children within an inner city high school that were having problems with attendance, achievement and general behaviour of young people. This led to him setting up a successful young person's counselling service.