English

Welcome!

My name’s Sarah, and I’m a passionate explorer of aliveness and connection. I feel that the moments when we experience aliveness and connection make life worth living, and give us a sense of purpose, delight and belonging. How do these moments feel for you?

For me, these moments feel like landing, putting soft-strong roots down and connecting with a source which is larger and deeper than the limits of my daily-life-mind. In these moments, I have access to my natural self, to the qualities and abilities that are at my core. These are the moments when I can relate to others in ways which are mutually hearty and growthful, can do my soul’s work, and take steps on the homeward journey to feeling my right place in this world.

Challenging times

I believe that living at this time, in a challenged world in urgent need for change, we are feeling the need – and being called – to find our aliveness and connection more than ever before. While “therapy” used to be prescribed for people with diagnosed problems, I feel that today, inner work – in the many flexible and creative forms it now takes – is now more relevant than ever to anyone willing to explore the gift, the huge challenge and the joyful-exciting-infinite potential of being human at this time!

Whoever you are, if you can feel the call of old wounds wanting to heal or potential wanting to be lived, or both, I invite you into the spaces I offer. My work is a constantly unfolding synthesis of Gestalt therapy, IFS (Internal Family Systems) and therapeutic experience in movement, touch, dance, music, voice, drama, ritual and contact with nature. It’s also very simple.

Individual sessions are a chance to explore the heart of the matter you bring with you, in a personal two-way relationship, following the process as it unfolds with the attention and tools it demands. In workshops, you are part of the group, “travel” through exercises and experiences alongside them, and can share with an mutually inspire each other along this journey.

Individual Sessions

I work in South-West England and online via video-call, at intervals which feel right for you. A session is designed to be a time for gathering connection and insights as well as tools and ideas for concrete ‘homework’ which you can put into practise yourself. This lets you be as independent as you want to be, and rooted in support which you can ask for when you need it.

How I work

The space I hold is informed by my training in Gestalt Therapy and IFS as well as past training in Music, Dance/Movement and Body therapies. I also have a strong interest in the subject of Trauma as well as the healing potential of nature.

Above all though, I believe that being in a human-held safe space, a place to be vulnerable, courageous and yourself, is the most healing thing of all and can never be replaced – only enhanced – by techniques and theories. I strive to collect such tools, but most of all, to show up myself in this space.

What is Gestalt?

Gestalt is about experiencing yourself as the organic, flowing whole that you are. A whole made up of many parts which ideally work together, letting us feel at one with ourselves and in creative relationship with our surroundings. When our inner parts conflict, we feel split; our personality gets “highjacked” by wounded parts and we feel out of control. Each conflicting part needs to be seen, heard and learn to work as a whole again.

This can mean anything from grieving an ending to move on, acknowledging and expressing anger and unmet needs and working out how to have these met as an adult, building up trust to allow shame-filled corners of ourselves to see the light and find self-acceptance and -love, or learning how we block ourselves instead of shining.

By journeying to the heart of the matter, we find the inner knots and let them unwind organically, revealing clarity, energy and confidence where it seemed like there was a dead-end.

How does it work?

As if by magic, because it’s a returning to our natural state: by slowing down, paying attention to the body, and giving breathing space to the emotional process which is always waiting for attention just beneath the surface. Often, after sometimes avoiding it for years, what we discover there simply needs to be integrated – felt, expressed, seen, loved – leaving us with a clearer path forward.

To enable this, my aim is to offer empathic, challenging and honest support to journey together to the heart of the matter, guiding, witnessing and catalysing integration in a rich variety of ways which includes but also goes beyond words, with the possibility of moving, singing, crafting, drumming, drawing what can’t yet be spoken.

What is IFS?

IFS – Internal Family Systems – is a way of coming home to your calm, compassionate, creative Self which each one of us has at our core. By becoming aware of the ‘parts’ we have developed to hold or protect us from painful experiences we have had, we can gently separate off our reactions to pain from our core Self, enabling a loving relationship between the two. Parts can receive the compassion and recognition they deserve, often very heavily burdened by all the hard work they do, and relax into their rightful place in our internal system.

Workshops

The Hero’s Journey

The 6-day personal development workshop “The Hero’s Journey”, developed by Paul Rebillot, is a creative and intensive opportunity to dive deep into your own personal mythology, coming face to face with your inner hero or heroine (the part that dares to dream) as well as meeting your personal inner demon (the part that holds you back). Through playful and profound methods, you have the chance to explore and stage the conflict between these two inner characters, and to transform this inner conflict as it expresses itself in your life, harvesting confidence and energy to invest in your life! I run Hero’s Journeys in teams occasionally with my colleagues at “Irgendwie Anders”, including our first Hero’s Journey in English in Autumn 2019 and am in the process of setting up a sister organisation in the UK; the workshops are on donations basis so that they are accessible to as many people as possible.

→More information on the Hero’s Journey

About me

My name is Sarah Howard, and seeing as I’m a human being, I’m on my own journey too! The support and guidance of people who have seen me along my way, with empathy and honesty, have been a great support along my way – a path into liveliness, love and energy which is hopefully as long as my life. I love this path, even if it’s not always easy. And I also love guiding and accompanying people on their paths, in the most playful, loving and effective way I can.

The unfolding thread of my career path so far has been an interest in the sparkle in people’s eyes. I have worked with music, singing and laughter in old people’s homes, in psychiatric units and with children, listening to their stories and expressing in wild-gentle spontaneous songs what there was no words for; giving individual body work sessions we worked on psychosomatic symptoms and winning back life-energy and confidence to invest in passions and projects instead of muscle tension.

Now, I give individual sessions which weave together primarily gestalt and inner parts work (IFS), but are also very much informed by my interest in creative expression and somatic awareness; I also lead intensive personal development workshops where I have the privilege of witnessing people as the sparkle in their eye gets stronger day by day. I love constantly developing my practice and thinking around humans, body, emotion and creativity, travelling to collect new inspiration, and combining all I have learned and practised during my journey so far in order to find a way of working which is inspiring and senseful to me. That makes my eyes sparkle!

I also have a deep friendship with music, singing and playing, as well as lots of other forks of authentic expression. I love dancing, drawing, gardening, cooking and writing – sometimes for the joyful process, sometimes for the satisfaction with the product. I am especially touched by and engaged with themes surrounding the environment, justice and future-considerate systems and concepts, and believe that healing on all levels is needed at this time more than ever before. Having grown up in England, I love to spend time on the coast and in wild green landscapes, and feel equally at home speaking English and German.

Overview of my Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, Music and German (1998 – 2002)
Post-graduate Diploma in Music Therapy (2004 – 2005)
Foundation Course in Dance Movement Therapy (2005 – 2006)
Training in Somatic Bodywork (Grinberg Method), Levels I and II (2009 – 2012)
Short courses in Ecopsychology and Authentic Movement in Natural Settings (2012 – 2014)
Training in Gestalt-based theatre processes to facilitate “The Hero’s Journey” Workshop by Paul Rebillot (2015)
Training in Gestalt Therapy (2016 – 2019)
Training as an Internal Family Systems (IFS) practitioner (2019), as well as further training in Somatic IFS and IFS, Trauma and Neuroscience (2021)

Prices

Trial Session for Individual Process (90 minutes): €60.

Individual Session:*

60 minutes: £55 – £90 /// €60 to €100

90 minutes: £70 – £105 /// €80 to €120

120 minutes: £90 – £140 /// €100 to €160

*Since each wallet is differently filled, and I want to make this work available to as many interested people as possible, I let you decide how much you can / want to pay within this framework. I’m also open for an honest conversation if you can’t afford this price regularly – maybe we can find a good solution.

Cancellations:

If you cancel a session 48 hours or less before the appointment, I charge £55 / €60, unless the appointment is taken at short notice by someone else, in which case I will let you know.

Contact

I look forward to enquiries, questions and comments – even if you’re just curious and don’t know yet what the question is. You can either get in touch by phone – Germany: 0049-1578-7819804, UK: 0044-7914-937471 – or use the contact form which is found under “Contact”.

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