About Me and How I Work

The primary way that I work is called psychodynamic therapy

This approach focuses on building a supportive, non-judgmental relationship to explore your experience and build your awareness of underlying psychological and emotional factors. This awareness then enables new perspectives, capacity for choice, meaning and self-understanding, which serve to improve your overall mental health.

A typical session allows space to address any themes which emerge on the day, along with links to past experiences, patterns of attachment, interpersonal relationships, dreams, embodied emotions, and recurring patterns Where relevent, I also integrate theory and techniques from related fields, such as existential psychotherapy, emotion-focused therapy, somatic experiencing and comtemporary psychoanalysis.

Everyone’s life has a different background

I began my career in early childhood education, where I became interested in alternative methods focused on creativity and nature connection. I followed this interest to different parts of the world, including Arnhem Land, Italy and Mexico, learning with many different people and communities. These experiences taught me a lot about the kind of guidence that helps people grow and develop. Most importantly, I learned that any attempt to be of genuine help to people individually, begins with deep listening for the uniqueness of their subjectivity. This insight motivated me to train first as an art therapist, then as a clinical counsellor and psychotherapist.

The aims of therapy go beyond reducing symptoms

Alleviating the symptoms of distress is an important part of any therapy process, but there is much more to psychological and emotional health than this. In my experience, people find therapy most helpful when it goes beyond symptom-reduction, to address deeper, more personal aspects of life. For example, the ability to form and nurture fulfilling relationships; the need to grieve and mourn; to find meaning and purpose; the ability to play and rest; to work; to make conscious choices; to experience and express a range of emotions; to be alone. Each - and sometimes all - of these aspects of life can become the subject of change sought and experienced in therapy.

So much is below the surface and back in time

At the heart of all therapy is the relationship between inner and outer experience. Our inner experience affects how we think, feel and relate to others - and in turn - our real-world experiences influence the contents and composition of our inner lives. This inner-outer dynamic begins to develop early in childhood, when we are without the faculties of awareness and language that develop later on. So, returning to this time, with its associated feelings, is often an important part of therapy. This is not to say that therapy is solely focused on the past, but rather that therapy provides a way of working through the influence of past experiences, so as to enable a healthier present.

Fees and rebates

My fees are $120 per session for individuals and $160 per session for couples.

Private Health rebates are available through BUPA, St Luke's Health, Police Health, GMHBA, Westfund, Emergency Services Health, Phoenix Health, see - u by HBF, AIA Health, Mildura Health, Teachers Union Health, Teachers Health, Nurses & Midwives Health, Unihealth.

Daniel Silver