Charlotte Hastings

I am a BACP accredited therapist, working in private practice from my garden studio on Brighton’s outskirts.  The teachings of Carl Jung led me to my vocation.  Jung understood that acceptance and spiritual interconnectedness were the foundations of recovery; that as psychosomatic creatures, we need to attend to mind body and spiritual health, if we are to reach our potential and grow away from unhelpful patterns of behaviour.  Whilst the wealth of understanding emerging from neuroscience, contemporary psychotherapy and philosophy informs my work, my roots remain in Jungian theory and practice.

People, families and communities, how and why they tick (or don’t) have held a life long fascination for me.  Perhaps because I have always felt an outsider, being an only child in an unusual family set up.  Now, my role as an outside-observer, has become a key asset as a therapist.  It is our potential to reclaim, re-narrate and transform our lives, that lies at the heart of my therapeutic work.  We each hold the keys to our healing potential, however it is a vital part of being human to ask for help.  Allowing someone to hold the map and torch, whilst we plot our path across human turf, steadies and clears our trail, enabling new horizons to emerge.

I work as a therapist, teacher and mother, affording a breadth of experience of working with people.  It is a recipe of work and life, alongside a huge love of food, people and story telling which have come together in Kitchen Therapy.  A personal innovation in which I use our relationship with food, cooking and eating to help understand, heal and the self towards greater health and happiness.

Experience

My particular interest is in Jungian psychology which for me addresses the whole person, mind, body and soul, past, present and future.

I began professional life as a humanities teacher, in London.  Moving to Sussex I returned to my first love, drama and theatre, working in Special Education settings, learning about conditions such as Aspergers, ADHD and dyslexia.  I The flexible spontaneity required in these settings, and the insights I gained from working with teenagers, have laid strong foundations for my therapeutic work.

I began teaching cookery in the same year that I began to train in psychodynamic therapy.  The connection between these discrete ways of working with people became quickly apparent as informing and enhancing one another.  For the past eight years been developing my Kitchen Therapy practice.  I work with individuals, couples and groups, in a wide variety of settings, using both talk and cooking therapy, on their own or in combination, within my holistic approach to therapy.

Areas I work with

Attachment is my key interest, how our early years environment, shapes how we are in the world.  Childhood trauma, ruptures in our caregiving relationships can be seen to erupt in our present experience.  Being able to return to our memories and link them to the present, enables a shift from stuck, unhelpful or painful patterns.

Understanding our addictive patterns, and working with the consequences of addiction for the sufferer and the family, is a key aspect of my work.  From an initial specialisation of working with eating disorders, I have gained a breadth of knowledge, skill and insight in working with the addicted self.

How we manage loss and bereavement is a difficult though necessary part of life’s experience.  Taking the time to work through this within an understanding, compassionately held space, when the time is right, offers enormous capacity for healing and change.

I have a wide range of personal and professional experience of living with learning, behavioural and neuro-specific conditions such as Aspergers, ADHD or dyslexia.  As with all life’s challenges, we uncover huge potential by working with the issues we face.

Depression, stress and anxiety are inevitable aspects of life.  However, there are times when our difficulties feel stuck and repetitive.  In my experience, understanding the roots of our distress, taking the time to explore rather than defend our inner landscape, enables fresh perspectives, uncovering the tools we need for healing and transformation.

As a couples counsellor, family and group worker, I have a special interest in working with relationships which is of course at the heart of all therapy, indeed life.

Fee structure and availability :

• Individuals £40  couples £50  concession rates available.
• I work Monday and Wednesday evenings (4-10pm), Saturdays (9am – 3pm) and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (10am – 5pm).
• I practice both short term, solution focused and open ended therapeutic approaches, depending on specific, individual needs.
• I charge £10 for an initial consultation, where we can meet each other and understand how I can be of help.

Qualifications

• Accredited Member British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
• Foundation in Systemic Family Therapy, St Georges’ University Hospital, Tooting (2014)
• Psycho-dynamic Therapeutic Counselling PG Dip, Brighton University (2011)
• Science Short Course – Understanding Human Nutrition, Open University (2008)
• Certificate in Teaching Children with Specific Learning Difficulties – Dyslexia. Roehampton Institute (2000)
• PGCE English and Drama , Bristol Polytechnic (1992)
• BA (Hons) Anthropology and Sociology (1991)

Charlotte Hastings