Elisabeth van Assum Counselling, Elisabeth van Assum

I operate a private practice out of my office in an artists’s building called The Beaumont Studios. I specifically choose to work in a dynamic environment with people who are working and honing their craft in a communal and supportive space. I work especially well with clients who feel they are on the fringe or outside normal social groups or networks. I have extensive experience engaging in and understanding narratives of oppression, gender scripts, queer theory. And I apply a theory of radical self acceptance as the cornerstone upon which I have built my counselling style.

I work very well in supporting people in understanding how the complex intersections of oppression, identities generated our of oppression and self can generate all kinds of stressors and challenges in life as much as they can generate community, belonging and safety. I work very much in a model of radical self acceptance and working in the here and now. I enable clients to explore and address their triggers and heal the emotional upheavals that are generated by triggers in service of creating awareness and presence in their lives. My life and educational experience is varied and rich and allows me to recognize my clients in their own varied and rich experiences.

Approaches/techniques: Psychodynamic, Cognitive, Gestalt, Schema Therapy, Dialectical, Buddhist, Feminist, Existential