Week after week we meet. A small room, two chairs, sometimes even a mattress. The door is closed. Two bodies, two souls, two biographies holding life stories meet for an intimate connection.
My name is Yael Shahar, and I am a relational body psychotherapist. As much as this title helps describe my professionality, it also saves me from showing all of me; from telling you what kind of a person I am. For several years, I have used being a psychotherapist as one means to attune to others. With time and by deepening my growth process, I learned how my personality and my complexity can’t be separated from the therapist I am, nor do I wish to separate them.
It’s been nearly two years since I left the UK after living there for almost eleven years. I’m still in a process of searching for my home and sense of belonging here in Israel. I am currently building my clinical practice and learning to deal with new dynamics that this place provides me. I believe that part of the therapeutic process is to offer a safe place where we can find our voice, the credo of our individual and personal commitment to act accordingly. I offer the space between us as a non-judgmental place of investigation and search for the truth that everyone holds in their heart.
Within this space, I’m curious about how my subjectivity impacts my clients, but more so, how my clients impact me. I call my blog ‘The Therapist’s Subjectivity’ and offer it as an invitation to reflect from the depth of the mind and the subjective world of the therapist, to view, through my perspective, those I meet clinically each week.
Writing is a way for me to communicate and to connect with others, and through this blog I wish to share with you my thoughts, feelings and ideas through my experience as a female human being and as a psychotherapist. I hope I manage to touch you and to be touched by you.
My writing is informed and inspired by my background training as well as my day-to-day clinical experiences. I’ve had intensive training in relational body psychotherapy, following my core training at the London School of Biodynamic Psychotherapy in the UK. I’ve also trained in early intervention for infants and young children on the autism spectrum, a job that relies on the attachment theory and therapy through interplay—Reciprocal Play Therapy. I’ve deepened my clinical work with a variety of populations and find myself continuing to work with clients who are looking for a safe place. Some because of traumatic background (such as refugees, people who have experienced sexual abuse, violence and torture as children or as adults) and some due to mental and emotional challenges (such as people with autism or other mental disorders). In addition to my work focused on the gay community in London, I worked around the issues of transgender, gender identity and sexual identity.
I feel committed to the profession, and I find that hope and faith motivate me in my work.
For more information please visit my website at:
www.body-psychotherapist.com
