silhouette-of-person-walking-on-beach-37

'There can be no lotus
flower without the mud'
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Connect Healing & Resilience

Hi, I'm Ivana Hardy, I work from the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire,

where I help people restore communication, rediscover their own potential, and heal from trauma.

How Therapy Can Help You

Seeking a therapist can be a daunting process. Although I can help you with many life challenges, being accepted within a warm and non-judgemental relationship, is at the heart of how I work.

If you are having trouble maintaining deep and nourishing connections, or maybe you have experienced a recent loss or trauma, I can work with you to find your own insights and strengths, enabling you to move towards more choice and freedom.

How I work

I am an active, engaging therapist and my work is informed by attachment trauma, and understanding how the roles we occupy in families, can subtly permeate ways in which we respond and behave. Understanding relational dynamics, provides a broader context for the many complexities and layers involved with varying kinds of trauma.

I recognise the need to feel met within a safe and trusting relationship, having a sense of safeness in the relationship, between us, is at the core of effective therapy. Whatever you might want to bring, practicing holistically, enables me

to work collaboratively and inclusively, with immediate thoughts, feelings and reactions.

Relational

Only through our interactions with others, do we come to know ourselves. I see the relational process as being a living, breathing thing, and when there's no need for it to grow in a particular direction, we have more freedom.

It is through difficult life transitions and painful experiences, that can provide us with the opportunities to restore balance and vitality, to move away from limiting ideas and beliefs. If we start by being easy and gentle with ourselves, caring for and being able to understand ourselves more fully, can pave the way for more fulfilment.

I've experience working with a diverse range of difficulties;

Anxiety, Addiction

Bereavement, Depression

Domestic Abuse, Eating Disorders

Emotional Trauma, Identity Issues

Life Transitions, Mood Disorders

OCD, PTSD, Relationships,

Sexual Abuse, Sexuality

& Spirituality

Mind & Body

Realising your struggles are not intentional and engaging a mindful practice, can help you be flexible in your responses, soothe fears and attune to others.

Having a caring and positive relationship with ourselves, we can show up, to notice what is happening for us.

Approach

My approach is integrative, and I understand the need for inclusiveness and diversity, to value and respect you, and to listen and provide a space for you to speak authentically. I support all expressions of gender identity, LGBTQ and ethnic communities, including relevant cultural awareness and well-being.

With training rooted in Humanistic, Psychodynamic and Gestalt models, these are skilful therapeutic techniques, which I can tailor for you, enabling you to achieve a deeper understanding of how we relate to others. By embracing

inquisitiveness and humour, Gestalt is a holistic process, and it's focus stems from the view that everything happens in this moment. While Psychodynamic therapy is based on exploring the forces within, often used in long term work.

Attending to the deep-rooted feelings of unconscious seeds, particularly patterns and re-enactments that are beyond our everyday awareness, I am able to integrate mindfulness and creative tools to support you. My aim is to find effective ways that essentially work for you.

'Nothing will work unless you do'. -

Maya Angelou