How I Work | Lucy Kuipers | Psychotherapy and Clinical Supervision

Embodied Psychotherapy & Supervision

Psychotherapy

My work is rooted in embodied psychotherapy which follows a humanistic, relational approach.

I offer short-term and long-term psychotherapy for children, young people and adults on a weekly or fortnightly basis.

My aim is to create a safe, confidential space to reflect on your experiences and patterns that may contribute to difficulties or problems.

Through understanding these connections and patterns, therapy can help you to establish deeper self-understanding and awareness so that you can have healthier, more fulfilling relationships with yourself and others.

There is a focus on the body-mind connection in sessions to help us to explore how thoughts, feelings and behaviours are linked.

Through the body we can become more aware of feelings and emotions, by connecting to the sensations that we experience, which can inform the thoughts we have in our minds (and vice versa).

My approach follows an integrative theoretical framework (relational psychoanalysis, embodied psychotherapy theories, process-oriented psychology and the person-centred approach).

The option to work creatively is available if words are hard to find, or if creative expression feels like a more natural language for you.

Areas of Support

Anxiety
Relationship issues
Mental health concerns
Pain management
Neurodiversity
Loss and bereavement
Confidence and self-esteem
Stress
Gender and sexuality
Low mood / depression

I have additional experience and special interest in:

Childhood trauma
Self-harming behaviours
End-of-life and palliative care work
Twin loss and bereavement

I strive to be considered an LGBTQ+ Ally who supports and advocates for the queer community.

Clinical Supervision

My clinical supervision work is positioned as a collaborative, embodied encounter in which learning and reflection unfolds through shared presence rather than ‘expert’ instruction.

I offer an integrative, relational approach which means that I am not theoretically rigid and deliberately use elements from different approaches.

You are invited to attend not only to thoughts and narratives, but also to embodied experiences (bodily sensations, emotions, impulses, relational responses) as vital sources of information about your work, and in our supervisory relationship, and be curious about how this informs ethical, relational and effective practice.

Supervision foregrounds intersectionality, power and authority and prioritises creating an environment which mirrors the core conditions of the person-centred/humanistic approach itself. This is so that you can experience these attitudes, rather than merely learning about them. Emphasis is placed on lived and felt experiences, encouraging reflection on your internal processes, emotional responses and moments of uncertainty which are essential to therapeutic development.

You can find more information about my scope of practice on the About Me page.

My core training in dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) was the foundation for how I understand humanistic integration in my work and what I now bring into supervision. The training integrated several frameworks and emphasised the creative role of curiosity and a ‘not knowing’ position, a respect for difference, and an appreciation of the effects of mutual influences in relationships.

DMP taught me that psychotherapy is not only something that happens through words, but something that happens through the whole person, through body, movement, emotion, imagination and relationship. Because DMP is inherently embodied and relational, it grounded my practice in a deep appreciation of body-mind integration, embodied memory, emotional expression and kinaesthetic empathy.

These constituent elements remain present in my clinical work but, over time, I have also expanded onto other psychotherapeutic approaches to develop a more explicitly integrative approach. This has been part of my professional growth: recognising that integration is not about moving away from my DMP base, but allowing it to continue to evolve as the core of a wider therapeutic orientation. My interventions and interpretations are influenced by humanistic psychotherapy with a special emphasis on the person-centred approach, relational approaches and process-oriented psychology.

In some spaces I describe myself as an embodied (movement) psychotherapist, and this identity has developed in response to making my approach more accessible and inclusive for people who might find the idea of dancing ‘off-putting’ or threatening in their embodied expression. My practice invites a broad continuum of embodiment, from subtle sensation and gesture through to movement, creative expression, art-making and language. My core DMP training also offered an integrative approach to practice which encouraged me to privilege neither language nor movement but to work with both equally and according to the context.

Within relational thinking, the emphasis on the creative potential of the therapeutic relationship, and the way both therapist and client contribute to the change process, resonates deeply with my embodied training. I understand therapy as a 'two-persons space' - two minds, two moving bodies - where supervision becomes a vital place to reflect on how the therapist is part of the relational field.

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