Raphael Lopez de Soto
Specialist Psychotherapist MBACP & UKCP Reg.
About Me
I am a UKCP registered Integrative Adult, Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist and a certified member of the BACP. I have been fortunate to have enjoyed a full and active career in Psychotherapy at my busy private practice in Woking, I also work as a consultant with various agencies and corporate clients around the UK.
My Approach
My approach is to aid a person's or family's integration and appreciation of all aspects of themselves including the spiritual, biological, nurture and cultural conditioning into a healthier way of relating to others. This occurs by restoring or finding a balance in the relationship between themselves and other people in their life. My role is to facilitate a person’s process and journey to help them to reach their personal goals or desired outcomes. This is initially done through meeting with the person, or family and discussing their situation and how this impacts on their current life. We work collaboratively to identify themes, issues and patterns of relating and behaving.
Psychotherapy isn’t always about words because at times it can be difficult to talk. My practice incorporates the use of creative methods to aid the expression of feelings and imagery. C. G. Jung (1947) valued the expression of people’s stories as they led to insights into their internal world and how, in turn, their life experience shapes our internal world. My work is grounded in Jungian and post Jungian thinking and development. Central to this is meeting people with genuine non-judgmental openness and acceptance, compassion, care and a respect for the person's or family's unique experience and way of being.
When we are stuck we are unable to access our ability to be spontaneous and creatively problem solve. Anxiety can lead to mistrust in our own spontaneity and playfulness. I work with children, young people, adults and families by engaging my own reflective creativity, spontaneity and playfulness, whilst providing a safe, containing space.
Working Life
My working life has always been concerned with the care and facilitation of independence and helping people to reach their potential regardless of their stage of life, vulnerability or difference. This work incorporated care planning and teaching of independence skills which in turn evoked an interest into working more with a person’s internal world, and how this can help to deal more effectively with the external world. This shift in focus took me into my initial training in Counselling where I worked with young people and families within general and mental health setting in the NHS, in a large children’s charity and in Schools.
The importance of family and community connectedness led me into specific training in Child & Family Psychotherapy, from a Jungian and post Jungian perspective. My work focused on helping people to deal with their symptoms presenting as eating disorders, dissociative disorders and violent or offending behaviour, all being manifestations of an individual’s struggle to reconnect with others and also with themselves. Working through these difficulties can help to reconnect with a more authentic and solid sense of self and purpose.
I have practiced for over 20 years and in 2003 I established Holistic Health Centre in Woking as a base for my private practice. At the centre I continue to work alongside other professionals who offer a wide range of psychological therapy services. Throughout my career I have continued to engage in professional and personal development through experiential and academic learning, professional training, personal therapy and analysis. With this experience and knowledge I provide clinical supervision for psychotherapists, counsellors and psychologists and reflective practice for health and social care professionals and social workers.
My maturing and growing process has developed into my role as a lecturer and trainer. I enjoy developing and facilitating innovative training where there is a need for specialist interventions especially in the areas of domestic violence, youth offending and complex trauma. My journey so far has led me to embark on research into the relationship between the individual and the social cultural aspects of society.
Continued Professional Development
My skills both professionally and interpersonally are ever evolving. I am committed to continued professional development to ensure the highest standards of practice and I keep up to date with new research. Since I began training I have continued to study to ensure robust and in depth understanding of people and the therapeutic environment. I undertake specilaist training in the UK, Europe and USA and I have attended Dr Patricia Crittenden’s Attachment & Psychopathology training and the full Dynamic Maturational Model of Attachment & Adaption (DMM) & Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) training. I have completed advanced practitioner training in structural dissociation, trauma and eating disorders, enabling effective work with people who have experienced significant trauma.
I am a senior trainee at the Birmingham School of Psychodrama in Psychodrama Psychotherapy where I am in my final year of four years of training. This training is UKCP accredited and is taught in a person centred approach, which has enabled me to integrate my Jungian Depth Psychology training into Psychodrama Group Psychotherapy. I chose to pursue an in-depth training in Psychodrama as it embodies, through action methods, the creative use of the self while using and developing our own spontaneity.