Raphael Lopez de Soto
Specialist Psychotherapist MBACP & UKCP Reg.
Therapy
I enjoy working with men, women, children and young people of all ages, both individually or as couples, as families, in groups or within organisations. I am passionate about the healing capacity of our own creativity and spontaneity. Over the years I have integrated creative methods into my work to further facilitate making connections with ourselves and with each other. These include Archetypal Jungian Sandplay, Art & Psychodrama and also how we experience our bodies. This way of working allows symbolically and somatically held information to emerge. I value the importance of working at a pace that suits a person's needs and work on building trust and safety within our relationship before traumatic experiences are explored or worked through.
Working together
To begin working together is simple and referral from another professional is not required. The first step is to make contact and we will have a brief chat via telephone to discuss your current situation. If after speaking you decide to make an appointment we will meet for an initial appointment of either 50 or 80 minutes. Our first meeting will give us an opportunity to meet one another and to broadly discuss your current situation in the here and now. If you feel comfortable enough with me we will arrange a subsequent session, and after a few sessions we will know if we will continue working together. You can make contact via the Contact page and via my private practice at Holistic Health Centre Woking, telephone 01483 724300. The centre is conveniently located in Woking town centre close to Woking railway station and town centre car parks. Therapy takes place in a specifically designed and comfortable therapy room.
48 hours' notice appointment cancellation policy
Like most therapists I have an appointment cancellation policy. A minimum of 48 hours’ notice is required for the cancellation or reschedule of an appointment or full payment is charged. Cancellation notice can be given via the Contact page or via my private practice at Holistic Health Centre Woking, telephone 01483 724300. Thank you for your co-operation.
Adult Psychotherapy
Individual Adult Psychotherapy can be short and long term, for trauma and deeper more pervasive issues. Psychotherapy helps to work through difficult issues and gain understanding about yourself and others. Both conscious known information and unconscious motivations and material can come into awareness. Insight can help to reduce repeating unhelpful or distressing patterns and develop potential to work towards living in a more satisfying and resourceful way. This can improve confidence, the ability to cope with stress and anxiety and problem solving.
Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy
Working with children and young people is different to working with adults. The use of play, art and Sandplay, together with Psychodrama as creative mediums enables a child or young person to deal with painful or emotional issues. An aim of therapy is to facilitate integration, whereby the establishment of congruence between thoughts, emotions and behaviours is reached. Developing a coherent narrative about life experiences is crucial to healing and integration, and this can help to improve confidence and self-esteem.
Parent & Infant Therapy
Parent and infant or child therapy aims to help heal mis-attunement that may have occurred in early infancy. This might be due to post natal depression, stress during pregnancy, or at birth. Children who spend time in specialised baby care units can miss out on the early nurture. This can be a scary and stressful time for parents and in turn can become part of the relationship dynamic. Unprocessed parental trauma can become a barrier to being able to attune to an infant and can have significant consequences.
Family Therapy
Families need the time and the space to find their way with each other, and to explore what is happening together. We can often become stuck into repetitive unhealthy ways of relating, which can become hard to shift out of without support and assistance. Family Therapy can involve repairing hurts and finding different ways of doing things and communicating with each other.
Couples Therapy
One of the hardest and also the most rewarding things we do is to be in long term, intimate relationships. Holding and being with one another’s pain and emotions, or dealing with each other’s differences can be difficult. Discovering that we cannot be all things to each other can open up new ways of belonging with one another, and we can learn to understand and accept each other.
Theraplay®
Theraplay® is an attachment based parent and child, and family therapy. The sessions are experiential and play task based. An initial assessment which focuses on the strengths in the relationship will be carried out which informs session structures. The focus is on the child and parent interactions on giving and receiving nurture. The assessment and session tasks are categorised into structure, nurture, engagement and challenge oriented tasks.
Jungian Sandplay Therapy
Archetypal Sandplay therapy is similar to Art therapy however artistic skills are not required. The action involved in the therapy of creating sand trays is therapeutic in itself. Each sand tray is photographed to map out your therapeutic journey. Creating a sand tray is a projective and reflective procedure that requires no speaking or conversation if you decide. It is useful if the trauma is unspeakable and still partly hidden. Sandplay is used with people of all ages and is a window into the conscious, unconscious and collective unconscious world of our psyche.
Family Faciliation
Family Facilitation is a more problem focused invention to deal with an immediate conflict in day to day life involving members of the nuclear or extended family. This can include decision making or responsibilities relating to the care of an elderly or infirm member of the family, disagreements on childcare or schooling, work life balance issues or roles within the family. Facilitating discussion and resolving conflict on issues surrounding non-custodial separation and childcare.
Psychodrama
Psychodrama psychotherapy uses creative action to connect with the healing potential of spontaneity and creativity by engaging with our active imagination. We consist of a repertoire of internal and external roles, which enable us to function in varied situations. Psychodrama facilitates a dialogue between these roles and can open up new ways of being through expanding less developed roles, widening our current repertoire of roles or transforming over developed roles.