A Snippet Through The Lens of The Integrative Psychotherapist
- Brainz Magazine
- May 15
- 4 min read
Bilyana Wharton is an integrative psychotherapist and hypnotherapist specialising in trauma recovery and relationship therapy. She works with adult survivors of childhood adversities, abuse and relational trauma using the T.I.M.E. model of psychotherapy. Her mission is to change the world, one person at a time.
We carry with us emotional, psychological, and cognitive patterns, adopt moral norms and social constraints, develop belief systems, create habitual strategies, and most of us will have an organised existential structure and understanding of the world. And we believe that all of those are true; they are the right ones or the only ones in their validity.
Nothing can be further from the truth. All of those are changeable. It is the rigidity of perception that hinders an individual's ability to explore and change what they have been left as an inheritance of understanding.
What therapy is not
An email landed in my inbox from a client that I had worked with a few years back. They needed an emergency session as soon as possible, because something had happened in their communication with their spouse. Panic-stricken, they thought the relationship had run its course. During the session, the client offloaded their misery, revealing a situation where they felt trapped and helpless due to cultural constraints. Exploring possible avenues, the client reached the understanding that if they were to stay in the relationship, they had to change their expectations. However, beneath the expectation of how they would like to be with their spouse was the need for a deeper connection and intimacy, as well as the need for significance.
It all went well; it seemed that my client could see a broader field of possibilities. Then, they asked me, “What do you think I should do?” When it came to making their own decision, they became paralysed with indecisiveness and wanted me to take responsibility for their decision.
Of course, I did not advise the client on what they should do. Instead, we explored the options and responses on a deeper level, examining how each option felt to them, and they ultimately reached an outcome.
As therapists, we cannot take responsibility for the client's recovery or interfere with decision-making. If we attempt to do so, we would be altering the course of someone else's life, which is contrary to our professional standards. We can prescribe strategies, help the client explore the past, challenge their belief systems or understandings, and even educate them, suggesting bibliotherapy or audio therapy. Still, the client ultimately has control over their own choices and how to exercise those.
What therapy is
Psychotherapy is often described as a talking therapy, but this characterisation imposes limitations on understanding what happens during treatment. When we work with the human condition, we are working with the individual experiences that are uniquely filtered through the person’s internal working model. Talking is thinking, connected to feelings that can put context and meaning to the life energy that flows through us. This life energy will summon a response from every system in our body, on physiological, biological, and neurological levels.
We may begin by discussing our experiences, attempting to make sense of what happened to us or to understand who we are. The process of understanding helps us gain self-knowledge and general awareness, which are cognitive functions. However, when we feel, we feel in our body, and through that feeling, in that very moment, we exist in the Present.
The human brain and psyche are a miniature universe, with processes, distinctive laws, rules, and idiosyncratic understandings that are often hidden from the client's conscious awareness. They are the psychological navigation system that is always oriented, firstly, towards survival, and then, towards safety. In the words of Dr Stephen Porges, psychotherapy is “a quest for safety and connection. “
At its core, psychotherapy is a process that enables the real person to emerge by fostering awareness of one’s experiences and cultivating self-awareness of thoughts, feelings, needs, beliefs, and attitudes.
The integrative therapy point of view
Integrative therapy, as an approach to therapy, is the excellent collaboration between different approaches, schools, and theories of therapy. Each one provides a unique frame through which we observe human nature. As Carl Jung once said, the world is the way it is, not the way we see it. And, the way we see it is the way we make sense of it. An integrative psychotherapist will draw resources and strategies from different schools of therapy to design a unique treatment tailored to meet the individual client's needs; hence, at its core, it is a client-oriented approach.
Therapy is a unique and intricate process, a journey of discovery and self-discovery, a quest for safety and reconnection, emotional healing that results in generating Hopefulness and reigniting Aliveness. Therapy can change the perspective of the Past in a liberating way. If you want, you can say that therapy frees the present from the emotional holds of the past and allows the client to create their Future on their terms.
Read more from Bilyana Wharton
Bilyana Wharton, Integrative Psychotherapist and Hypnotherapist
Bilyana Wharton is an experienced psychotherapist assisting clients to overcome the aftermath of trauma and abuse. Her therapy work encompasses conditions such as C-PTSD, Anxiety Disorders, Depression and Relationship Issues.
True to her instinctive and artistic nature, she has transitioned from a career in music and teaching to training as an integrative psychotherapist and hypnotherapist. Studying at Chrysalis Courses UK sparked an interest in the multi-model integrative therapy. Using the T.I.M.E. model, Bilyana utilises strategies and modalities of different therapy schools and theories, including CBT, Gestalt, Transactional Analysis, Attachment Theory, Parts Therapy, Relational Therapy, and Hypnotherapy.
