Dr Britt Couchman

Britt has focused her life on understanding people and encouraging them to feel understood in a great manner of ways. Rather than focusing on behaviour patterns, as can be the focus of therapy, Britt sees her clients in a really holistic sense. She chats with them to gain insights by asking questions and sharing some of herself in the exchange so that clients can see her levels of empathy through acknowledgement of their experience. Britt often acts as a lived experience practitioner through advocacy, capacity building and forming connections. She has experienced a crippling mental health condition for 15 years and is able to use this experience to better inform her practice, to be on the client's level and to understand perspectives/priorities of clients. The following section will explain the approaches to counselling that Britt often takes in light of her lived experience and counselling experiences.

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Narrative Therapy may be utilised during sessions and can be described as a form of psychotherapy that seeks to help clients identify their values and the skills associated with these beliefs. It provides the client with knowledge of their ability to live these values so they can effectively confront current and future problems. With Narrative Therapy people are viewed as separate from their problems and behaviours. From this perspective, individuals feel more empowered to make changes in their thought patterns and behaviour and “rewrite” their life story for a future that reflects who they really are, what they are capable of, and what their purpose is, separate from their problems.

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There are core aspects of narrative therapy:

• The deconstruction of problematic and dominant storylines or narratives

• Breaking the narrative into smaller and more manageable chunks

• Rewriting the script of the problematic and dominant storylines

• Broadening your view and moving toward healthier storylines 

• Externalizing the problem because you are not your problem

• A healthy narrative will also help us make meaning and see purpose

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Another approach that Britt commonly uses is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) which is a type of mindful psychotherapy that helps you stay focused on the present moment and accept thoughts and feelings without judgment. It aims to help you move forward through difficult emotions so you can put your energy into healing instead of dwelling on the negative. 

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ACT is less concerned with eliminating unwanted thoughts, emotions and sensations and more concerned with cultivating psychological flexibility: the ability to change behaviour depending on how useful to the patient's life this behaviour is understood to be in the long term. The ACT model predicts that people will be most effective when able to:

• accept automatic thoughts, sensations and urges

• defuse from thinking (ie. observe thoughts without believing them or following their directions)

• experience self as context (ie. a continuous, stable sense of self as an observer of psychological experiences)

• attend to the present moment with self awareness

• clearly articulate values (ie. self chosen, desirable ways of behaving)

• engage in committed action (ie. participating in values-consistent activities, even when psychologically challenging).

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Contact Britt at couchmanconsulting@gmail.com for more information about possible approaches to therapy.