Sofia Tula Coucouzeli-Moreira
Counsellor
I specialise in:
About me
I'm a trained clinical psychologist living in Belgium, of multiple nationalities (Greek, Portuguese, UK), who has a great interest in the question of identity. I also am a professional dancer and dance therapist, who believes in the importance of emotional expression through the body. Exploring our narratives as a geographical map, retracing our territories and our history linked with our heritage and our communities are dimensions that are present in my practice. Trying to find pockets of freedom with my patients, accentuating the position of Subject in their lives, holds a central space in my practice.
I speak:
Location:
Approach
I work with an integrative approach by practicing psychotherapy based on psychoanalysis and systemic psychology, in dialogue with each other. I try to meet where my patient is at, with flexibility and curiosity, in a process of subjectivation. I also find it important to take into account the environment of each person, and how they are constant relation to their environment. Questions around gender identity, sexual orientation, LGBTQ+, polyamory (hierarchical or anarchist), and race are welcomed in my practice, as I continually train in these areas. My specifications also include practicing as a trauma informed psychologist.
In my dance therapy workshops, patients have the opportunity to develop their narrative through body and gesture, which allows them to reintegrate their story in a different way. I accompany an exploration of the person's freedom zones and the different spaces of the possible by means of a series of tools: play, breathing, work of tension-relaxation, coupling of language with movements and therefore free verbal association with the bodily feeling, use of voice and song in parallel with the movement, construction of one's “life line”, and work with the identity of the “we” and the “I” within the group. These tools allow a subjectivation that passes through the body thanks to a transitional area created between the patient and myself or between the patient and the rest of the group, depending on whether it is an individual or group dance therapy session. Finally, my interest in the creation of therapeutic creative spaces has also been expressed by the implementation of emotional expression projects for children who have suffered abuse, as well as support groups for psychiatric patients, thus giving them another therapeutic lever within their hospitalisations.
