My Approach

My commitment to what I do rests in helping clients come to know and experience their own wellbeing and to be present with them during this journey. I work in different ways depending on each person using imagination, dreams, felt sense, thoughts, feelings and a deeper spiritual sense of being. Sometimes art or other creative modes may also be introduced in order to help express and process what is being experienced.
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From my own experience, I see that the heart of being human is relational in nature. Our wounds nearly always arise in relation to another, and so too does our healing. Whether it be childhood experiences, traumatic events or accidents, suffering is always relational in nature. From personal reflection and my experience in psychotherapy, I am committed to continue to deepen and learn what it means to meet another person in one’s own joy and suffering and to continually work on my own ability to be present at greater depths and subtler places.

I bring a psycho-spiritual approach to clinical work, to psycho-physical trauma and the archetypal defences of the personal spirit, whatever they be. It is informed by my engagement with psychodynamics, Jungian psychology and Tibetan Buddhism. I endeavour to bring this wisdom in my approach to the work with the possibility of finding a ‘primordial trust’ in relationship, with oneself and with each other.

About Me

I am Tim Synge, an experienced psychotherapist accredited by the UK Council for Psychotherapy. I offer an awareness-based approach to psychotherapy called Core Process both online and from an established practice in Camden Town, London NW1. I appreciate how enormous reaching out for help can be, especially when life becomes overwhelming or very uncertain, but my aim is to give you exactly the right support you need at this time in your life. I offer an initial free consultation to psychotherapy clients, an opportunity for us to meet and explore the kind of help you might be seeking.

In my psychotherapy practice, as someone drawn to both the spiritual and psychodynamic aspects of our experience, I have seen that the clarity and breadth of the Core Process perspective, deeply informed by Buddhist thought, can bring great meaning and personal transformation for people, especially when life appears to have fallen apart or loses meaning.

My spiritual practice led to me taking a solitary one-year Buddhist retreat in which I underwent a profound transformation associated with a spiritual emergency. This experience, of severe psycho-physical affect overwhelming ordinary reality, opened into a great curiosity about my own very early relational experience and set the foundations for my wanting to work with others suffering the effects of trauma.

I developed a keen interest in accessing very early experience and the possibility of resolving mental pain formed in pre-birth and through birth trauma. Having worked with pre- & perinatal psychologists, I discovered the use of art media to be a transitional phenomena that enables clients to safely process painful or traumatic material. My experience in craniosacral biodynamics augments a body-based approach to psychotherapeutic work coupled with the use of dreams informed by Jungian psychology.
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Before my clinical training I had an academic and professional background in business and finance. As a fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, I worked first for a well-known multi-national and then in the charitable sector. In 1994, I started work with a worldwide organisation presenting the Buddhist tradition of Tibet, under the patronage of the Dalai Lama. I lived among the lay community and worked as International Finance Director based in the UK and France. My clinical work is underpinned by over 30 years study of Tibetan Buddhism and practice of Dzogchen, making sense of my experiences and how I engage with life.

My Training:

My main psychotherapy training is in Core Process Psychotherapy, one of the original contemplative approaches to psychotherapy developed at the Karuna Institute in Devon. I undertook my clinical training at Homerton Psychiatric Hospital and at the Centre for Better Health, a community-based charity supporting recovery from mental ill-health, both in East London. I hold a Masters in Mindfulness Based Psychotherapeutic Practice from Middlesex University.

Additional specific training includes working with the Arts in psychotherapy, attachment theory, focusing, pre- and perinatal psychology and body psychotherapy. My foundation psychotherapy training was in Art Therapy and hold a Diploma in the Therapeutic & Educational Application of the Arts.

Primary Qualifications:

Post-Qualification Masters in Mindfulness Based Psychotherapeutic Practice
Diploma in the Therapeutic & Educational Application of the Arts
Practitioners Diploma in Craniosacral Biodynamics

Accreditations:

UKCP — Registered member of the UK Council for Psychotherapy
ACPP — Registered member of the Association of Core Process Psychotherapists
IABT — Registered practitioner of the International Affiliation of Biodynamic Trainings

I work with

• Individuals

Types of Therapies Offered

• Core Process Psychotherapist

What I can help with

• Addiction
• AIDS/HIV
• Anger Management
• Anxiety
• Bereavement
• Bulimia
• Bullying
• Cancer
• Chronic Illness
• Cultural Issues
• Depression
• Divorce
• Domestic Violence
• Eating Disorders
• Employment Difficulties
• Family
• Gender
• Health-related Issues
• Identity Problems
• Mental Health Issues
• Obsessions
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Online Counselling
• Parents
• Phobias
• Physical Abuse
• Post-Traumatic Stress
• Prescribed Drug Dependence
• Relationships
• Separation
• Sex Problems
• Sexual Abuse
• Sexuality
• Spirituality
• Stress
• Trauma