My name is Judith Arnaud, I am fifty three years old and I am an English and French-speaking counsellor/psychotherapist.
My training:
Initially I completed a double-Masters degree in Criminal Law in France and later I completed a Masters degree in clinical psychotherapy in Australia, where I lived and worked as psychotherapist for several years. I have also gained experience in art-therapy and somato-therapy through a long-term collaboration with Shiri Hergass (art-therapist) and Marina Berney (somato-therapist), while living in Sydney, Australia, although my way of working remains based on therapeutic discussion.
My experience:
While living in Australia, I had a private practice but also did a lot of work for charities, traveling to Aboriginal villages to work with children and professional carers, and worked in shelters to support isolated women and mothers as well as women subjected to domestic violence.
I later lived in Berlin for a few years where I mainly worked with young musicians referred to me by a Music Institution (BIMM) in addition to my private practice.
I have now been working in the Netherlands for a couple of years, primarily doing online sessions with people from many different countries.
My main focus is on depression, anxiety, traumas from early childhood or from later in life, and supporting important life changes (expatriation, grief and loss, divorce, illness, etc.).
Why work online?
It is while living in Berlin that I started doing online work via Skype. This was initially to remain in contact with my Australian clients and also to continue to support my Berlin-based clients who had moved to other countries and were no longer able to meet in person.
I began to take on new clients who were living in remote areas (villages or countryside) and couldn’t access therapeutic support. At first, I was reticent to host online sessions, as I was convinced that physical presence played an important role in the healing process and that creating a safe in-person space was a key element for successful psychotherapy work. In the end I decided to try it since I believed that having some access to help (even if online) was better than having no support at all.
I observed, with some surprise, that not only did this way of doing therapy work well but it supported and helped my clients as much as if they had come in person to see me. I therefore decided to keep working that way.
I keep telling people in search of therapy to try to get help from someone they can meet in person, because it feels natural, safe, comfortable and more welcoming. However, I know now that for many clients an online therapy approach will provide as much support and help because all therapeutic work relies on trust and skills, no matter where it takes place.
My therapeutic approach
Originally, and as so many psychotherapists in France, I trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. My practice completely detached me from it because what I observed while working in no way corresponded to the concepts developed by psychoanalysis on which I now have a very critical view.
In Australia, I discovered other approaches and other evidence-based schools, which I trained under and which I integrated into my practice because they matched what I observed while working and met the needs of my patients in giving them the means to get better and be well:
The person and relationship centered approach (Carl Rogers and the whole humanist movement in psychology).
The tools offered by cognitive-behavioral theories, called C.B.T.’s, in particular in French the writings of Christophe André on depression and anxiety, and those of Didier Pleux on frustration, and in English the works of Jon Kabat-Zin, Zindel Segal and Mark Williams.
The existentialist therapeutic approach which connects responsibility and freedom and gives us back the freedom of choice - especially Irvin Yalom theorie and school of thoughts.
Also, the theory of Acceptance and Commitment - ACT - which forms a bridge between C.B.T.’s and the existentialist approach.
The practice of mindfulness which opens us to reality and allows us to access inner peace - here too, see the work of Christophe André on emotions, the publications of Zindel Segal, Mark Williams or Jon Kabat-Zin on “mindfulness” tools and practice.
Psychodynamic therapeutic reflection to support and accompany the inner journey of each person.
Finally the extraordinary field of knowledge brought since the 2000s by the neuro-sciences.
Among the multitudes of articles and books available on these subjects, I really like the educational and practical approach of Mark Williams who, like Christophe André, offers to everybody and not only professional useful theories to implement in our life, to allow us to change and get better.
Enriched by all these fields of knowledge, reflection and understanding, I now have a holistic vision of the human being - and an integrative way of working - where all available resources are explored to find those which will respond to the needs and expectations of each person.