Danielle Dix
Clinical Psychologist
Therapy Approaches
Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)
Deep Brain Reorientating (DBR)
Eye Movement Desensitisation Reexperiencing Therapy (EMDR)
Somatic healing
Healing Circles
Trauma informed care
As a Master’s trained therapist of 20 years, I have practiced most modalities, however, not all resonate as deeply\.
IFS is a non-pathologising therapy that helped me, and many of my clients, to find a much deeper level of self-understanding and healing.
We have many parts, often in conflict, or doing different jobs, and often reliving past experience and outcomes.
This can make us feel confused, self-defeating, or fragmented, until we get to know and understand the inner family and their roles in the past and present. Symptoms can be parts trying to protect us from pain that we may not yet understand or know how to help. Instead of just fixing a symptom, we can heal the source of it.
Because of this passion, I have done extensive training and supervision in IFS over a number of years, and have also assisted with IFS training programs for therapists in WA, NSW, and online.
I feel we are drawn to therapists - many times - we sense the feel of a person through their energy, words, colours, ways of expression.
Sometimes we sense intuitively who and what we need.
I feel therapists practice best when they have done their own healing work and have a genuine connection to their work and modalities, and have a good understanding healing compared to masking, supressing, or quick fixing.
We have protective parts that scan for safety, and they often soften more in a space of resonance, and validation. They can sense the difference between genuineness and authenticity.
While I use many tools, if there is a specific therapy you are seeking and it is not in bold above, you may be best working with another therapist.
I do love sharing IFS and the work with people so you don’t have to be sure, you can’t be til you come and check it out, but maybe you have heard about IFS, or are curious about trying something different. From there, we can meet to see how it feels to work together.
I understand and can reference diagnostic frameworks, and they have their place.
However, personally, I prefer and feel passion for contextualising the various origins of these symptoms, and individualised, validating, and non-pathologising models of understanding and care. It does not mean diminishing lived experience or the value of terminology or categories.
It just means I work from an orientation of seeing your wholeness, not just what is not ok, seeing how your symptoms might make sense given your history or neurotype, and I always believe there is capacity to heal.
I have many neurodiverse clients and consider factors such as life phases, hormones (e.g. menopause) and neurodiversity -ADHD/ Autism etc. when framing concerns.
I’m very open to discuss any of this, and it can provide a gentle inroad to building our collaborative space together.
The Healing Space Approach
Healing spaces can regulate stress, ease suffering, and support the connection of the mind, body, and spirit. They also provide a safe container for relational connection, healing and growth
Healing Space is a warm space of caring for our common humanity and human struggles, while offering attuned, informed and effective therapy.
Although we often desire help and change, it can be difficult to reach out, to see our challenges or ourselves close up, or to feel the frustration with the gap between our goals or desires and where we are now. If you land in Healing Space, know this is deeply understood.
Healing Space values helping you discover a deeper understanding of how you and the things you feel and do make sense, so there is opportunity for more acceptance of all parts of you. This includes things that may fall under a diagnosis/ disorder, the parts that confuse you, or make life harder in some way.
Some ‘disorders’ may be your neurotype or unique way of experiencing the world, a response of your nervous system, or some unprocessed moments, phases, or traumas that have become stuck in your body and mind.
Sometimes challenges you face may represent understandable protective mechanisms when the past may not have felt safe. Intentional exploration of these components can provide a richer understanding or your own challenges, and offer your unique blueprint for healing.
Rather than get in the way of change, making space to understand, accept, and work with your body, mind, and relational experiences can increase internal sense of safety, decrease struggles and avoidance, and soften shame and distress. Together these allow more space for us to have genuine and more open and rewarding connections.
The room is a place where you can come as you are - whatever that is on the day: You are always welcome to be what you are, and it will be warmly held. You are always invited to speak for your parts, needs, and preferences.
