The Kintsugi Programme

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), typically pronounced as the word “act”, is a form of psychotherapy and a branch of clinical behaviour analysis. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is an empirically based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies mixed in different ways with commitment and behaviour-change strategies, to increase psychological flexibility. The objective of ACT is not elimination of difficult feelings; rather, it is to be present with what life brings and to “move towards valued behaviour”.

Acceptance and commitment therapy invites people to open up to unpleasant feelings, and learn not to overreact to them, and not avoid situations where they are invoked. Its therapeutic effect aims to be a positive spiral where feeling better (not in the sense of having “better” feelings, but in the sense of being better at feeling) leads to a better understanding of the truth. In ACT, ‘truth’ is measured through the concept of ‘workability’, or what works to take another step towards what matters (e.g., values, meaning).

Kintsugi Art Psychotherapy facilitates bringing our subconscious into the conscious thus allowing us to become the master of our mind and therefore our destiny. Practical knowledge, speaking and understanding are functions of the left side of our brain which is considered the ‘conscious’ side.

Emotional and visual memory together with creativity are functions of the right side of the brain which is considered the ‘subconscious’ side. Many of the challenges we are presently facing in life have their origins in adverse emotional events that occurred deep in our past.

We can perhaps remember what happened during these events, but often we cannot feel the emotions related to them because they are stored in our subconscious mind, from where they exert great influence on our lives today.

To succeed in our recovery, we need to process the invisible core issues which are the source of much of the pain and difficulty in our current lives. Not being able to access our unconscious mind leaves us feeling stuck and powerless to move forward.

Kintsugi Art Psychotherapy does not require any artistic skills but through the creative process itself, under the guidance of a trained specialist, hidden areas of our subconscious emotional memory, are released.

This allows a profound and powerful communication to take place between our unconscious and our conscious mind whereby we can finally access the key emotions that are behind the unhelpful, beliefs, thought patterns, emotional states and behaviours that are bothering us, and resolve them.

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma, anxiety disorders and phobias. EMDR is a form of psychotherapy in which the person being treated is asked to recall an image while the therapist generates one type of bilateral sensory input, such as side-to-side eye movements or hand tapping.

EMDR is heavily evidence-based and is included in several guidelines for the treatment of developmental trauma, complex trauma, and post-traumatic stress (PTS).

The objective of the neurofeedback programme for PTS, Developmental and Complex Trauma is the same as that for psychotherapy or EMDR – to process the trauma so it no longer affects you in the same way. The difference is that neurofeedback offers a way to do this without having to talk about uncomfortable feelings or reliving them. Neurofeedback is particularly suitable for Developmental Trauma or C-PTS with protocols to both process the trauma (whether consciously remembered or not), and improve brain regulation to address the long-term symptoms of trauma, such as hyper-vigilance and anxiety.

At The Cabin our psychologists have extensive experience working with adults and young people with Developmental and Complex Trauma. We understand the value of neurofeedback as a central treatment in promoting our clients’ personal transformations and in helping them to move forward by use of their brain’s own ability to change.

Kintsugi Yoga is an additional method of delivering treatment for both complex trauma and PTS (post-traumatic stress). At The Cabin, all clients accessing trauma care undertake a programme of physical exercises specifically designed to cause neurogenic vibrations of the body, allowing the individual to reduce stress, unload tension and decrease intensity of symptoms.

The use of somatic movement in the treatment of trauma has been proved to be efficient in cases of so-called shock trauma generated by different accidents and acute experiences and complex trauma which are defined by chronic or lifetime exposure to extreme stressors.

At The Cabin Kintsugi Yoga is delivered in conjunction with Kintsugi Art Psychotherapy, EMDR and Dynamic Neurofeedback as a core treatment. Kintsugi Yoga can continue to be performed by a client accessing treatment by themselves.

Trauma Informed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT) is a modern evidence based psychological treatment that is a first line treatment for trauma. TF-CBT focuses on examining the way negative thinking affects the way we feel and behave and subsequently go on to form beliefs about the world, our perception of events, our relationship to them and how we then act. Therefore, conditions like trauma which create mental and emotional disturbance can be treated by uncovering negative thought processes and then learning strategies and techniques to both reframe these events and think more rationally and positively about them.

The Kintsugi Programme gives you the tools and the drive to heal, again and again. Our bodies and minds have an innate drive to repair, and this forces us to keep going, and to recognise that this repair is as important as the break itself. When we designed and wrote this programme, we held this as a central tenet of our therapeutic approach. We believe that this foundation of healing will serve you well.