Healing Stings

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Healing Stings *

Welcome to Nettle Leaf Counselling

Holistic counselling for life’s nettles.

  • Holistic Counselling takes an integrative approach that meshes evidence-based psychological methods (see below), with healing modalities like mindfulness, somatic practices, and spiritual exploration.

  • Holistic counselling is a type of therapy that acknowledges your mind, body, heart, and spirit, unlike “traditional” therapy which often focuses on symptoms or cognitive aspects. It strives to address the root causes of distress by utilizing a personalized, integrative care.

  • Stinging nettles (aka Urtica dioica ) are known for their potent sting, which is emitted by thousands of tiny hair like needles that protrude from the plant’s leaves. While painful, the sting of the nettle has been known to be used to treat chronic pain.

    Many people choose to avoid the nettle leaf, which looks spiky and tough on the outside, due to it’s sting. However, nettle is a powerful medicine. Like the nettle, trauma can be similarly viewed as “spikey and daunting”, but with the right knowledge and processing, can be transformed into healing.

Integrated Therapeutic Modalities & Approaches

Healing isn’t one size fits all. At Nettle Leaf, we utilize an integrated therapeutic approach, in order to best suit your needs. Together, we can explore a personalized plan that is comfortable, accessible, and designed just for you. Take a look at some of the approaches below:

  • Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT) places focus on an individual’s relationship to their thoughts, and is considered an Action based approach. Instead of trying to change our thoughts, ACT gives way to our uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, and allows them to exist without trying to escape them. This therapy is based in mindfulness, exploring the client’s relationship to self. It highlights the idea that people are more than their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

  • Cognitive Behavioural therapeutic approaches are structured, evidence-based and goal orientated. They aim to help clients to identify and alter negative* thought and behavioural patterns. Techniques used here can range from: Cognitive Restructuring/Reappraisal (identifying and challenging irrational, negative, or distorted thoughts), Guided Discovery (used to help identify, challenge, and reconsider a client’s own beliefs, broadening their perspective) and Role-Playing (Practicing for a specific, challenging social or communication situation in a safe, controlled way).

    *“Negative” patterns refer to anything the client deems to impact their life in an unhelpful way.

  • Dialectical Behavioural therapy (DBT) Combines Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) with mindfulness and distress tolerance strategies. Examples of these strategies include Chain Analysis (used to identify triggers, thoughts, and consequences of negative behaviors), Emotion Regulation (Strategies to understand, label, and manage intense emotions), Interpersonal Effectiveness (Skills for maintaining relationships, boosting self-respect, and asserting needs), Dialectics (holding two seemingly opposing truths at once, such as accepting oneself while also working to better oneself).

  • Existential therapies encourages clients to strive towards self-reflection and acceptance of life’s uncertainties. Clients are guided through non judgemental open dialogue, mindfulness, and interpersonal exploration towards their true meaning and purpose in their life.

  • Humanistic therapy is a form of talk therapy that focuses on individual nature, instead of assuming the status quo. Humanistic approaches aim to consider the whole person, emphasizing positive characteristics and areas of potential for growth. This modality uses skills such as unconditional positive regard, empathy, and authenticity to create a supportive environment.

  • Inner child work involves providing the nurturing, validation, and care that was missed during childhood. Skills used can look like reparenting, visualization, and internal dialogue. When we pay attention to these parts of ourselves, clients can break maladaptive patterns, reduce reactivity, and build self-compassion for a kinder acceptance of self.

  • Narrative therapy is an approach that is non-blaming and non-pathological in nature. It does this by allowing the client to re-author their stories in a way that can feel more digestible. It utilizes techniques such as externalization (a tool used to separate people from their problems), deconstruction (breaking down the story into manageable parts) and unique outcomes (highlighting any contradictions in the story).

  • Many cultures, traditions, and religions have already identified the beneficial healing properties that nature can provide for us. This therapy relies heavily on mindfulness practices, where clients are guided to tune into the environment around them, and to consider their relationship to the land.

  • Psychodynamic approaches focus on unconscious conflicts and past experiences. Trust with the client is always built first, before initiating deep exploration and transference analysis.

  •  Somatic modalities puts focus on bodily responses to trauma, helping clients regulate their nervous system. Clients are guided to examine stressors or past traumas by tapping into physical sensations that pop up while discussing those experiences.

Ready for the Sting?

Turn your nettles into medicine.

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