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Welcome to Fully Human!
Fully Human is a private psychotherapy owned and run by Avigail Abarbanel.
Avigail has worked in private practice in Canberra Australia since 1999. She moved to the Scottish Highlands in January 2010 and re-established her practice in July that year.
Avigail is a BACP Senior Accredited psychotherapist and she is on the BACP Register. Avigail works with adult individuals (18+), relationships, families and groups. Avigail is an experienced supervisor and facilitator of workshops and training for the public and for professionals.
- Fully Human has a policy of non-discrimination and is welcoming to the LGBTQ community and to people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, faiths & creeds.
- Fully Human is not affiliated with a faith or religion but is open-minded and always welcoming to people’s spiritual beliefs and faiths.
- In addition to the information I offer on this site, I invite you to read the booklets I have published on grief and adjustment to change, anxiety, trauma, relationships and my latest, Therapy Without A Therapist. These are short and accessible booklets on some of the most common topics that lead people to seek therapy. These booklets will give you a pretty good idea of how I think about mental health, about therapy and about my own work and will help you get a sense of whether I could be the right person for you.
Please be aware
- My approach to psychotherapy is not suitable for people who are just seeking to feel a little better or to manage symptoms, or for people looking for a ‘quick fix’. It is not wrong to want to feel better or manage symptoms, or to wish for suffering to end as quickly as possible. But the approach I use is most suitable for people who are seeking to fulfil their potential and become all they can become.
- Feeling better and symptom reduction are a by-product, a natural outcome, of moving in the direction of fulfilment of each person’s innate potential. Humans do not do well when all they are allowed to do is survive, cope or manage symptoms. Moving towards our potential requires real changes to brain architecture (brain connectivity).
- Change in how we feel, think, behave, how we relate to ourselves and others, does not happen in some unspecified space. It happens in our brain. To change in a permanent way, something in our brain has to change, which means that real and effective psychotherapy is about changes to brain connectivity. Therapists cannot change adult clients’ brains directly, but they can provide everything that is needed for this to happen. (Please refer to Therapy Without A Therapist for everything you need to know about what therapy really is and how I think about my work).
- Therapy is also not the same as a ‘confessional’ and is not a space to ‘whitewash’ bad, hurtful, harmful or criminal behaviour. Anyone can make mistakes and therapists do not judge people’s feelings or any inner experience. But what people feel and what they do, or the choices they make are not the same thing! If someone’s behaviour, or any choices they’ve made were or are harmful to themselves or to someone else, or if the actions are criminal, therapists are within their rights to make an ethical choice to place the needs of vulnerable people, such as children, ahead of the client’s. Therapy can help people take responsibility in order to help them grow and develop, make amends with others and so that they do not repeat any bad choices they might have made.
- Therapists do not have the power to ‘forgive’ people for things they did to others or to themselves. Forgiveness of self or others is a complex concept that each person has to work out for themselves. Therapy can help work it out, but it cannot offer forgiveness.
Waiting Period — there can be a waiting period of 3 to 6 weeks for a first appointment. If it is urgent for you to see someone, please do not wait . You can try the BACP Find A Therapist facility or the COSCA Directory to locate another therapist in your area. Other options are to ask a GP or someone you trust for a referral.
Address: Unit 5, Old School, Cawdor IV12 5BL
© 2008-2022. Avigail Abarbanel.