ABOUT KAREN SRI THOMAS

Psychotherapist, Registered Clinical Counsellor (PACFA Reg: 27996)

South Yarra, Melbourne, Australia

MC&P; Grad Dip C&P; BA Hons (1stCl); MA (S&SEAsian Studies); PhD (S&SEAsian Theatre & Performance)

My deepest wish is to support people as they work through their individual psychological, emotional, and mental health issues. These issues may involve anxiety, depression, self esteem, grief, loss, trauma, relationship issues, and more. These dynamics often show up in close family relationships, with partners, in friendships, at work, at uni, in retirement.

The counselling focus is

You, the client as a whole person

in the context of your relationships

and your life situation.

Hummingbird Therapy, Private Practice, South Yarra, Melbourne

At Hummingbird Therapy, I provide counselling and psychotherapy sessions to clients privately, and to clients supported by organsiations including EAP providers such as Spring Health and Clearhead. I also support clients funded by NDIS. Prior to starting in private practice, I worked as Specialist Trauma Counsellor at 1800RESPECT, as Generalist Counsellor at Doncare Community Centre, and as Grief Counsellor at The Grief Centre, Australia wide.

Early Days

I received my PhD in Southeast Asian Studies at UCBerkeley in the 1990s after the birth of our first child. I managed a tutoring business for 8 years and was a consultant in human resources while raising four children with my long-term partner.

In the late 1990s I was Lecturer in Indonesian language at The University of Melbourne, and in 2010s became a Research Fellow in Asian theatre studies at Monash University. I transitioned into the field of counselling and psychotherapy in 2019, being drawn to supporting individuals holistically. Now I love to assist people in navigating their internal worlds, relationships, work environments, and communication with others.

Resonating with diversity and inclusion

Empathising with individuals from diverse backgrounds and cultures, I have devled into the practice of Focusing, an introspective approach developed by Eugene Gendlin.

Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy

This personal exploration led me to enhance my therapeutic skills through Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy, emphasing humanistic and experiential principles in my practice.

My approach is holistic, bringing curiosity and openness to clients’ moment-to-moment experiencing in a bodily way, helping them connect and attune deeply with themselves, sensing and feeling in a way that goes beyond words, analyses and categories.

As an experienced and trauma-informed psychotherapist, my approach emphasises the human potential for self-discovery and growth. In our healing, therapeutic relationship, my wish for clients is to develop an empowered sense of their authentic self.

My integrative, experiential approach draws on methods and practices drawn from Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Attachment Theory, Existential Therapy, Person-Centred Therapy, and Trauma-informed practices.

Focusing invites us to attend the wisdom of your body, to explore our felt sense of specific relationships. Clients come to know and understand their needs and desires in order to begin being the person they want to be in life and in their relationships.

Many clients begin counselling with me as a next step after benefiting from other forms of therapy such as cognitive behaviour therapy and cognitive processing therapy. Each session is tailored to their unique needs and emotional and psychological difficulties. As we work together, they find ways of developing a sense of peace, self compassion, resilience and empowerment. I help them attend to those stuck places-those emotional, psychological stoppages-that stand in the way of being their authentic selves in their lives and relationships.

A further note about me…

Therapy, and in particular Focusing, has brought me greater self-awareness, reflectiveness, and curiosity about my inner world. My relationship with myself has changed deeply, which has greatly impacted (and continues to impact) who I am personally and who I am in my relationships with others.

Being open to- and cultivating my own inner knowing allows me to be a better therapist with clients. As we embark on the therapy journey together, I help clients organically first to find their sense of groundedness. From here comes an inner calm from which to carry life forward in a way that feels right for them.

As we pause to stay with our moment-by-moment experiencing, we come to know not only our emotions but also what lies underneath them at a deep, often untouched level.

Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing approach that is underpinned by his philosophy of the implicit, opens up a whole new world perspective that lies beyond those recognised by the usual cognitive behavioural therapies. His Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy approach invites us to experience ourselves deeply and without relying entirely on the intellect.

When we attend to the wisdom of the body, we experience the felt sense of what’s inside us. Gendlin points us to felt-sensing, that is, to feeling and sensing into- and speaking from our body. We notice, acknowledge and allow what wants to form in the body – bodily sensations, images, metaphors, emotions, feelings. This approach invites us attune to the bodily felt meanings within us, that lead to an inner knowing of who we are deep down and what next steps to take that feel right.

A note about the hummingbird

The hummingbird is a symbol of resiliency and kindness, recovery and renewal, and in some cultures, protection from evil spirits. Hummingbirds and flowers are in relationship with one another, and depend on each other for their existence.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

RALPH WALDO EMERSON