ABOUT
I am a counselling psychologist working with altered state therapies, relaxation, meditation, and hypnotherapy. I've been running my online counselling for more than ten years, which has increasingly become a preferred means of accessing counselling and, in these times, a necessity.
Having graduated as a special education teacher, I began my career in mental health approximately 30 years ago. I worked as a speech therapist for a couple of years and garnered diverse experience in learning disabilities among students. Through those years of watching and supporting "wrongly working minds", I began to develop a particular interest in altered states and their benefits to improving mental health. I also started my regular meditation and yoga practice to get closer to my inner self and understand the nature of the mind through my own experiences.
A few years later, I took an MA in Psychology and also became a person-centred therapist. I began the counselling work that provided me with a lot of practice, understanding and insight. Shortly after, I was given the opportunity to become involved in the workplace and organisational psychology, which increased my concern about and understanding the unity of mind, body and soul, and the importance of a healthy work /life balance.
At this time, it became evident to me the extent to which we are one delicately tuned system with sensitive parts working together, and how a deficit in the functioning of one component may result in sacrificing energy in another, thus causing chaos and potentially, a disastrous breakdown.
When I qualified as a Counselling Psychologist, it opened up an excellent opportunity to study how flexible the mind can be; there are almost endless possibilities for rewiring. My job was to diagnose and evaluate the mental state of young adults and kids with learning disabilities. It was amazing to see what a difference early intervention can make and fascinating to understand what the mind can do to compensate in the absence of any treatment. I wanted to dig deeper into altered states, so I learnt relaxation methods, mindfulness and hypnosis.
Today I specialise in career consulting, person-centred therapy, autogenic training, and integrative hypnotherapy. I have been working with clients for more than fifteen years and have been using altered states' benefits to open the mind, heal old wounds, traumas, and resolve blocks. Recovery is always the way to growth and offers a unique opportunity to connect with the higher inner self and the core soul.
I still do my regular meditation and yoga practice, and beyond my academic qualifications, I have trained in holistic healing approaches.
I genuinely believe that there is always a way within.
I love to learn, so I'm still learning new methods and techniques, visiting online conferences to keep all my approaches up-to-date. Below you can see a list of the most recent courses and seminars I've attended.
- Integrative Sex and Couples Certification Training (Tammy Nelson, Psychotherapy Networker, 2023)
- Clinical Supervision Course (LSCCH, 2023)
- Compassionate Inquiry with Gábor Maté, Master Class: A powerful approach for healing anxiety, addictions, ADHD and more (Psychotherapy Networker, 2022)
- Certified Telebehavioral Health Practitioner (TBHI - online)/ 2020
- Virtual Trauma Summit (Action Trauma - online) / 2020
- Online Counselling and Therapy in Action (OCTIA - online) / 2019
- Living with vulnerability- meditation course with Pema Chodron (Sounds True - online) /2019
- Demystifying Mindfulness (Leiden Univerity - online) /2019
- National Counselling and Psychotherapy Conference (BACP - London) / 2019
- CBT Practitioner Certificate (BSY - online) /2018
- Ericksonian Hypnosis Video Course ( British Hypnosis Research and Training Institute)/2017
- Mindfulness for Peak Performance (Monash University - online) / 2016
- Counselling Psychologist/ University of ELTE (2014-2016)
- Integrative Hypnotherapist/ Hungarian Association of Integrative Psychotherapy (2013-2018)
- Psychologist MA/ University of ELTE ( 1999-2009)
- Person-centred Therapist / Hungarian Association of Person-Centred Counselling and Psychotherapy ( 2003-2007)
Szilvia Kovács Counselling Psychologist
