Elizabeth Ruth Lyons

Counselling Psychologist and Trauma Therapist

N.S.W. Psychologist Reg. No: PS0013463

Therapy frameworks/ Preferred modalities

(Those therapies I’ve found of most relevance for trauma clients - number of stars equates with frequency of use)


Interpersonal Psychotherapy (incorporating):

Rogerian client-centred therapy * * * * * * *
Self Psychology (Kohut) * * * * * * *
The “self-trauma model” of trauma therapy (J.Briere) * * * * * * *
Emotionally Focussed Psychotherapy * * * * * *
Existential Psychotherapy * * * *

Gestalt therapy (& variants) especially:

Ego-State Therapy (Helen Watkins) * * * * * * *
Inner Family Systems Therapy (Schwartz) * * * *
Voice Dialogue * *
Transactional Analysis * *

Jungian (etc) dreamwork

(processing and integration) * * * * *


Expressive therapies (including):

Sandplay & Symbol Therapy * * * * * *
Art therapy * * * *
“ time-line therapy” * * * *
Psychodrama & role-plays * *

Cognitive Schema Therapy & CBT * * * * * *


Narrative therapy (White et. al.) * * * * * *


Solution-focussed therapy * * * * * *


Somatic psychotherapy

(esp. body awareness to manage PTSD hyperarousal)* * * * * *


Clinical Hypnosis

(not used for memory retrieval) * * * * * * *


Relaxation techniques (including):

Guided imagery * * * * * *
Mindfulness training (thought-awareness/consciousness raising) * * * *
Progressive muscle/isometric relaxation & breathing techniques * * *


Gendlin’s Focussing Oriented Psychotherapy * * * * *


Various adapted desensitisation & reprocessing techniques (including):

EMDR protocol (without the eye-movements!), EFT, & Ochberg’s counting method * * * * *
NLP (Neuro-Linguistic (Re-)Programming) & “Visual-Kinesthetic Dissociation” (V. Satire) * * * * *


Assertiveness practice

(body language etc) * *


Emotional release counselling * *


Behavioural rehearsal * *