Grace here, I have been a therapist for over a decade (getting closer to 15 years!) and the Seven Tools Approach is one of my favorite things I use in the therapy room. I went to a grad school specializing in Depth Psychology and I LOVE the way I was trained to think and how I was trained to be with clients in the room but I found it was often hard to talk with clients about what was happening in the room in a way they could understand quickly using the Depth Psychology lexicon.

Depth Psychology is all about utilizing unconscious material and illuminating, examining, and changing (as needed) our underlying core assumptions. I have also taken extensive training on meditation and mindfulness, trauma, self-compassion, and so much more over the years. 

It always feels to me that the real value of therapy lies in what I call the “ooey gooey process” and as a clinician, it helps to keep a foot or two on solid land while clients are deep diving into their psyches. And that is why I love the Seven Tools approach so much. It is a structure for facilitating the ooey gooey that keeps my feet, and sometimes even the client’s foot on solid land even when we get into really deep work. But the structure is just an inquiry process so in practice, the ooey gooey flows unhindered by the structure. It’s just a lovely way to conceptualize and move through what emerges in the session.

The feedback I hear from clients is that I ask amazing questions, that I always help them see to the heart of what is happening for them, that I hold space in a way that allows them to hold space for themselves, too. Much of that is informed by the Seven Tools and in turn, I’ve channeled that all back into the formation of the Seven Tools Approach to Psychotherapy.

I love leaning into the Approach when therapy is feeling stuck or stalled out because it helps us explore what is keeping us stuck. In those moments, resistance to the work is the work, amiright? 

I love the Approach when people have a lot of story content attached to their feelings because it helps them drop into the heart of their experiences.

I love the Approach when people have long-standing patterns and the idea of changing them feels necessary and daunting at the same time.

I love the Approach when clients are struggling to allow themself to sit with what they are feeling. It makes even the most intimidating or overwhelming feelings approachable.

I love the Approach when clients are hard on themselves, because it helps them find compassion for themselves and their own experiences. And compassion creates a deeper ability to be with the hard stuff and, ultimately, compassion is the catalyst for change. Around here we call it the Alchemist for a reason!

I love the Approach because it is the most powerful way I know for enacting deep and lasting change. It allows people to become ever more their authentic selves as they clear away the blocks between their current moment and expression of that authentic self. And it builds the capacity to show up to life with courage, vulnerability, and authenticity.

I love the Approach because, with the Compassionate Inquiry process, clients learn to get curious about their experiences all week and the work happens as much out of session as it does in session. 

I love the Approach because it isn’t about there being a right way to be, so much as an invitation for clients to become more and more who they truly are.

I love the Approach because it is so versatile. I use it while working with trauma. I use it while processing relational issues. I use it with codependency and boundary work. I use it when people are struggling at work, at home, with friends. I use it with anxiety and depression. I use it with eating disorders and addiction. I guess I should just say I probably use it in almost every session.