Arendal Psykoterapi og Utvikling

03/06/2025

Are you witnessing violence in the midst of your home? Denouncing it is often the hardest thing to do: « he’s the father of my children after all… », « I can’t risk making things worse… »
Not reporting violence, whether it’s physical, verbal and psychological, is encouraging it. Every time you see violence and keep silent, you give more power to the perpetrator to keep going.
There are many reasons as to why one wouldn’t speak up, the fear of not being backed up by the institutions which are supposed to protect you being one of them.
If you are a witness of violence and speak about it to just one person, it takes one friend, one neighbor, one teacher, one colleague, and you start breaking the power of the perpetrator. One person you allow yourself to tell the truth to.
A violent parent is never a good parent.
Violence needs to stop.
In the safety of my therapy room I see what violence does to human beings and it’s devastating. Kids being bullied by the school director… in 2025, yes, that’s right! Children who have been abused by a narcissistic parent. Partners whose self esteem is being crushed by their partner’s verbal abuse. Clients whose boundaries are not respected by their therapist!! Etc…
It makes me so angry 🤬and so sad 😔in the same time. That one human being has so little respect for another one. How is it even possible?
I won’t keep silent anymore.

Violence is just not acceptable.
End of the story.

03/05/2025

Knitting near the pond helps me reconnect to the deepest part of me, the part that knows about my purpose in this life💫. Every now and then it’s good to reconnect to that and to the path I really really want to follow.
I ask myself questions like who do I want to be? What really makes me vibrate? What’s making me get up effortlessly every morning? What would make me get up with joy every morning? Or a deep yearning for life?
Today’s answers were about my role as a therapist - not surprising as I am really questioning my professional identity for the time being, especially since I’m working on my French website. I realize being a therapist is just one part of my professional identity, as being a teacher was (and still is!), as being a coach. Deep inside I know that these aspects of my work are some of the facets I show today of the mentor I am, in reality, and long to be for my fellow human beings.
But now it’s time to dare to hopefully humbly and respectfully shine my light and show the person I really want to be: one who uses the many aspects of who I am to share my experience, my knowledge, my skills, my tools, my wisdom with others, so that they can build theirs and find their own way into this life, and their own purpose🧡✨.

02/04/2025

How do you like my new mugs?
Que pensez-vous de mes nouvelles tasses? J’adore la petite histoire qui se cache derrière leur naissance :
Elles sont nées d’une discussion avec ma partenaire à propos de ses tasses qui sont en règle générales fêlées ou bien sans anses (il faut dire qu’elle passe beaucoup de temps en voiture et qu’elle emmène ses tasses partout avec elle☺️). Je me moquais gentiment de cela, mais on a finalement convenu que ses tasses avaient beaux avoir des défauts, elles n’en avaient pas moins de valeur à ses yeux. On a trouvé que c’était une belle description du travail thérapeutique: on le démarre souvent en se sentant cassée, sans valeur, pour petit à petit apprendre à mieux vivre avec ses blessures et se reconnecter à sa valeur💫🧡.
Nous avons tous nos imperfections, nos défauts et nos blessures. Qui font partie de nous et font en fin de compte AUSSI notre valeur!
📣📣Pour celles et ceux qui veulent avoir le privilège de tester mes tasses « abîmées mais pas sans valeur », retrouvez-moi ce week-end (5 et 6 avril) au salon du bien-être à Jard-sur-Mer en Vendée✊🏻.

20/03/2025

12/02/2025

I often have to convince my clients that rest is an essential part of their path towards feeling better. Tricia Hersey takes the idea of rest to a whole new level and it’s so meaningful! Listening to her manifesto I realize how - years ago - starting my own therapy practice, becoming my own boss, answering to nobody else than myself was my way of disengaging with the established power that (white) capitalists are having over the world today. It was my way to reclaim power over my rest, power over my working rhythm, power over my freedom. It was an act of liberation from the insidious systems which make us slaves of a life we really don’t benefit from without us even realizing it, by imposing on us working hours and productivity rates.
I’ve never described myself as an activist, but today I’ve decided. I have the audacity to become a rest activist. Because it makes so much sense to me as a therapist and as a human being. Rest is essential. Not only resistance. But also resistance.
If you feel you need rest but don’t know how to get more of it, I invite you to read this book. Or to contact me and start doing therapeutic rest work with me🧡.
I also invite you to rest right this minute: stop whatever you’re doing, put down your phone, close your eyes and just breathe a couple of times and notice what rest does to you and to your body. Even just a few breaths of it…💫🌟

05/11/2024

A little follow up on the topic of sadness and grief. I want to thank everyone who showed me some presence with their 🧡 on my post yesterday. I was touched. But really my post was about daring to share difficult emotions (also when you’re a therapist, because yes, therapists are humans too, living normal lives with feelings and emotions like everyone else🤣) and by doing so inviting you to connect to your own sadness and grief. Because in my experience, sadness and grief tend to accumulate if one doesn’t attend to them in a compassionate way. And then they showed up all of a sudden where we wouldn’t expect them and totally overwhelm us. So dare to acknowledge them when they show up, dare to feel them and dare to normalize experiencing them. And you’ll see that they won’t hang around so long anymore💫👌🏻. Don’t take me for my word. Test it out yourself☺️.

26/04/2024

🎉En gang i blant byr livet på nye eventyr som er vanskelig å si nei til. Etter snart 30 fine år i Norge, mitt voksenland, leder livet meg tilbake til Frankrike, mitt barndomsland.
🚚Om 3 uker pakker jeg ting og tang, bil og bedrift, og kjører av gårde til en ny kapittel i mitt liv. 48 år gammel! Det er aldri for sent for å prøve noe nytt, det lærer jeg i dag. Men det innebærer å gjøre valg, og ikke minst å velge bort. I dette tilfelle å velge bort noe godt, trygghet, venner, egen bedrift… for å gå til noe som (forhåpentligvis) blir enda bedre💫!
🪑🗄️Om noen få dager vil jeg stenge kontoret mitt i Arendal for godt og det er litt vemodig. Vil savne deg . Og jeg takker som ga meg muligheten til å utfolde meg som terapeut i 4 (utfordrende men) gode år.
💻For dere klienter vil flyttingen ikke forandre mye dog: det blir business as usual, på nett. Det er dere godt vant med nå og vet at det fungerer veldig bra også!
Og hvem vet, kanskje blir det mulighet for intensiv terapi over flere dager i Frankrike snart… Følg med😉!!

04/12/2023

Vi har ikke mer moro enn den vi lager selv! Litt lekenhet på en mandag er veldig undervurdert🎉🎄. En god Adventstid ønskes til alle fra oss to, og ✨.