06/05/2022
My name is Agnieszka Widera-Wysoczańska.
I am a Doctor of Psychology, specializing in clinical psychology. I have experience in psychotherapeutic and developmental work, including coaching and training, as well as supervision / consultation.
I provide psychological help in Polish and English, in my office and on-line.
Day after day since 1987, as part of the Institute of Trauma Psychotherapy, Development and Training (private practice), I conduct trainings, lectures, consultations, psychotherapy and development meetings / workshops for children and adults who have participated in conflicts and experienced complex and chronic interpersonal trauma in the family of origin and current or in social groups (school: bullying, work: mobbing), including such a complex problem as sexual violence.
I conduct individual and group psychotherapy in the "life-span" integration model, effective in treating people after complex and chronic interpersonal trauma. This therapy is understood as a process of change and personal development. The goal of therapy is to use the internal resources of a person to build a good quality of life.
I carry out a psychological diagnosis of children and adults by analyzing:
• forms of experienced traumatic events, e.g. emotional, physical, sexual abuse, overprotection and addiction in the family (DDA, DDD),
• consequences appearing during traumatic events and then experienced by the injured person until their late adulthood, including complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), simple PTSD, dissociative or bond disorders, and psychosomatic disorders.
I make a psychological diagnosis of people who may have experienced sexual violence.
I am an ad hoc expert appointed by courts and the prosecutor's office in cases of domestic violence, I diagnose children, parents and perpetrators.
People who report to me experience, among others:
• loneliness,
• fears of life, fear of closeness, fear of setting goals, making decisions, establishing relationships (shyness),• sadness, depression and depression,
• pain, despair, internal chaos,
• helplessness, hopelessness and emptiness,
• dissociations, for example:
- having trouble feeling your body: "it's like wood",
- they don't feel and they don't distinguish between emotions: "I don't know what I feel, I don't know my emotions",
- trouble concentrating: "I don't remember the sentences that I read",
- perceive the world as unrealistic: "as if I were behind glass", "I watch people like in a movie",
- they feel that they have several different people inside them: "sometimes I am good, other times aggressive and I do not know why this is happening and I have no influence on it",
- problems with the memory of the past or the present: "I do not remember much from my childhood", "I do not remember certain people from the past", "I do not remember what I did a moment ago / a few days ago",
• problems in relationships, with partners, children, friends, colleagues, employers,
• grief after the loss of a person, home, work, relationship,
• are harmed and do not have the strength to change their situation,
• anxiety that they will hurt their children, partners or other relatives,
• burnout,
• loss of goals, plans or meaning in life.
People who use my help are determined to, for example:
• be aware of the causes of malaise,
• recognize the rules, roles, relationships in the family from childhood (origin) and the current one, as well as in the school and professional environment, which dysfunctionally affect the behavior of a person,
• gain insight into past feelings and beliefs that hinder your current life,
• work through difficult emotions and change beliefs into ones that make life easier,
• look for a way out of loneliness,
• break off toxic relationships,
• learn to build good, close relationships with children, partners and others,
• before entering into a relationship or before deciding to have a child, change your disturbed behavior to be healthy and safe for your relatives,
• gain energy for life,
• feel valuable,
• recognize and talk openly about your needs and personal boundaries,
• recognize your values, goals and life plans and implement them now and in the future,
• increase the quality of life in all its spheres.
Biological, adoptive and foster parents bring their pupils to me to reduce the consequences of previously experienced violence and seek help for themselves to build better and better bonds with their children.
I train professionals in the field of counteracting domestic and environmental violence, diagnosis, support and therapy of people who have experienced violence, especially sexual violence.
In 2020, in the USA, I received the C. Wilbur (edited by ISSTD) for my contribution to the development of research and practice on dissociation and trauma.
In 2021, I was appointed by the Senate of the Republic of Poland as an expert to write an opinion (number 333) on alternating care and the need to recognize domestic violence.
I am an assistant professor at the Institute of Psychology of the University of Wrocław, Department of Clinical Psychology, where since 1987 I have been teaching students of psychopathology as well as diagnosis and therapy of people who experienced interpersonal trauma in childhood, especially sexual violence.
I have written 5 books, chapters and articles in Polish and English.
I obtained nominations certificates in recognition of my practical, scientific and popularizing skills, including:
• European certificate of psychotherapy (ECP) issued by the European Psychological Association (from 2006),
• a supervisor's certificate in the field of domestic violence issued by the Institute of Health Psychology of the Polish Psychiatric Association (2013),
• certificate of a specialist in the field of post-traumatic stress of the Polish Therapeutic Society (PTP, 2006),
• certificate of the PTP supervisor in the field of post-traumatic stress (2006),
• specialist in the field of Counteracting Violence, issued by PARPA (2001).
I am also a licensed practitioner of the use of language in the change process, I have a certificate entitling me to use conversational hypnosis, I am an NLP Trainer in the field of psychotherapy certified by The NLP Connection and Partner of The Society of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (USA), a practitioner in strategies and the art of modeling new behaviors certified by The NLP Connection and Improvement General (USA).
I systematically develop my psychologist and psychotherapist skills, learning in Canada and the USA from the best who create psychotherapy focused on trauma and dissociation. I learned the diagnosis of a sexually abused child during my research internship at the University of Saskatoon and at the Mental Health Clinic in Canada. It was also then that I was deepening my skills in conducting group therapy for women who experienced sexual violence in their childhood.
For many years, based on practical experience, I have been creating my own integrative approach to the diagnosis and therapy of trauma, which I call "life-span". To present this approach and research, I have been invited to international conferences in various parts of the world.
I am a member of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress and the European Society for Trauma and Dissociation.
My passion is my work, skiing, traveling, photography and interior design.
