Kathie Connolly Bree

IACP

Psychotherapist

As an integrative and client-centered psychotherapist, Kathie’s approach to each client is tailored to their individual needs, abilities, and goals. She creates an environment that encourages clients to become more compassionate and accepting of themselves by exploring their conscious and unconscious belief systems, values, and behaviors. She is experienced in supporting clients to process traumatic experiences and to gain greater autonomy over their lives. She prides herself in meeting people where they are. This means she does not have an agenda regarding what your life should look like. Instead, she helps you to identify what is important and meaningful to you. She supports clients to move away from pain and to deepen their understanding of themselves by creating a safe and inclusive space. Her values as a psychotherapist incorporate fostering growth, empowerment, and healing.
Kathie has retained a passion for supporting others throughout her professional life. Prior to and while training as a psychotherapist, she worked as a child protection social worker and as a social worker within the criminal justice system. Kathie also worked with refugee and asylum services both in Ireland and abroad. These experiences have supported her to establish deep and trusting connections with others and to empathize and resonate with a vast range of human experiences.

Approach

Kathie’s approach is integrative in nature. Thus, she combines various different schools of therapy tailored to each individual client’s needs. This may entail a specific focus or combination of tools obtained from the following therapeutic modalities – Somatic, Emotion Focused, Attachment Based, Existential and CBT. She has worked with every aspect of the human experience (social, psychological, emotional, behavioral, existential and mental health). She adheres to the whole-person approach in her sessions, which can entail working with the mind, body, and spirit. Her approach to therapy encompasses a specific focus on developing an improved relationship with one’s sense of will. She believes many of the mental health issues clients present with in therapy are a result of situations where clients experienced severe powerlessness, leading to them feeling that they have minimal control over their lives. In the therapy room, she works to support clients to revisit their sense of agency so they can establish an improved sense of power and autonomy. She strongly believes in each individual’s ability to harness their resilience and to find within themselves the power to heal.