Barbara Sławik

I am a qualified psychotherapist and a trainer. I work with adults and children. I provide individual psychotherapy, couple and family therapy. I provide therapy in English.

I work within integrative approach, adjusting my methods of work to individual needs of every client. In my work with my clients I utilise my knowledge from the field of psychodynamic therapy, mentalisation, systemic therapy and therapy focused on emotions.

One of the goals of therapy, especially psychodynamic therapy, is cooperating with the patient to help them better understand themselves, in particular the unconscious feelings and motivations, better understand their behaviours and symptoms, which they are not able to explain. Emotions and motivations function parallelly, which means that a person may have conflicting feelings towards a specific situation. This motivates to contrary actions and results in compromise solutions. People often mentalise while trying to understand their behaviours in relation to intentions and other internal states. This relates to their ability to understand mental states, both their own and of other people.

Systemic therapy, family therapy, couple therapy, marital therapy share the same understanding of a family as a system of joined dynamically elements which influence one another. I work with the system as a whole and I encourage each of its members to understand their role and influence on its functioning. The emotionally focused therapy joins the focus on individual experience of each partner to seek repetitive patterns in interactions between the partners and changing the patterns to ones more flexible and better supporting the relationship.

I work under regular supervision.

I have completed an accredited training at the Post-gradual Psychotherapy Studies and School of Couple and Family Therapy at the Psychoeducation  Laboratory. I have also completed a full course of Emotionally Focused Therapy and the first part of Mentalisation Based Treatment training.

On a daily basis, I provide individual psychotherapy and group therapy at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw at the mood, anxiety and sleep disorders ward.

I am a member of the Psychotherapy Section at the Polish Psychological Association, the Scientific Association of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT) in Canada.

I have earned experience as a psychotherapist during a clinical exposure at the Mazovian Psychiatric Centre “Drewnica” in Ząbki, as a consultant at the Emergency Hotline for Children and Adolescents 116 111 provided by the Empowering Children Foundation. I have also co-run developmental and therapeutic children holiday programme at Regeneracja Centre in Warsaw and worked with parents and families at the Psychological and Pedagogical Counselling Centre No. 24 in Wilanów Warsaw district.

On a personal side, I am married and have one child.