About Dr. Belle McDonnell
Education
I hold a PhD in Psychology from Saybrook Research Institute and Graduate school in San Francisco, California, where besides training in humanistic and transpersonal therapies and counseling, I specialized in designing and delivering creative training principles and innovative teaching strategies through complementary and alternative health for adult and adolescent learners.
In l990, I received my Master's degree in the Social Sciences from Humboldt State University with an emphasis in counseling psychology, creative expressive arts, dreamwork and somatic body therapy.
Experience
I am a fully qualified and professional therapist based in Prague and am an accredited member of the American Association of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy. As a psychologist and professor, I also present workshops to health, education, and business professionals as well as individual clients in self-empowerment through traditional cognitive behavioral therapy as well as somatic and creative arts therapies.
I currently teach courses in psychology, management, leadership and multicultural communication at Anglo American University in Prague to BA and MA students in the Business, Humanities, International Relations and Cultural Diplomacy disciplines.
In addition to my formal education and the learning that has come from working with my clients and students over the past 22 years, I draw upon my experience as a partner in a 17 year marriage and as a mother of three children, now all in their 20's and 30’s. I have learned invaluable lessons about living and loving through my own journey of healing and growth.
Practice theories
I offer a warm, respectful and confidential relationship to my clients in a safe, professional setting. Within this non-judgmental space, clients can explore their anxieties and embark on the journey towards self-awareness. To facilitate this process, I draw on various therapeutic models according to the needs of each individual client.
I am firmly grounded in the belief that people can grow, heal, and transform. This hope is held no matter how intense one's defenses and wounds are. People can heal if they want to and my facilitation of that process can contribute to their own growth whatever is sufficient and necessary to that end.
I am personally familiar with the rewards of using therapy as a resource to help individuals and couples find their way through difficult times. I also have come to deeply appreciate how therapy can be a safe and creative place for someone to meet and embrace the inner selves that reside in their unconscious, and by making them conscious, experience a new sense of wholeness.
My work is primarily informed by the profound creative ideas of Drs. Milton Erikson, Jeanne Achterberg, David Lukoff, and Larry Dossey; I also draw upon the work of Carl Jung, Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, Elizabeth Kubler Ross, Bruce Lipton, Candace Pert and Nanette Dusi.