NEST psychotherapy is addressed to adults suffering aftermath of:
- various traumas e.g. sexual, verbal, and physical abuse; emotional, intellectual, and physical neglect; pregnancy losses such as abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth and others; as well as death of significant person;
- potentially overburdening borderline situations, such as epidemics, war, emigration, exclusion, unemployment, job change, moving, divorce, childbirth, adoption, illness, senility, etc.
NEST therapy is dedicated not only to people with experience of complex trauma but also those who seek personal growth, for instance for those who need to analyze their relationships with parents, children or other significant individuals.
NEST psychotherapy is an integrative approach inspired by many theoretical assumptions and therapeutic approaches, including:
- psychodynamic theories of personality, attachment, and relationship with an object, according to Bowlby, Fromm, Horney, Klein, Mahler, Winnicott, and others;
- model of social development by Erikson;
- behavioral-cognitive theories by Beck, Kelly, Seligman, Young, and others;
- transactional analysis by Berne;
- existential reflection according to Frankl, Jaspers, May, Yalom, and others;
- person centered therapeutic relation according to Rogers;
- theories of need by Murray and Maslow;
- psychodrama by Moreno and others;
- complex trauma model by Courtois and Ford;
- model of interrelation of abuse and pregnancy losses by Benedict, Ney and others;
- systemic analysis by Bowen, Madanes, Bateson and others;
- narrative approach by Bruner, Tomkins, McAdams and others.
Some therapeutic exercises / techniques used in NEST therapy are:
- personal reflection,
- family tree (genogram),
- life line,
- psychodramatic role plays,
- visual imaginary parables,
- therapeutic letters,
- dream analysis,
- group dynamics (including analyzing transference and countertransference, and therapeutic relationship) as the learning context.
IMPORTANT: NEST therapists assume that not so much therapeutic techniques or theoretical assumptions but rather relationship between the psychotherapist and the patient / client is the main factor of healing and change.