Nondual Therapy
Nisarga means: the natural state, “to let flow uninterrupted”
Meeting you where you are, my one-to-one work is tailored to you. We explore your present experience and identify the blocks to living the Life that you are.
I’m here to help you reconnect with yourself and discover peace and harmony, to remember you are an expression of love and wholeness. I offer a safe, nurturing space in which you may find your authentic voice and truth, end your inner-conflict and resistance, and meet new possibilities. My hope is that you will begin to relate to your experience in a new way, with friendliness, inclusivity and understanding. May you come to know that the timeless One Life you already are flows through each passing appearance, that you are the Home you seek.
A safe space to meet and integrate life as it is
Within human life (especially in our formative years) experiences take place in which we disconnect from ourselves, from our intrinsic worth, and the eternal moment. Periods of fear and trauma or some other suffering become stored in our bodies, and we often become motivated by these unconscious energies until we are ready to look at them. Everybody has patterns and habits that keep suffering alive. Maybe you’ve needed to suppress or numb painful things because you just haven’t been able to deal with them.
One thing prevents the healthy change and growth you deserve: not meeting the parts of yourself that sustain the status quo. Freedom becomes apparent when we can notice the beliefs that bind us, name how they’re in place, and then navigate their release.
By becoming more conscious of our suffering and meeting it as it shows up through nondual mindfulness inquiry, we can integrate it, lessen its charge, and undo the web of false identification. When we meet and integrate things as they are, we build a trusting relationship with ourselves and with life (which, according to the message of nonduality, are the same).
Nondual Therapy helps gently direct and maintain attention on the source of this suffering to help release or soften the charge. Symptoms of distress, along with our feelings about them, can be understood as messengers coming to share something meaningful. In Nondual Therapy, we listen, feel and observe.
Therapy is about healing, and true healing is about rediscovering nonduality – our natural wholeness – after all, suffering is based on the misperception of separateness. The term Nonduality (or Advaita) is used to express the ‘ground of all being’, that life, and its expressions are One. “Nonduality” doesn’t mean “against duality”; it’s not meant to imply that duality is bad. Instead, nonduality is both the Deep Knowing of inseparability and an entire embrace of passing paradox. It’s the supreme balancing of the opposites. It’s authentic connection. It’s realisation. It’s unconditional love.
Professional therapeutic and spiritual support with:
- Locating and integrating energetic, emotional and/or physical blockages
- Realising limiting beliefs and false identities
- Finding freedom from compulsions/addictions
- Attending to unhealed wounds/trauma
- Freedom from the suffering of anxiety/stress, depression, loss
- Contact directly your true nature
- Integrating and making sense of nondual realisations, spiritual insights and awakening
- Learning how to meditate and inquire to explore and dismantle limitation and falsity
- Using somatic, energy and embodiment approaches to locate and embody awareness in the body
- Being mindful to avoid ‘spiritually bypassing’
- Identify, process and heal blockages of suffering and trauma (including intergenerational pain and narratives)
- Moving beyond old, conditioned attempts to control or perfect your life
- Integrate any abandoned, neglected or rejected parts
Uncover your natural wholeness
Suffering is painful, and this pain points to a limiting identity wrapped up in a bundle of experience, felt energetically in the body and presented in our actions. Our pain is not pathology, it is a circular path that leads back home if we give it permission to express itself. The nature of all emotions, sensations and thoughts, is wisdom, and this becomes clear when we, with mindfulness, give them space to be known, to move, to connect and to speak. Only then do we receive their gifts which point toward out natural wholeness.
The pressures of human life produce internal reactions, of which we are completely unaware. By identifying and meeting internal ‘energetic knots’ (bundles of feelings, sensations, images, thoughts) consciously, we soften or release their effect in the unconscious. By shifting the focus of awareness from the conscious body to the whole body-mind we liberate symptoms of their need to call out to us in painful ways and reveal what they are trying to communicate. We no longer fight, avoid or reject the parts of ourselves that need attention, and we uncover our natural wholeness.
Nondual Therapy and Ayurvedic Psychology acknowledges our eternal true Self as the origin and resting place of all transient forms. Nic Higham offers a mindfulness, somatic, experiential, spiritual and relational approach accessible to anyone open to deeply exploring themselves and a hunger for truth.
Find the capacity to attend to thoughts, feelings and sensations, and utilise special therapeutic and spiritual tools and practise to release pain, trauma and suffering. Come to realise and trust in a deeply embodied way that awareness itself holds every flavour of experience and know yourself as that unlimited, loving capacity. Discover a clearing for your suffering and recognise that it was never actually “yours”. Beliefs are seen with new clarity and denied or hidden feelings are met with compassionate openness.
The dissolution of the unconscious releases energy
“We are slaves to what we do not know; of what we know we are masters. Whatever vice or weakness in ourselves we discover and understand its causes and its workings, we overcome it by the very knowing; the unconscious dissolves when brought into the conscious. The dissolution of the unconscious releases energy; the mind feels adequate and become quiet.”
– Nisargadatta Maharaj
We must go to the roots of our suffering
“To reach the deeper layers of suffering you must go to its roots and uncover their vast underground network, where fear and desire are closely interwoven and the currents of life’s energy oppose, obstruct and destroy each other… This is the great work of awareness; it removes obstacles and releases energies by understanding the nature of life and mind.”
– Nisargadatta Maharaj
Awakening is only the beginning, then there’s liberation…
“[Head Awakening] is really only the beginning… when something shifts one out of identification with the thinking mind into an identification with awareness… The body residually stores a lifetime of blockages, contractions, trauma etc… Embodiment is a process that happens over time, that unfolds within the context of the present moment awareness that you are now experiencing as foundational after the initial awakening. In that way, Embodiment is not about seeking at all. It’s about bringing what has been realized through the head awakening all the way down into the entire body… When I experienced the head awakening, I also thought I was done. But my body was not. I spent a few years dealing with blockages and contractions that were painful and that really clouded my view. As the blockages and contractions began to dissolve, it was (and still is) as if the body is totally transparent. There is a lightness now throughout the whole body. And that’s not awakening, that’s liberation – a totally different thing.”
– Scott Kiloby, founder of the Living Inquiries and Kiloby Inquiries
Deepen into loving presence
As we journey deeper inward into a place where things are revealed, experience is transformed or transmuted. As you deepen into loving presence, you will dismantle false limitations and beliefs about yourself and life. When painful experience is embraced in presence, it is liberated and energy is freed.
Nondual Therapy is neither about achievement, improvement or fixing something. Rather than trying to heal the personality, Nondual Therapy sees individuality as one unique expression of Source. As these energetic blocks are made of stuck emotion and pain, freedom starts with allowing feelings to be felt with open curiosity. Nondual Therapy isn’t about denying the appearance of anything or about reaching a conclusion about things; it’s an opportunity to explore your thoughts and feelings about yourself, life and others to see where there are unexplored assumptions and beliefs functioning. It is about becoming deeply and intimately present with ourselves and allowing space for all those ego knots and tangles to unravel. It’s about having the space for anything that needs attention to arise in its own time and way to be met, understood, connected with and released.
Sessions with Nic Higham provide a much-needed space for the unfolding or unravelling of the web of mind-body conditioning to bring true Self to the forefront. Every thought, emotion and sensation are allowed to be as they are providing natural healing and balance. Nic uses a blend of psychotherapy, coaching, guided nondual meditation, somatic inquiry self-inquiry (as taught by Ramana Maharshi), spiritual psychology, and Nisarga Yoga (as taught by Nisargadatta Maharaj), and Ayurvedic Psychology.
Gentle, yet profound and transformational, the therapeutic relationship guides and holds space supports the release of energetic contractions (bundles of sensation, mental images, thoughts, memories, self-concepts). The more we develop the ability to allow the unfolding of contractions in the psyche, through the cessation of grasping and aversion, the more our authentic nature (what Nisargadatta Maharaj called ‘nisarga’) becomes apparent. This process frees natural clarity, harmony, truth, freedom, safety, and points back to the existential home you never left. It brings forth and directs the healing light of awareness through silence, listening and resonance. All that needs healing is the assumption of separation.
Testimonials
“I’ve started having sessions with Nic Higham less than two months ago and I already feel the good impact that it is having on my life, especially on my spiritual path. Nic offers and shares an accepting and loving space in which emotions, thoughts and sensations are free to flow, unravelling layers upon layers of conditioning, beliefs and deeply ingrained patterns. His openness and his first-hand experience in the non-duality field as well as in psychology permit him to wisely guide you in that space of open and curious awareness that you already are, always respecting your pace and your level of understanding. The human experience is not negated or bypassed, on the contrary, it is observed with deep respect and curiosity and regarded as the sacred and vibrating manifestation of life that it is. From my experience with him, I can say that even if you already practise some form of self-enquiry his guidance can really help in going deeper, precisely toward the knots of suffering or emotional discomfort that more have the need to be held by our loving awareness. I warmly recommend Nic Higham to everyone who wants to explore some aspects of their life from the standpoint of non-dual wisdom as well as to everyone who wants to go deeper into this wonderful exploration.” – MP
“I have a deep interest in non-duality, I wanted help in dealing with the emotional baggage that prevents us from experiencing the benefits of a spiritual path, that the intellectual understanding is not enough, we have to experience and hence be able to apply the theory in our day to day life. Nic Higham has perfectly balanced the addressing of these emotional blocks and also included the non-dual perspective through discussions to help unfold the journey of self-discovery and self-love, which is what we are all here to discover. He has a good understanding of non-duality and along with his experience in mental health and qualifications is able to provide an effective support system for anyone embarking on this type of journey.” – AL
“When I first began my sessions with Nic Higham, I did not know what to expect, but I was desperately seeking a healing method that would go beyond a simple band-aid. Within 2 sessions I recognised that Nic is insightful, thoughtful and compassionate, and has a wide repertoire of techniques that helped me look into myself, visualise and strengthen my own ability to heal myself. That is real progress. This is not a canned approach by any means – I feel his method will go beyond healing and help with finding true inner peace and stability.” – PS
“Nic is an extremely clear non-duality teacher but also a great therapist and he combines the two perfectly, helping one find Truth and freedom in even the most painful or mundane everyday problems.” – PD
Qualifications
- Level 4 Higher National Diploma in the Theory and Practice of Counselling
- Certified Results Life Coach
- Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
- Neurological Re-patterning
- Ericksonian Hypnosis
- Level 3 Certificate In Counselling Skills
- Foundation Course in Groupwork (Group Analysis / Group Analytic Psychotherapy)
- Member of the spirituality and private practice divisions of BACP
- Individual Member of British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)