Anna Niziołek

A few words about me

Sometimes what we need is not another piece of advice, but a place where we can pause for a moment and take a real look at what is happening to us.

I am a psychologist and a qualified psychotherapist. In my work I accompany adults and young people over the age of 16, as well as couples and families.

I hold the conviction that the way we experience ourselves, other people and relationships does not come from nowhere. Our experiences, our important bonds and the way we have learned to cope with emotions form certain patterns, which we often repeat unconsciously in adult life.

That is why in therapy I try not only to help with coping with what is difficult here and now, but also to look together for an answer to the questions: “Why do I react in just this way? What do I need? And what can I do differently?”

I work with people who experience anxiety, low mood, emotional overload, difficulties in relationships or low self-esteem. I also accompany people who have reached an important moment of change or crisis, or who simply feel that their usual ways of coping are no longer enough.

Working with relationships is especially important to me. With couples and married partners I work on what happens between two people — conflict, distance, difficulties in communication and the need to regain closeness. I draw, among other things, on the principles of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT).

How I work

I completed the four-year school of psychotherapy at the Krakowski Ośrodek Terapii Systemowej (Kraków Centre for Systemic Therapy). I work in the systemic approach, which I enrich with the perspectives of object relations theory and attachment theory.

I am always interested in a person in the context of their relationships and history. What happened in our first important bonds can affect how we build closeness today, how we react to rejection, conflict or loneliness, and what we expect from others.

At the same time, I believe that understanding is not an end in itself. It is meant to lead to change — to greater self-awareness, greater freedom in making choices and the possibility of building relationships in which there is room for both closeness and one’s own boundaries.

The therapeutic relationship is important to me — one based on attentiveness, respect, safety and a genuine meeting of two people.

For many years I also worked as a school psychologist, supporting young people through adolescence. That experience taught me a particular attentiveness to the world of young people, to their needs and to the difficulties they cannot always yet put into words.

I have run a private psychotherapy practice for many years. My work is regularly supervised.

Personally

Outside the consulting room I am a wife and the mother of two young athletes. Family life is an important experience for me — also because it reminds me that closeness, love and relationships require constant attentiveness, conversation and work on oneself.

I like books, nature, skiing and being active. I also like simply slowing down. I believe that it is precisely in these small moments, when we do not have to achieve anything or prove anything to anyone, that it is often easiest to hear ourselves.