Welcome

"Like a vow that was made for us,  we’re all born with a calling in our blood to become who we are. Much of this "becoming" is about unhindering ourselves of the invalidations, compromises, and hesitations that weigh on our wings. The obstacles to flight".  Toko-pa Turner

If you are in crisis or transition or feeling isolated; if you are longing to find or reconnect with your true purpose, your sense of who you really are and your enjoyment of life; if you're experiencing repeating patterns of difficulty in your relationships; if you're feeling overwhelmed, low, angry, lonely or unable to see a way to move forward, I offer you my support.

We all experience vulnerability, stress, overwhelm and suffering at points in our lives and there may come times when our attempts to  move beyond the difficulties alone just aren't providing long-term relief.

At such junctures, the right therapeutic relationship offers an opportunity to be seen and supported and can catalyse deeper understanding and insight as to how we can heal old wounds, approach current challenges differently, and move forward in healthy, life-affirming ways.

I offer relational, embodied, trauma- and attachment- informed counselling and psychotherapy developed over two decades of experience of therapeutic work and training in the disciplines of humanistic & transpersonal counselling, coaching and mentoring, somatic movement modalities (I run movement groups in nature) as well as offering one-to-one therapy in nature, which may include art, ritual and movement practices.

I have worked with individuals, couples and groups in the NHS, the charity sector, higher education and in private practice.
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I am trained in bodywork, mindfulness practice, early attachment re-patterning and somatic wellbeing facilitation and over years of ongoing professional development and practice.
I also incorporate coaching and mentoring tools where desired/appropriate.

I work in a way that gives attention to whatever you are aware of in yourself in the present; through and in relationship with the many parts within you, the emotions, body, your experiences in the past, transgenerational trauma, the transpersonal and what arises between us in our sessions. 
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Trauma-informed attachment theory, somatic movement, creative self-expression, neurobiology, Polyvagal Theory, mindfulness and eco-therapy are just some of the resources I draw upon to support the work.

Teachers whose work informs my practice, many of whom I have completed professional development courses with over the past decade include:

Diane Poole Heller   - DARe Training
Peter Levine - Somatic Experiencing
Dick Schwartz, PhD - Internal Family Systems (IFS)   
Lawrence Heller - NARM (Neuro-Affective Relational Model)
Frank Anderson, MD  - The Integrated Trauma Therapist
Stephen Porges - Originator of Polyvagal Theory
Deb Dana  - Psychotherapist & Polyvagal Theory expert
Bert Hellinger - Family Constellations & Transgenerational Trauma                      

"Thank you so much. I have come to see many important things that I had never noticed before and to see other things in new and exciting ways.​ I shall always remember my sessions with you as happening in a special time and place". B.C.

Vanessa Hedley
​BA Hons., PgDip,
​MBACP (accredited)

 "Vanessa is warm, genuine and insightful and I quickly felt safe and able to be myself during our sessions. 
​ I'm eternally grateful for the increased peace I now experience in my relationship with myself"
K. S.

"What human beings cannot contain of their experience - what has been traumatically overwhelming, unbearable, unthinkable - falls out of social discourse, but very often on and into the next generation as an affective sensitivity or a chaotic urgency" (Erich Fromm)