If you’re feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or affected by anxiety, trauma or long-standing patterns, therapy can offer a confidential space to explore and understand the impact of current and past experiences on you, and support meaningful change and recovery of personal wellbeing.

I offer an active trauma-sensitive approach to therapy that is warm, friendly and compassionate, while also grounded in clinical experience and high professional and ethical practice standards.

Who I work with

The people I am privileged to work with in therapy are often looking for something to change. My clients are keen to understand their experiences, explore patterns in these and in their thoughts, feelings and responses or relationships, and develop new and often healthier ways of approaching these - leading to improvement in self-confidence, worth, identity, purpose, or quality of life. 

I work with adults who may be experiencing:

• Anxiety disorders, ruminating thoughts, stress, or overwhelm
• Psychological trauma, PTSD, and complex PTSD related to childhood   emotional, physical and sexual abuse, neglect, unstable caregiving, and abuse experienced in adult relationships
• Emotional regulation difficulties
• Bulimia or binge eating disorder
• Depression
• Low self-esteem or self-criticism
• Relationship or communication difficulties
• Career difficulties such as bullying, burnout or feeling “stuck”, and life transitions

I also work with a number of people with ADHD and Autism experiencing the above issues, and adapt my therapy approach to meet and support individual needs.

How I work
 

"This was my first time speaking with a therapist, and Samantha has been amazing. She really listened to my concerns around confidence and self-worth, and made me feel heard and supported from the start"  

I draw on a range of evidence-based therapy approaches, which are tailored to individual needs following assessment, and further adapted for trauma or neurodivergence, for example. Some of the therapy approaches I use are: 

CBT – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Helps us notice and understand the relationships between our life experiences, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours, and how they interact. Together, we look for patterns and develop new, healthier ways of relating and responding to yourself, other people and experiences that help you move forward.
 

ACT – Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Supports coping with rumination, difficult thoughts or emotions instead of fighting with them and without letting them take over. ACT can help us to reconnect with our personal values and move towards what matters to us.
 

CFT – Compassion Focused Therapy
Works with self-criticism to develop a more compassionate relationship with yourself, and supports moving out of survival or 'fight or flight' mode into a more balanced way of being and living.  
 

DBT – Dialectical Behaviour Therapy 
Improves emotional regulation and distress tolerance, and supports safer, healthier and assertive ways of interacting and responding in relationships.
 

Trauma Therapy 
Helps you feel safer in your body and mind. It supports your nervous system, helps you process what happened, deal with the impact, such as flashbacks, anxiety, anger or fear, low self-esteem, loss of identity and negative beliefs about yourself, and recover emotional, relational and personal empowerment and wellbeing. Elements of the other therapy approaches mentioned here, as well as elements of schema and 'parts' therapy are used, supported by creative approaches such as working with Matryoshka (Russian) nesting dolls, imagery rescripting and the Rewind technique.

Mindfulness-based CBT (trauma sensitive)
Using trauma-sensitive mindfulness skills can help us feel less overwhelmed or controlled by our thoughts, feelings, or body tension. It helps us to stay present, be less reactive and make choices that feel more in our control.   

Next steps 

Starting therapy can feel daunting. I always aim to make that first step as simple, comfortable and supportive as possible. 

If you would like to explore therapy with me, I offer a free, no-obligation 20-30-min assessment call to get a brief understanding of what is happening for you at the moment, without requiring you to go into detail about past or current experiences, and discuss how we may work together. An initial consultation is an opportunity for us both to consider whether working together feels appropriate.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch with me if you would like to book an initial chat or ask any questions. I try to respond to enquiries within one working day if I can, and initially my response is via email. 

"I'm so thankful I connected with Samantha. She is professional, responsive and sensitive, while also knowledgeable and straightforward with me. The way she understands me has been a long-awaited breath of fresh air. She validates my emotions and experiences and works carefully with me to identify patterns and goals".