ABOUT ME AND MY THERAPY PRACTICE.

About Sarah

A warm, compassionate and person-centred approach to counselling

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Hello, I'm Sarah.

I'm a person-centred counsellor based in Manchester, offering online counselling to adults.

I believe one of the most important parts of therapy is finding someone with whom you feel comfortable enough to be yourself. You don't need to arrive at a session knowing exactly what you want to talk about, and you certainly don't need to worry about saying the “right” thing.

For me, therapy begins with the relationship between us — listening to you, getting to know you and trying to understand your experiences from your point of view.

How I became a counsellor

My journey towards counselling began with my BSc (Hons) in Psychology.

During the final part of my degree, I studied humanistic psychology. The module was taught by a counsellor and I found myself particularly drawn to this way of understanding people — not simply through symptoms or diagnoses, but as individuals with their own experiences, relationships and capacity for growth.

This eventually led me towards person-centred therapy and an MSc in Advanced Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Person-centred therapy remains at the heart of how I work today.

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My approach

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I don't see my role as telling you what to do or deciding what is best for you.

Instead, I aim to provide a warm, accepting and non-judgemental relationship where you can explore what is happening in your life and begin to understand yourself more deeply.

We might explore what you are experiencing now as well as patterns, relationships or experiences from your past that continue to affect you.

Most importantly, we work at your pace.

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Alongside my counselling training, I am a British Wheel of Yoga-trained yoga teacher and a mindfulness teacher.

Both have contributed to my understanding of the relationship between our thoughts, emotions and bodies and the value of approaching our experiences with curiosity rather than judgement.

During my MSc I also studied a module in Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT). I found that many of its ideas resonated with aspects of mindfulness and yoga that were already familiar to me, particularly around compassion, self-criticism and how we respond when we feel threatened or overwhelmed.

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My practice remains firmly rooted in person-centred therapy. Where it feels appropriate and useful for you, I may draw on ideas from CFT and mindfulness as part of our work together. There is never an expectation that you follow a particular programme or use techniques that don't feel right for you.

My experience

I bring more than 20 years' experience of working within mental health, including experience within the NHS, mental health charities and private practice.

I hold:

• an MSc in Advanced Counselling and Psychotherapy

• a BSc (Hons) in Psychology

• British Wheel of Yoga teacher training

• mindfulness teacher training

I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and work within its ethical framework.

I continue to develop my practice through professional learning, reflection and supervision.

 

Women's emotional wellbeing

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I have a particular interest in women's emotional wellbeing and the psychological impact of significant transitions in women's lives.

My interest in this area is also informed by my own lived experience of postnatal depression. This gave me a personal understanding of how unexpected and isolating changes in our emotional wellbeing can sometimes feel, particularly during periods of life when we may expect ourselves to be coping.

I don't assume that my experience is the same as anyone else's, but it has contributed to my belief in the importance of having a space where women's emotional experiences can be spoken about openly, taken seriously and understood without judgement.

 

This includes perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause, as well as experiences around becoming a parent, changing relationships, ageing, loss and changes in identity.

I am interested in the whole experience rather than assuming that emotional distress can be explained by one thing alone.

For example, menopause can occur at a time when many other things are changing too — relationships, caring responsibilities, work, confidence, our bodies and our sense of who we are.

Having somewhere to explore all of this without judgement can be enormously valuable.

Anxiety, trauma and self-criticism

I particularly welcome clients experiencing anxiety, trauma and post-traumatic stress, low self-esteem and difficulties with self-criticism.

Sometimes people arrive in therapy knowing why they feel as they do but still find themselves unable to change it.

You may be someone who understands yourself very well intellectually and yet continues to experience anxiety, shame, self-doubt or a strong inner critic.

You might also be someone who finds it much easier to care for everybody else than to recognise your own needs.

Rather than seeing these responses as something that is “wrong” with you, we can become curious together about how they developed and what you might need now.

What am I like as a therapist?

I think it's important that you know something about the person you are considering talking to each week.

My style is warm, down-to-earth and compassionate.

I will listen carefully and take what you tell me seriously, but therapy with me doesn't need to feel clinical or formal.

There may be difficult and emotional conversations, but there can also be warmth, humour and ordinary human moments.

I won't expect you to become a different version of yourself.

My hope is that our work allows you to understand yourself more deeply, recognise what you need and perhaps begin to relate to yourself with greater understanding and less criticism.

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Finding out if I'm the right therapist for you

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Choosing a counsellor is very personal.

Qualifications and therapeutic approaches are important, but so is how you feel when you actually speak to someone.

That's why I offer a free 15–20 minute introductory telephone conversation before you decide whether you would like to begin counselling with me.

There is no pressure or obligation to continue.

It is simply an opportunity to tell me a little about what has brought you to counselling, ask me questions and get a sense of whether working together feels right.

If you think I might be the right person for you, you're very welcome to get in touch.

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Why Am I So Hard on Myself?

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Exploring anxiety, self-criticism and compassion through counselling

Have you noticed that you can be patient, understanding and compassionate towards other people but find it much harder to offer the same understanding to yourself?

When someone you care about is struggling, you might instinctively reassure them.

But when you struggle, perhaps the voice inside sounds rather different:

I should be coping better.

Why can't I just get on with things?

I'm not good enough.

I'm letting people down.

For some people, that voice has been around for so long that they barely notice how harsh it has become.

Why are we so hard on ourselves?

Being self-critical doesn't mean there is something wrong with you.

Sometimes the ways we relate to ourselves developed for understandable reasons.

Perhaps being hard on yourself helped you achieve, avoid mistakes or keep other people happy.

Maybe being capable, useful or undemanding became important to you.

You might have become very good at caring for other people while becoming much less familiar with recognising your own needs.

Rather than trying to get rid of these parts of ourselves, counselling can help us become curious about how they developed and whether they are still helping us now.

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Understanding anxiety differently

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When we're anxious, our minds can become extremely good at looking for what might go wrong.

We may replay conversations, anticipate problems, worry about other people's reactions or constantly question whether we've made the right decision.

And then we can criticise ourselves for being anxious:

This is ridiculous.

Why am I worrying again?

I need to pull myself together.

Now we're dealing not only with the original anxiety but also with our judgement of ourselves for experiencing it.

Learning to respond to ourselves differently doesn't mean pretending everything is okay.

Sometimes it begins simply with understanding why our mind is reacting as it is.

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Ideas from Compassion Focused Therapy

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During my MSc in Advanced Counselling and Psychotherapy, I studied a module in Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT).

I found that some of its ideas connected strongly with what I had already encountered through my work and training as a mindfulness teacher and British Wheel of Yoga-trained yoga teacher.

One particularly useful idea is that our emotional responses are not personal failures.

Our minds and bodies are designed to notice threat and try to protect us.

Sometimes that protective system can become very active, leaving us anxious, vigilant, overwhelmed or expecting something to go wrong.

We can also become driven to keep achieving, helping, doing or staying in control.

For some people, feeling safe enough to slow down, receive care or respond compassionately towards themselves is much less familiar.

Compassion isn't simply “being nice to yourself”

The word compassion can sometimes sound rather soft.

I understand it differently.

Compassion can involve learning to recognise when we are struggling and developing ways of responding that are helpful rather than adding further criticism.

Sometimes that might mean warmth and understanding.

At other times it might mean recognising your needs, setting a boundary, saying no or acknowledging that something has hurt you.

And for some people, compassion itself can initially feel uncomfortable.

That's okay.

There is no expectation in my work that you suddenly start “loving yourself”, thinking positively or repeating things you don't believe.

We can begin with curiosity.

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Trauma and self-compassion

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Difficult or traumatic experiences can also influence how we relate to ourselves and other people.

Ways of coping that developed during difficult circumstances may continue long after those circumstances have changed.

Staying alert, keeping control, putting other people's needs first or finding it difficult to trust may all have developed for understandable reasons.

Even receiving kindness can sometimes feel unfamiliar.

I work in a trauma-sensitive and person-centred way. You won't be expected to disclose difficult experiences before you are ready.

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We work at your pace.

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Person-centred counselling comes first

My core approach is person-centred counselling.

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That means our relationship remains at the heart of the therapy.

I won't analyse you from a distance or prescribe a programme of exercises.

Instead, I aim to understand your experience from your perspective and offer a relationship in which you can feel heard without judgement.

Where appropriate, I may draw on ideas from compassion-focused approaches and mindfulness, particularly when these help us understand anxiety or self-criticism.

You are always part of deciding what feels useful.

Could this sound familiar?

You might recognise yourself if you:

• are much harder on yourself than on other people

• experience anxiety or overthinking

• struggle with confidence or self-esteem

• often feel that you aren't good enough

• find it difficult to receive care or support

• put other people's needs before your own

• feel responsible for keeping everything together

• have experienced trauma

• understand why you feel as you do but still struggle to change how you feel

 

You don't need to fit neatly into a category.

We start with your experience.

Taking the first step

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If something you've read here feels familiar, you're very welcome to contact me.

I offer online counselling via Zoom and work with adults on both a shorter-term and longer-term basis.

I offer a free 15–20 minute introductory telephone conversation before you decide whether you would like to begin counselling.

It's an opportunity to tell me a little about what has brought you to therapy, ask questions and get a sense of whether I might be the right counsellor for you.

There is no obligation to continue.

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Perhaps the first step isn't learning to be kinder to yourself. It is becoming curious about why being kind to yourself has felt so difficult.

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