At Willow Room Therapy, I offer compassionate support for adults navigating anxiety, trauma, PTSD, and the lasting impact of overwhelming experiences. My approach is person-centred and integrative, which means you are always at the centre of the work, setting the pace, the goals, and what feels safe for you. In Person-Centred Therapy (Person in the Middle), the focus is on you as a whole person, not a problem to be fixed.

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What is Trauma?
Trauma is not defined by the event itself, but by how it was experienced and stored in the body and nervous system. Two people can go through the same situation — for one it may pass with support and safety, while for the other it can feel life-shattering and continue to echo for years. That’s because trauma isn’t “little” or “big” - it’s deeply personal, valid, and not comparable.
We often hear phrases like “others have had it worse” or “it was just a small thing”, but trauma doesn’t work like that. If something overwhelmed you, left you without support, or made you feel unsafe, alone, powerless, or terrified, your body may still respond to it long after the moment has passed. Even experiences that may seem brief or subtle to the outside world - a loss, a shock, a betrayal, a threat, an accident, a frightening medical moment, emotional harm, or witnessing something devastating — can become imprinted if your system didn’t have the chance to process it in safety.
So there is no “small trauma”. Pain cannot be measured on a universal scale.

What matters is this truth: If it hurt you, it mattered. If it overwhelmed you, it was real.
Unprocessed traumatic experiences can affect sleep, trust, relationships, confidence, physical tension, anxiety, emotional regulation, and your sense of safety in the world. Trauma is not a weakness - it is a human response to too much, too fast, too soon, or too alone.

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What is person-centred?
Imagine you come to therapy feeling “stuck” with anxiety. Instead of me telling you what to do, we explore together:
What does your anxiety feel like? When did you first notice it? What do you need when it shows up?
Example:

You might say: “I get tightness in my chest when I’m nervous.”
We then gently explore the emotion, the thought, and what your body is signalling, so you feel understood, supported, and not alone in it.
This builds trust, self-understanding, and real emotional relief.

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Somatic & Body-Aware Trauma Support

Many people don’t realise that the body holds around 80% of emotional stress, while the brain holds about 20%. Our nervous system reacts long before our thoughts catch up. If you’ve ever walked into a room and felt the tension without anyone speaking — that’s your body reading the environment first.

Trauma works the same way. You might logically know you’re safe now, but your body may still react as if the past is happening again.
In therapy, we work not only with the mind, but with the body too — using somatic techniques to help you calm physical anxiety, process emotion safely, and rebuild a sense of control and safety from within.

Example:

Your brain says: “It’s fine, I’m safe.”
Your body says: “Why is my heart racing then?”
We listen to both, gently helping the body “learn” safety again through grounding, breath, and awareness.

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Himan Givens Technique/Rewind (for Trauma & PTSD Symptoms)

I also use Rewind Therapy, the highly effective approach to therapy that I take is known as The Human Givens approach, and you can read more about it here.  Rewind Therapy - a brief but powerful trauma technique that helps reduce the intensity of distressing memories without you having to describe the trauma in detail.
It works a bit like watching a film on fast-forward, from a safe distance, with the emotional volume turned down, allowing your brain to file the memory differently so it no longer hits your nervous system with the same force.

What is it like in real life?

You remember a painful moment, but it no longer feels like it’s happening to you now.
The memory stays, but the panic response softens.

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Gestalt Therapy (Working with Closure, Feelings & the “Unfinished Moments”)

Gestalt focuses on completion and emotional closure — helping you work through feelings or experiences that still feel unresolved or “unfinished”.
This might include grief that doesn’t move in a straight line, relationships that ended without resolution, or trauma that still shows up as body tension, flashbacks, or anxiety loops.

Example:

You may feel angry about something that happened 10 years ago, even though the person is no longer in your life.
Gestalt says: the feeling is real because your body and mind didn’t get the chance to complete the emotional response at the time.
In therapy, we gently work toward that closure so the emotion can finally shift.

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Transactional Analysis (TA)

TA is a therapeutic approach that helps us understand how early experiences and learned patterns can influence the way we think, feel, and relate to others today. TA works with three parts of the self - the Parent, Adult, and Child - which we all move between. For example, if you notice an inner voice that is very self-critical or demanding, this may come from an internalised Parent message learned earlier in life. In therapy, we gently explore these patterns with curiosity and compassion, rather than judgement. By strengthening your Adult part - the part of you that can reflect, make balanced choices, and respond rather than react – you can begin to relate to yourself and others in a healthier, more authentic way.

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How I Work

• Person-Centred (Client-led, empathetic, non-judgemental)

• Somatic (body-aware grounding and nervous-system support)

• Rewind Therapy (reducing emotional intensity of traumatic memory)

• Gestalt (working with closure and unfinished emotional moments)

• Transactual Analisw

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You don’t have to carry everything alone — support is available, at a pace that feels safe for you.