Perinatal Counselling

Counselling & Psychotherapy for Women

There are times in a woman’s life when something begins to ask for our attention.

It may be anxiety that has become difficult to manage, a relationship that is struggling, a loss of confidence or sense of self, or an experience from the past that continues to live in the body and shape the present.

Pregnancy, birth and motherhood can be particularly powerful turning points. They can bring enormous love and meaning, but they can also expose old wounds, challenge relationships and identity, and leave us feeling anxious, overwhelmed, angry, disconnected or simply unlike ourselves.

I offer a warm, relational and deeply compassionate space in which women can explore what is happening beneath the surface and begin to understand the patterns, experiences and beliefs that may be shaping how they feel today.

To book a FREE 20 minute discovery call with me visit my therapy page here:  https://www.therapywithnadia.co.uk

My approach

I am a BACP-registered psychosynthesis counsellor and psychotherapist, with more than 15 years’ experience working with women through pregnancy, birth and motherhood as a birth doula, childbirth educator, senior yoga teacher and specialist in perinatal and pelvic health.

This means that I bring both a psychological and an embodied understanding to therapy.

I am interested not only in the stories we tell about ourselves, but in the stories our bodies carry: the experiences that can leave us feeling unsafe, ashamed, disconnected, hypervigilant or unable to trust ourselves.

My work integrates psychosynthesis psychotherapy with mindfulness, somatic awareness and a trauma-informed understanding of the nervous system. Therapy is always led by you. We work at a pace that feels manageable, with curiosity rather than judgement.

Areas I specialise in

I work particularly with women experiencing:

  • Birth trauma and difficult birth experiences
  • Anxiety during pregnancy
  • Postnatal anxiety and depression
  • Traumatic or complicated transitions into motherhood
  • Pelvic trauma, including medical, obstetric and sexual trauma
  • Sexual trauma and difficulties relating to the body
  • Loss of confidence and low self-esteem
  • Shame and difficulties with self-worth
  • Relationship difficulties
  • Attachment, abandonment and rejection
  • Motherhood, identity and the mental load
  • Resentment, anger and feeling emotionally unseen
  • Pregnancy loss, grief and reproductive experiences
  • Life transitions and questions of identity or direction
  • Anxiety, overthinking and feeling overwhelmed
  • Patterns of people-pleasing, perfectionism or putting others first

You do not need to arrive in therapy knowing exactly what is wrong or what you want to change. Sometimes we begin simply with the feeling that something isn’t right anymore.

Together, we can begin to understand what has brought you here, what you are carrying, and what might need to change.

To book a FREE 20 minute discovery call with me visit my therapy page here:  https://www.therapywithnadia.co.uk

A particular understanding of women, birth and the body

My specialist background means I am particularly comfortable working with experiences that women sometimes find difficult to speak about elsewhere: birth injury, pelvic examinations and procedures, sexual trauma, loss of bodily autonomy, difficult breastfeeding experiences, emergency intervention, caesarean birth, pelvic pain, shame, changes to sexuality and the complex feelings that can accompany pregnancy and motherhood.

You do not have to explain the maternity system, birth physiology or the realities of pregnancy and postpartum life before we can begin the therapeutic work.

For women who have experienced a frightening, overwhelming or traumatic birth, you can read more about my Birth Trauma Counselling.

For women struggling emotionally during pregnancy or after having a baby, you can read more about my Pregnancy & Postnatal Anxiety and Depression Counselling.

Beginning therapy

Therapy offers a place in which you do not have to perform, cope or look after anyone else.

It is a space to become curious about yourself: about the experiences that have shaped you, the patterns you may have developed to survive them, and the parts of yourself that may now be asking for something different.

My aim is not simply to help you feel better, but to help you develop a deeper, kinder and more trusting relationship with yourself.

To book a FREE 20 minute discovery call with me visit my therapy page here:  https://www.therapywithnadia.co.uk