Katherine Guest

Current working hours are:

Tuesdays online only, last appointment at 4pm

Wednesdays online and face to face, last appointment 430pm

Thursdays online and face to face, last appointment 430pm 

Fridays online and face to face, last appointment 215pm

Having originally trained as an Integrative Psychotherapist, I then went on to gain qualifications in CBT, EMDR, Clinical Supervision, Coaching, including NLP and now Mindfulness. Details of these can be found on my website and on LinkedIn. I am accredited with both the UKCP and EMDR Europe so please check out my credentials on these sites as well. 

My early psychotherapy career involved working in Primary Care at a GP Surgery and, once qualified, I worked for Action for Children and then moved back to Primary Care. 10 years ago I set up my private practice part time and this is where I feel most settled, having left Primary Care 4 years ago.

Being an EMDR Practitioner, I have found that over the past several years, my skills as a trauma therapist have been very much in demand. However, EMDR is so much more than simply a trauma therapy. In my initial training I was gaining skills such as attunement and noting how early attachment styles affect current relationships, especially as my core modality was Transactional Analysis (TA). However, learning EMDR provided me with more information about the science behind trauma and I learnt much more about the relationship between brain and body. 

This mixture of person-centred core therapeutic skills and then the science and understanding I am continually gaining ensures I know why we're exploring certain avenues of therapy and enables me to conceptualise your therapy in what I believe is quite a unique way. 

Previous clients have found some form of resolution with the following non-exhaustive list:

Imposter syndrome; Performance anxiety; Relationship issues; Life-changing events, which may feel as if they now define you; Burn out; Lack of assertiveness; Feeling you don't deserve good things in life; Feeling like a failure or as if you've lost your way; Being told how good you are but not feeling it; Loss of confidence; Self-criticism; Low self-esteem; Stuck with outdated belief systems; Overwhelm; Struggling to cope with change.

Initially, you will attend an assessment session, which will last an hour. We can find out about you and discuss how the work I do can help you. It will help enormously if you have read the various therapies I employ on my website and buy into the idea that humans are multi-faceted characters, presenting different parts of themselves in different circumstances. 

Once we've decided this is the work for you, sessions are initially conducted weekly but then moved to every other week, monthly, etc, depending on your need. If there are financial constraints we can discuss if and how the sessions can be pursued less frequently at the outset.

How I work will depend very much on your requirements. If any information you provide suggests there have been events in your life that are still an issue (i.e. unprocessed material), then there is a strong chance we will employ EMDR or techniques embedded within the EMDR process, such as bilateral stimulation to help calm you. If we believe CBT or mindfulness techniques can help before we embark on this process, we will employ these.

If we discover that your issues started earlier in life, this is where attachment focused EMDR can be utilised as well as TA, etc. This work will naturally take longer and can be quite disruptive as clients learn, for example, that there is a part of them that has suppressed anger over the years or a part that has been holding irrational guilt over the years. We will 'work through' such learning,  gently and compassionately helping update these old, tired parts of you so they cause less distress for you in the future.

I have already included a list of symptoms that can be alleviated with this therapy. Underlying benefits can be:

Decreased tension; Better self-care and more compassion for self; Being able to say 'no'; Easier decision-making; Clearer boundaries; Better idea of personal strengths and weaknesses and being accepting of these; Letting go of the pressure of feeling you have to be special.

All therapists go on different journeys as they become adept at their profession. We advertise our learning and skills on sites like this, which can make it hard enough to choose a practitioner. And at the same time so much depends on whether or not you 'click' with the person in whom you're just about to put your trust, no matter what learning and skills. It's hard to gauge this from the written word and a photo. 

So, as I charge for assessments, it may be an idea to have a quick, free 15 minute chat with me before you commit to the first meeting. Experience shows that's normally long enough for someone to make up their mind.  

If you decide to engage, once we do meet, I'll require certain personal information from you such as date of birth, address, current medication and then we will explore your issues. I'll also be looking for information such as any support you have, levels of stability in your life, coffee and alcohol intake, time on social media, etc. You will have ample opportunity to ask any questions. 

I will say at this point that clients benefit more when they have examples of how their symptoms are triggered, rather than a vague notion of having always suffered from anxiety or depression. Initial sessions are quite goal-oriented, exploring triggers and symptoms and how they affect you, which requires concentration from both you and me so please be aware of this. It will be helpful if you are prepared to do some reading between sessions as well. 

Current working hours are:

Tuesdays online only, last appointment at 530pm

Wednesdays online and face to face, last appointment 430pm

Thursdays online and face to face, last appointment 5pm

Fridays online and face to face, last appointment 330pm (face to face) or 4pm (online)

Having trained at the Northern Guild as an Integrative Psychotherapist, I went on to gain Accreditation as an Integrative Psychotherapeutic Counsellor with the UKCP. This training was thorough and introduced me to a wide range of therapies, with the core modality being Transactional Analysis. Apart from the required hours of CPD each year, two recognised therapies were added to my repertoire, notably CBT and EMDR and I am now accredited with EMDR Europe as an EMDR Practitioner (please note, I am not able to offer Supervision in EMDR but am able to offer mentoring). 

My supervision training was chosen carefully as I wanted to develop creatively as a supervisor, hence my decision to study at Jenny Biancardi Consultancy. She has an excellent reputation and I aspire to provide for supervisees the safe, caring environment she provides for her students. 

It has been my joy and privilege to assist therapists through their BACP accreditation process. I believe that the most difficult part of being a therapist is mastering person-centred principles. These are the ones that will cause us to be tired at the end of the working week; being attuned to our clients and ourselves makes for a heavy workload. So, managing self-care is central to my ethos as a supervisor.

If you visit my website, you will be able to see the various therapies I offer. So, if you wish to develop your practice or are starting out as a therapist, please get in touch.

How will sessions look? I have a certain fondness for asking supervisees to take on the seating posture of clients or to carry out some of their actions, it may be that we realise there is a 'blockage' in working with certain types of clients, which may require further therapy. Supervision with me can involve two people sitting opposite each other, trying to solve issues in a 'two heads are better than one' scenario or they can involve movement, stones, toys animals, or whatever comes to hand on the day. I do work on the premise that clients have lots of 'parts' (if you've seen the movie Inside Out, you'll know what I mean) so if you are interested in learning more about this or if this is the way you work, it may be that this is the supervision for you.

As with the therapy I offer, it may help if we have a short chat before you commit to supervision with me. I offer 1 hour or 90 minute sessions (£75 for 90 mins). In the initial session, we will be discovering what therapy you offer, how long you have been working as a therapist and what you would like to gain from our time together. Contracting will obviously be part of this initial meeting.