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Trauma-Informed Person Centered Counselling in Dorset

Based in Milborne St Andrew, Dorset, my practice is a safe place where you can pause, reflect, and discover your own answers.

The inspiration behind - Pensieve

Blending pensive (thoughtful reflection) with sieve (a tool for filtering), a Pensieve symbolises the process of stepping out of your immediate experience when the mind becomes crammed with overwhelming thoughts, pouring them out into a container so you can observe everything from a fresh perspective, sifting through what works and doesn’t work to gain insight and direction.

Pensieve is that kind of space: somewhere you can pause, reflect, and discover your own answers in a way that values the freedom to be true to who you are.

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counselling-poole-pensieve-pool-of-thoughts

Person Centred Counselling

Person-Centred theory looks at the dynamic between:

The Authentic Self: Your genuine feelings, thoughts, and lived experience.

The Ideal Self: Who you believe you should be, which is shaped by external expectations, pressures, or values.

When the gap between these two selves is small, we tend to feel more grounded, congruent (where our inner emotions and outer responses match the situation), and emotionally well.

When the gap is large, it can create tension, low self-worth, and a constant sense of being ‘not enough’ or ‘ too much’.

Person-centred counselling focuses entirely on you, your experiences, and the way you relate to yourself and the world around you.

In our sessions, you’re supported to explore your thoughts and emotions in a safe, accepting, and non-judgmental space.

Together, we gently unravel from others’ views and expectations, and help you reconnect with your authentic self, and find ways of responding to life that feel more manageable and more aligned with who you truly are.

My Personal journey to Professional Practice

I was drawn to counselling because I know there is a good, bad, and ugly side to life. On a personal level, having raised two children on my own, I know firsthand that life can bring so many joys, but it can also be incredibly painful and hard work. Facing the pressures of work, financial strains, juggling relationships, chores, bullying, judgments and health conditions… I found myself on my knees, confused, overwhelmed, exhausted and felt physically ill. Yet, I didn’t tell anyone how much I was struggling. I don’t think I had even really acknowledged it to myself.

Someone noticed; They asked the simplest of questions: What about you? How are you? Just the briefest of conversations unfolded before they suggested counselling. Although I didn’t know it at the time, I do believe they changed the direction of my life and my career. They noticed, they listened, they understood.

I went to counselling, not really understanding much about it or how it could help sort my life out, but while daily life still had the same challenges, I finished counselling seeing life from a very different viewpoint. So much so that I became curious as to what had happened…

In 2010, after being made redundant from a job I had fallen out of love with, I retrained and fell deeply in love with psychology, particularly Carl Rogers’ person-centred approach.

I trained as a Health Coach supporting people with long-term health conditions, became the first CPCAB-qualified Life Coach, and later added counselling. I worked at a local college and the Family Counselling Trust with teenagers, and Anxiety UK with adults, while also running my private practice.

Each step has shaped the way I support people today, yet my approach is still firmly grounded in the person-centred beliefs that inspired me in the first place. While I know your experiences will be different, my belief in counselling is not based on textbooks; it is based on knowing the difference that being truly heard can make from first-hand experience.

While my core practice is firmly rooted in Person-Centred Counselling, I actively draw on the knowledge, skills, and perspectives of these trauma-informed and somatic frameworks, integrating them into my work as they sit hand in hand with person-centred therapy.

Trauma-Informed Principles – Brain and nervous system development. Genetic dispositions and concepts from Polyvagal theory. I look at how trauma and relational patterns affect the brain, body, and relationships. The focus is on safety, which allows healing to unfold without re-traumatising.

Attachment Theory – Explores how past relationships and experiences shape how you feel about yourself and others and how you cope with life’s challenges.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) Informed Practice– incorporating aspects from this approach, helping you get to know the different ‘parts’ of yourself, bringing greater understanding, healing, and integration.

Focus-Oriented Approach – A somatic (body-oriented) framework to help you check in with the physical sensations in your body to understand your emotional state. It is not just naming an emotion (like “sadness”), but the unique physical way your body experiences sadness.

Counselling and Coaching Qualifications

Level 6 Supervision.
Foundation Degree: Neuroscience, Child and Youth Psychology including Nervous System Development
CPCAB Diploma: Therapeutic Counselling
CPCAB Diploma: Life Coach
Safe Guarding Level 3
NLP Level 2

Approved Practitioner:

- Anxiety UK Approved Provider.
- Vitality Health Insurance.
- Alliance Health Corporate

Registered and vetted:

ICO registered.
Advanced DBS – May 2025
BACP: 381520
Fully insured with Simply Business.

Have a question about counselling or coaching?

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Nicky x

Anxiety Approved Therapist
Approved Vitality Health Insurance Provider