My Approach

Starting therapy can feel uncertain, especially if you're not sure what to expect, or whether a particular approach will feel right for you.

This page is an attempt to give you a clearer sense of how I work, not just which methods I use, but what the experience of working together might actually feel like.

A woman with long red hair, wearing glasses, a black blazer, black pants, and black high heels, sitting on a gray chair against a plain gradient background.

The foundation

Therapy shaped around you, not a model

I'm an integrative therapist. This means I don't work from a single fixed approach, I draw from several evidence-based methods and bring them together in response to your specific needs, values, and goals.

Some people need structure and clarity. Others need depth, slowness, and room to reflect. Many need both at different times. We decide together what kind of work will be most useful and that can shift as therapy progresses.

I adapt therapy to each client’s needs, including neurodivergent adults, with a flexible and person-centred approach.

“My role is not to fit you into a model, but to offer therapy that is responsive, thoughtful, and clinically grounded.”
— Iryna

  • CBT helps us understand the connections between thoughts, emotions, behaviour, and physical sensations. It can offer clarity and practical tools, particularly useful for anxiety, panic, depression, and unhelpful thinking patterns.I use CBT when it's clinically appropriate, not by default. Techniques are applied with judgement never mechanically.

  • You are at the centre of the process. I offer a warm, non-judgmental relationship in which your experience is taken seriously. Safety and trust are the foundation without them, meaningful change isn't possible.

  • Some current difficulties are rooted in earlier experiences and relational patterns. This approach explores how the past may be shaping the present, opening space for insight, emotional integration, and greater freedom of choice.

  • Schema therapy works with long-standing emotional and relational patterns formed early in life. It supports the development of healthier ways of meeting core needs and responding to yourself and others.

  • Mindfulness supports awareness without judgmen— creating space between experience and reaction. It can reduce emotional reactivity, ease anxiety, and help you relate differently to difficult thoughts and feelings

  • For clients with trauma histories, standard CBT is adapted or replaced with a trauma-informed approach. This means prioritising safety, pacing, and stabilisation before any processing work begins.

    Where appropriate, I draw on Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT) — a structured, evidence-based protocol specifically designed for trauma. It integrates cognitive and behavioural techniques with trauma processing in a carefully sequenced way, always at a pace that feels manageable.

    The goal is never to push through trauma, but to build the inner resources needed to approach it safely.

Approaches I draw on

For complex and developmental trauma

Working at the right pace

Depth is never imposed. This focus can also change over time as your needs evolve.

Trauma work is never rushed. My approach recognises the impact of trauma on the nervous system, identity, and sense of safety and prioritises stability before depth.

You are never required to go further than feels safe or useful. The work unfolds gradually, allowing new inner capacities to emerge rather than being forced.

What kind of therapy do you need?

Focused or exploratory — we decide together

Exploratory work

Deeper reflection on relational patterns, identity, or the longer-term impact of trauma, displacement, or moral injury.

Focused work

Structured support to stabilise, regulate, and regain clarity often helpful during periods of acute stress or high external demands.

If you'd like to talk about whether this approach might be right for you, I'd be glad to hear from you.

Book Consultation