My Approach

As a systemic psychotherapist, I don't understand difficulties as existing simply “within” a person. We become who we are within relationships and contexts — our families, histories, communities, cultures and wider social worlds. We are always in relationship: with ourselves, with others, with our bodies, with nature and with the environments in which we live.

Each of us is also unique. Neurodiversity, ability, gender, sexuality, spirituality, age, culture, race, social class and our individual histories can all influence how we experience ourselves and how we are experienced by others. I am interested in how these different parts of ourselves intersect and shape our relationships, our identity and our sense of belonging.

My practice is informed by intersectional and decolonial perspectives, including curiosity about how culture, history, migration, power, privilege, oppression and wider social and political contexts enter our lives and relationships. This includes being attentive to whose knowledge and ways of understanding are privileged, while making space for different cultural, embodied and spiritual ways of making meaning.

In therapy, we may therefore be curious not only about what is happening, but also about how it came to make sense. Patterns that cause difficulties today may once have helped us to connect, belong, survive or protect ourselves. Understanding them with curiosity and compassion can create possibilities for doing something differently.

My work is trauma-informed and body-oriented. I draw on systemic psychotherapy and trauma-focused approaches, including EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing), and pay attention to the relationships between mind, body, emotion and experience. Where it is meaningful to you, spirituality and spiritual experience can also have a place in our conversations, without assuming any particular belief or tradition.

Depending on what is useful for you, our work may include conversation and reflection, exploring attachment and relational patterns, genograms or family trees, EMDR, imagery and creativity, attention to bodily experience, mindfulness, embodiment, or more practical and solution-focused approaches.

My therapeutic background also includes working with animals and in nature. I am interested in how our relationships with animals and the natural world can support connection, regulation, curiosity and therapeutic change.

I don't believe that one way of working suits everybody. Therapy is something we create together, and I want us to be able to notice what is — and isn't — useful for you and adapt our work accordingly.

As a human being as well as a therapist, I believe deeply in the importance of connection and relationships. For me, therapy can create opportunities to understand ourselves and others differently, to repair relationships where repair is possible, and to develop greater flexibility, compassion and choice in how we live and relate.

Change in one relationship or one generation does not necessarily end there. The ways we understand ourselves, heal, reconnect and relate differently can also influence those we love and the generations that follow.

About Me

I’m Elena, a Systemic and Family Psychotherapist and EMDR therapist. I work with individuals, couples and families who may be struggling with themselves, their relationships, or experiences that continue to affect how they feel, connect and live.

People often come to therapy because something no longer feels possible to continue in the same way. You may recognise recurring patterns in your life or relationships, feel anxious, low, lost or disconnected, or know that something needs to change without yet knowing what that change might look like.

Relationships are central to much of my work — including the relationship we have with ourselves. I have a particular interest in attachment, identity and belonging; couple and family relationships; relationships between parents and their adult children; trauma and intergenerational processes; and the ways our personal experiences connect with our family histories and wider social and cultural worlds.

I have worked in health and therapeutic settings for over 20 years across the National Health Service (NHS), private practice and the voluntary sector. I hold an MSc in Systemic and Family Psychotherapy and the European Certificate of Psychotherapy (ECP). My professional background also includes nursing, person-centred counselling, coaching, craniosacral therapy and other forms of bodywork. I am trained in EMDR with adults and with children and adolescents, and I am a Certified Thomas Hübl Practice Group Leader in Transparent Communication.

My professional life has also included teaching, training and group facilitation. I facilitate workshops, seminars and reflective practices in areas including Social GRACES and intersectionality, genograms and family mapping, Tree of Life, reflecting practices, embodiment and deep listening.

Alongside my clinical work, I am an activist with a longstanding interest in social justice, power, difference and the relationship between personal, relational and wider social change. These interests also inform my curiosity about how our individual experiences are shaped by the families, communities, cultures and histories to which we belong.

I am fluent in English and Spanish and welcome people who wish to work in either language.

I work with

• Children and young people
• Companies
• Couples
• Families
• Groups
• Individuals
• Private healthcare referrals

Special Interests

Like all UKCP registered psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors I can work with a wide range of issues, but here are some areas in which I have a special interest or additional experience.

Types of Therapies Offered

• Family and Systemic Psychotherapist
• Family Therapist
• Systemic Family and Couple Psychotherapist
• Systemic Psychotherapist

What I can help with

• Abuse
• Addiction
• ADHD
• Adoption
• Age-related Issues
• Anger Management
• Anorexia
• Bereavement
• Bulimia
• Bullying
• Chronic Illness
• Couple Issues
• Cultural Issues
• Depression
• Divorce
• Domestic Violence
• Eating Disorders
• EMDR
• Employment Difficulties
• Family
• Health-related Issues
• Identity Problems
• Infertility
• Mental Health Issues
• Obsessions
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Online Counselling
• Parents
• Physical Abuse
• Post-Traumatic Stress
• Private Practice Issues
• Separation
• Sexuality
• Spirituality
• Stress
• Training
• Trauma
• Workplace Counselling