About Me

As an integrative psychotherapist whose work is based on an understanding of human experience from a relational / developmental perspective, I believe that how we relate (or don’t) to other people is key to what life can be like for us. In other words, I have learned from my training and experience that how we grow into ourselves and the understandings we have of who we are, is influenced by our experiences with other people and the world that we encounter right from the start. This can mean that how you manage now can be shaped by what you have experienced in the past, and that this understanding these patterns can offer opportunities for change in the future.
The psychotherapy that I offer is based on my belief, that whatever brings you to considering therapy – a need for change, unhappiness with aspects of your life or the wish to explore and understand yourself more, you are the expert on being you, and on the uniqueness of that experience. Particularly important also, is how being seen as different can open you up to oppression and discrimination in so many ways. I believe that it is important to recognise this and that I need to be aware that unconscious or implicit bias needs to be addressed if we are to progress.
I draw on psychodynamic and related theories that can help people understand how experiences in earlier life affect their lives as adults, emotionally and psychologically. Important too, is working with our whole selves – mind and body – with our bodies often carrying information about what is going on for us that seems without words, sometimes memories of experiences that have been difficult for us (another reason why your story of you is important – it will be different to anybody else’s and as you are unique will affect you in ways that a similar experience my affect someone else). This aspect of therapy can be really helpful when there is trauma that needs attention in the work we do as trauma experiences and words do not always go together well.
I have worked as psychotherapist since 2010 in statutory and voluntary settings and have a background in secondary mental health services since 1998 where I worked in a range of roles, gaining a broad experience of working with people experiencing distress and mental ill-health, particularly related to abuse and trauma. Additionally, my work at university counselling and therapy service gave me the opportunity to work with people from a widely diverse population – a privilege and an education in so many ways.
Together, with ongoing supervision and training these experiences enrich my practice as they develop or stretch me to greater understanding of what it is to be human and how we come to be who we are. They also support my belief that therapy is about you, beginning to write your story – sometimes taking it back from those who have written it for you.

To contact me: email me at mja.libertas@gmail.com

I work with

• Individuals

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

• Integrative Psychotherapist