Ava Kinsey

If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you are not in a good place. Maybe slightly off the track, struggling to make sense of your thoughts and feelings, or perhaps completely overwhelmed. You may need support, guidance, or just an empathetic other who can give you their undivided attention in a safe place where you don’t need to censor yourself.

I have an MSc in psychodynamic psychotherapy and counselling. I work at the NHS both as an adult psychotherapist at a complex trauma unit, and as a perinatal psychotherapist working with pregnant women, and vulnerable parents and their infants and toddlers. Before that, I worked as a psychotherapist in secondary care at the NHS, treating clients who experienced early relational/sexual trauma or were diagnosed with PTSD, complex PTSD, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, depression and anxiety.  I have been working in the social care sector for 11 years, working with the most vulnerable and often high-risk people. My clients have been from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, and presented with a wide range of issues.

My training and approach are primarily psychodynamic, but I work in an integrative manner, tailoring my approach to your needs. The therapy space is your safe place: you and I are co-creating a confidential relationship in a non-directive way where you don’t have to censor yourself and can say whatever comes to your mind. You can bring all the thoughts and emotions that may seem unbearable, and through the therapeutic relationship everything becomes bearable slowly. Therapy then can turn into a refuge: anything that is happening in your life can feel safer with someone accompanying you on the journey.  

Working in a psychodynamic way means that we explore the interplay between what you are aware of, and what you are not. We work on how early coping strategies that have helped you survive for a while affect your current life, and how relationships in the present are influenced by our internal working models developed at an early age. It can be hugely liberating to realise how processes and patterns that we have been unaware of impact our lives. I draw on a number of techniques and theoretical approaches such as attachment theory, developmental neuroscience, somatic experiencing, mindfulness and humanistic psychology. 

I am also a qualified yoga and meditation teacher, so I can teach you techniques and strategies to regulate your nervous system and develop somatic capacity to tolerate overwhelming emotions.

I work on a sliding scale. If you cannot afford 75, we can negotiate a lower fee depending on your circumstances.

I am also a qualified yoga and meditation teacher, so I can teach you techniques and strategies to regulate your nervous system and develop somatic capacity to tolerate overwhelming emotions.