Bethan Heap

You don't need to know what kind of therapy you need, and you don't need to arrive with a neat explanation of what's wrong.

You might be stuck in your own head, struggling in a relationship, reacting more strongly than you want to, feeling flat or overwhelmed, or noticing the same patterns repeating even though you understand them logically.

Perhaps something has happened that you haven't quite made sense of. Perhaps the past keeps showing up in the present. Or perhaps you simply know that the way things are now isn't working.

We can start there.

What actually happens in therapy with me?
You talk, and I work with you.

I don't sit back silently and leave you to fill the hour. I'll respond, ask questions, reflect things back and sometimes draw attention to something you may have moved past quickly.

We might notice that you say you're fine while your body is telling a different story. We might find that one part of you desperately wants something while another part is pulling away. We might begin to see the same pattern showing up in your relationships, your choices or even in the way you speak about yourself.

Sometimes I'll ask us to slow down and stay with a particular moment rather than rushing on to the next part of the story.

The aim isn't for me to analyse you from across the room. We work out together what fits, what doesn't, and what your experience actually means to you.

When understanding isn't enough
A lot of people come to therapy already knowing quite a lot about themselves.

You might know where a pattern came from. You might understand your childhood, attachment style or triggers. You might have read the books, listened to the podcasts and thought about it endlessly.

And still find yourself doing the same thing.

Therapy can help us move beyond understanding something intellectually and begin paying attention to what is happening emotionally, physically and relationally too.

That is often where something new begins to emerge.

A creative approach to therapy
Creativity is part of how I work but that doesn't mean you'll be expected to make art.

Most sessions involve talking.

Sometimes words aren't the easiest or most useful way into something. We may use metaphor, imagery, drawing, cards, objects or another expressive approach if it helps us explore an experience differently.

Creative work is never compulsory and there is nothing to be good at.

For me, working creatively also means not forcing every person through the same therapeutic process. If one way of approaching something isn't helping, we can find another.

What can you bring?
People come to me with a wide range of experiences, including anxiety, low mood, difficult relationships, separation, loss, trauma, shame, anger, perfectionism, low self-worth, neurodivergence, burnout and feeling disconnected from themselves.

Often these things overlap.

You don't need to decide whether what you're experiencing is an anxiety problem, a relationship problem, a trauma problem or anything else before getting in touch.

That's something we can make sense of together.

My approach
My core training is person-centred psychotherapy with added contemporary creative approach.

My work is also influenced by relational and experiential psychotherapy, trauma-informed approaches, somatic awareness and parts-based ways of understanding experience.

In practice, that means I'm interested in more than simply what happened.

I'm also interested in what happens inside you now, how you've learned to relate to yourself and other people, what keeps getting repeated, what gets avoided, and what happens when we begin paying closer attention to it.

I offer a limited number of sliding scale spots - please ask for more information. These are typically reserved for students

I have experience working with emotional overwhelm, shame, anger, identity loss, boundaries, relationship patterns, burnout and feeling disconnected from yourself.

If you've been putting this off because you're not sure you're struggling enough, that thought alone is worth exploring.

Free introductory call. No commitment and no pressure to decide. Just a conversation.

You're the expert on your own life. I'm here to help you hear yourself more clearly.