Donna Sadler
Every professional displayed on Counselling Directory has been independently verified by our team to ensure they have suitable credentials to practise.
This professional is accepting new clients but may have a waitlist. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
This professional is accepting new clients but may have a waitlist. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
About me
Donna offers a deeply reflective therapeutic space, allowing for the opportunity to safely explore painful challenges such as anxiety and depression, relationship conflict and maladaptive thoughts and behaviours. The co-creative experience over time can help to expand personal insight leading to a deeper connection with oneself and improved relationships with others.
Donna's practice methods are informed by psychodynamic relational and developmental psychology, psychoanalysis, neuroscience, humanistic and existential philosophy. She is particularly interested in family systems and patterns of attachment behaviours, which if not nurtured can cause a feeling of disconnection from oneself and others.
Donna is particularly interested in how unprocessed trauma or prolonged stress can affect the nervous system and neurological functioning and how these factors can feed into family and relational functioning.
Holding a Grade 8 in classical violin, Donna is also deeply interested in the therapeutic power of music. She appreciates an eclectic range of musicality, bringing music and creativity in her work where appropriate. Whilst understanding how music can help with self-expression, Donna also holds space for some of the more challenging themes around performance anxiety, often resulting from a perfection-driven culture.
Donna is also holds a love of animals and the natural world. She believes both can steer us towards inner healing by expanding the understanding we have of ourselves if we are curious and still enough to connect to their innate wisdom.
Training, qualifications & experience
Donna is an experienced integrative psychotherapist and counsellor, initially training in the field of Transactional Analysis with the Manchester Institute for Psychotherapy in the early 1990's. She also holds an MA in Integrative Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy and Counselling with Terapia/Middlesex University.
Donna is also a qualified social worker, experienced in working with vulnerable families, adults and young people from a wide range of diverse cultural and social backgrounds. Her statutory experience with the NHS community mental health team and front-line child protection teams gave her a robust understanding of risk/assessment, service delivery and safeguarding knowledge which feeds into her clinical practice to date.
Alongside her private practice - which recently included long and short-term psychotherapy for nurseries, schools, and colleges countywide - Donna also works for TTC Sussex snd Surrey, a multi-disciplinary mental health organisation specialising in long-term attachment and trauma-informed work with adoptive families through ASGSF and work with private fee-paying families across parts of the Southeast and Surrey areas. Donna also offers reflective parenting consultations. This is a specialised approach for parents and care-givers to begin to better understand challenging behaviours or attachment ruptures in the parent-child relationship.
Qualifications -
MA. Child Psych. - Integrative Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy and Counselling
Cert.TA - Adult Psychotherapy
DipSW - Diploma in Social Work
Cert. Couns. - Counselling Certificate
Member organisations
school Registered / Accredited
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) is a leading professional body for the education, training and regulation of psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors. Its register is accredited by the government's Professional Standards Authority.
As part of its commitment to protect the public, it works to improve access to psychotherapy, to support and disseminate research, to improve standards and to respond effectively to complaints against its members.
UKCP standards cover the range of different psychotherapies. Registration is obtained by training or accrediting with one of its member organisations, or by holding a European Certificate in Psychotherapy. Accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Other areas of counselling I deal with
Donna offers therapeutic parenting consultations. This is a space where parents can reflect on their child's behaviour, patterns of communication and parenting strategies. It is useful to also help address attachment difficulties or strengthen unhealthy family dynamics.
Therapies offered
Fees
Health Insurance/EAP
Further information
In our rapidly changing world, Donna is committed to regular clinical CPD.
Special interests of research:
Family systems, trauma and attachment theories, adoption and fostering themes, therapeutic parenting, adverse childhood experiences, child abuse, adult abuse, sexual abuse, bullying, cultural and diversity issues, sexuality and gender, self and identity, sex and relationships, anxiety (including performance anxiety), anger, stress, self-harm, addictive and compulsive behaviours, depression, neurodiversity, bereavement and loss (including loss of physical health), menopause and mid-life challenges, chronic/acute health and accessibility issues, organisation and work-based challenges, transpersonal, philosophical and existential life themes.
