About me
Hello and welcome. I am a qualified and experienced integrative Psychotherapist and Counsellor, accredited with the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). I trained in London (2010-2015), and I live in Edinburgh, working with clients both online across the UK and in person. Please feel free to get in touch to arrange an initial session or to find out more.
Our lives are shaped by so many different things, often more complex than we realise. We might arrive in therapy sure of the thing that troubles us, only to discover other threads that interact with it and get in the way. I work in a relational, empathically attuned way within a safe, ethically-attentive space.
I wonder why you are searching for a therapist today? Perhaps you’re experiencing anxiety, depression or family issues? Or you’re feeling sad, lonely or bereaved? There is often much loss around and within us. Some of us have lost connection with ourselves alongside connection with others. Whatever it is you’re bringing, I enjoy standing alongside each person I work with to explore the layers that have shaped their current struggle. I would love to support you too. Please email me if you’d like to explore this further.
Practicalities
I work with individuals (not couples) long-term and short-term. Sessions last 50 minutes and are usually weekly, although twice weekly is possible.
Where I practise
Edinburgh, EH8: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I am located just beyond Meadowbank. The area is well-connected by buses and free off-road parking is available. I also offer online and phone sessions.
Training, qualifications & experience
Therapy qualifications
- PhD in Counselling Studies, ongoing, University of Edinburgh
- MA in Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling, with Distinction (2015), The Minster Centre, London
- Advanced Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling (2015), The Minster Centre, London
- Diploma in Integrative Counselling (2013), The Minster Centre, London
- Certificate in Integrative Counselling (2010), The Minster Centre, London
Past experience: After qualifying in London in 2013, I set up private practice whilst continuing to work in my former ‘career’ of direct marketing within the charity sector. In these earliest post-qualifying years, I also worked with clients in a bereavement service, an NHS staff counselling service, and I managed the direct marketing team at Mind, the mental health charity.
In 2017, I left fundraising to work full-time as a therapist. At this point, I worked for two years in the Grenfell community, setting up and developing a counselling service for highly traumatised parents of children under five. I continued to work in private practice and in 2018 I started my part-time PhD at the University of Edinburgh. I was also teaching research at the Minster Centre, enjoying a full and varied work life.
When I moved to Edinburgh in 2020, I became the Practice Manager for a counselling service, which entailed managing and developing the service and its team of counsellors. I also began teaching research and counselling skills at the University of Edinburgh.
Current experience: As of 2025, my work focuses on working with clients in private practice and writing my thesis. My research, which informs my work as a therapist, explores the intergenerational trauma of suicide in families. I am hugely passionate about this topic. Dominant psychiatric ways of thinking about suicide prevention in Western contexts tend to pathologise distress and locate this pathology in the individual. My inquiry, and my approach as a therapist, resists such practices. I choose, instead, to consider the specific social, political and cultural contexts of people’s lives – including structural inequalities – that contribute to sometimes unbearable lives or seasons of life. As such, I am part of an activist research community working towards meaningful social change.
My research informs my work with clients – whether you are experiencing anxiety or depression, relationship difficulties or a life transition (as examples). On the one hand, it means that my approach is non-pathologising. And on the other hand, my approach carries the assumption that, whatever difficulty you are bringing to therapy, it possibly sits within an intergenerational and sociocultural, political context that is contributing to this.
A sample of recent publications and conferences
- Published paper: Stewart, Kelly Rowena. 2024. "What, Suicide Runs in Families? Writing-As-Inquiry to Examine Our 'Not Knowing' About Intergenerational Suicide." Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 24(5), 378-88.
- Conference presentation: Stewart, Kelly Rowena. 2025. “What, suicide runs in families? Examining the sociocultural complexities around intergenerational suicide.” Guest Speaker. Paper presented at the British Medical Association’s Patient Liaison Group (PLG) Symposium, Online, April 30, 2025.
Training other therapists (CPD days)
- 2024. Working with intergenerational trauma.
- 2022. Thinking and working with suicide.
Earlier qualifications
- MA in Marketing, with Distinction (2005)
- BA in German and Music (2004)
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.
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred). Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision. Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training. All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
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
Suicide bereavement, grief, loss
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£75.00 per session
Concessions offered for
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
I reserve two concessionary spaces for those on lower incomes. If you are interested in this, please mention it when you first get in touch.
When I work
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