Sara Gallagher

I have been working as a therapist for the last 11 years and have a broad breadth of experience working with many presenting issues. I have found that the most important relationship to get right is the one with ourself which can become distorted due to life events / environments / experience.

You don't have to be at a crisis point in your life to benefit from therapy.  Developing self awareness that empowers you in relationship with others and more importantly your relationship with yourself can change your perception on who you are. 

I appreciate if you are seeking a therapist, finding the right one you can trust and connect with can be both daunting and reading through numerous profiles can be boring! I take a warm, comfortable, welcoming and genuine caring approach to my work. I also have personal experience of asking for help which I know for some is very difficult.

You are unique. We may experience the same event however how we deal with it and the impact it has on us will be subjective and different in each of us.

Have you ever found yourself thinking 'why does this keep happening to me?' Why do I feel it's always something about me that's wrong? It's frustrating, exasperating, baffling and can leave you feeling alone and confused.  If you have had this process happening regularly - an old familiar feeling -  you may have developed a pattern of behaviour that isn't working for you that has it's origins somewhere in your past.

You may have had a life changing event that still sits with you and gets in the way of who you want to be, an unresolved relationship/friendship that's ended, being ghosted or gaslit . Do you feel you are the caring one in your support network, the sensitive one to other's needs, the one who likes other people to feel good however it's not satisfying for you or meeting your needs? The impact can often be an erosion of confidence in yourself

Perhaps you come from a dysfunctional family with related issue's not yet addressed but still impacting. Patterns of behaviour that limit your choices on who you want to be are a good indicator of some unresolved issues.  

All of the above can manifest somatically if not addressed, processed and integrated.  Your body can be the first place any unresolved issues start to show in ill health.  

I have worked with Adult Survivors of Child Abuse for 11 years and also a wider generic client group, all unique in how they approached their issues.  Each having their own coping mechanisms and defence strategies

We refer to clients with past / present abuse as'Survivors' which is exactly what they are. They survive using every resource available to them, whether it makes sense to others or not and they do so for very good reason, survival - this is sometimes misunderstood as surviving and thriving, which in my experience is not the case, survival takes immense energy and leaves little room for thriving.  Trauma is relative and doesn't have to have happened in childhood. An explanation of Abuse and relating issues include

• Child abuse covers physical, emotional, mental, sexual, incest and neglect.
• Family dysfunction can cause many problems to the Adult abilities in the here and now to connect with others, to allow vulnerability and intimacy  
• Trauma is relative, whatever it was/is it is yours.  Never compare your experience to anyone else's - all dysfunction cause's problems
• Abusive relationships
• Feeling misunderstood
• Severe distortions of self
• Being lost and unable to feel anything
• Shame, anxiety, depression
• Addiction,
• Self loathing
• Body image issues/Body shaming
• Feeling alone
• Misbelieved and isolated
• lacking in ability to trust to the point of despair and a severe feeling of loneliness
• Inability to sustain relationship/friendship
• Flashbacks
• Self harm
• Suicidal Ideation

It is very difficult to be to be in any of these places. You are not alone. Please remember you are unique and what happened in your life is also.  It is relative, only you know what you feel like and how your experience has impacted on you.

If you are reading this then you may be ready to begin your journey towards healing and a richer understanding of who you are.

In summary: I have extensive experience in working in Mental Health and in addition delivering Personal Development Training to the long term unemployed and inmates at HMP Holloway before training to be a therapist.  Summarising all the issues I work with above and below:

• Depression
• Eating Disorders
• Schizophrenia
• Anxiety Disorders
• Divorce
• Relationship issues
• Incest 
• Trauma and Dissociation
• Border Line Personality Disorder
• Panic attacks
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Bullying and it's foot print into Adult life.
• Bereavement
• Twelve Step Programme - clients who require perhaps a little more support and understanding in their journey and understanding of the 12 step model of recovery

• I offer a free 30 minute session to work out whether I am the right therapist for you which is not an easy choice to make.  It is a big commitment to make and therefore is vital that you choose someone you are comfortable with. Alternatively I offer a full session for £25
• I charge £50 per 50 minutes session.  I see clients on a day and time mutually agreed every week as this commitment gives us time to build our relationship, boundaries and trust

I would like to give you a flavour of who I am

 I have a warm, down to earth compassionate and authentic  approach to relationship in whatever form and especially in my work. My formal learning and continuing professional development are vital to my knowledge base. I am relaxed in my approach, swearing is not an issue for example as sometimes that is the only way to express what we are feeling.  I don't like ticking boxes when it comes to any human personality.  We are complex beings and one thing does not define all of who we are.