Sara Gallagher

I have been working as a therapist for 13 years and have a broad breadth of experience working with many presenting issues. I have found that an important relationship to get right is the one with ourselves which can become distorted due to life events / environments/experiences.

You don't have to be at a crisis point in your life to benefit from therapy.  Developing self awareness can empower your relationship with others and yourself. 

I appreciate seeking a therapist and finding one you can trust and connect with can be daunting. Particularly if you have difficulty trusting others. My aim is to make clients comfortable, physically, emotionally and psychologically. Every relationship takes time, commitment and work.  The therapeutic relationship is no different..  I take a warm, welcoming and genuine caring approach to my work.  

You are unique. We can experience the same event however how we deal with it and the impact it has on us will be different in each of us.  I appreciate this very much. Your lived experience is very important in our work as it is yours and no one else's.  

 Endings can be very difficult whether it is a career, a marriage, a friendship/relationship or a death Change can feel very destabilising. Relationships that end badly can have a long lasting impact into many relationships to come..  Therapy offers a safe place to explore the confusion and pain of bad endings and to rise up once more to meet life renewed

Psychological and emotional issues may manifest somatically if not addressed, processed and integrated.  Your body can be the first place where unresolved issues start to show in ill health.  When life is very challenging it can be difficult to look after ourselves.  Therapy can help keep track of where we are and where we need to get to when things become too noisy in our life.

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, surviving the experience/s. Surviving emotionally, psychologically and physically. 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
• 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 and isolated
• lacking in ability to trust
• Inability to sustain relationship/friendship
• Flashbacks
• Self harm
• Suicidal Ideation

It is very difficult to be to be in any of these places for even short periods of time.  It can drain all enthusiasm for life. Working through any difficult issue is challenging however within it we find new ways of being in relationship with ourselves and others. 

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 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 we are a good fit. 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 am warm, down to earth, empathic and have an authentic  approach to relationship.  We are complex beings and no "one thing"  defines all of who we are. What hurts and what doesn't is unique to each of us, what brings joy, happiness, misery, depression, anger. I feel privileged to work with anyone looking to explore what is important to them. The work in finding out what that importance is will be the bedrock of my work with you.