Assessment, preparation and a shared understanding of what will help the work feel manageable.
Our approach
Working with the mind, body and nervous system.
You do not need to know which therapy you need. We begin by understanding you, then decide together what may be helpful.
Learning to notice and respond to overwhelm, activation, shutdown and shifts in emotional or physical state.
Working with memories, meanings, emotions and body responses when you are ready.
Helping new understanding settle, strengthening resources and planning for what comes next.
Therapy in plain English
What might the work include?
The approach is tailored to the individual. One programme may draw on several methods; another may focus mainly on one. Nothing is used automatically.
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing is a trauma-focused therapy. It helps people work with distressing memories that can still feel as though they are happening in the present. While bringing parts of a memory to mind, you are guided through bilateral stimulation—often eye movements, tapping or alternating sounds. The aim is to help the memory become less emotionally overwhelming and more fully understood as something that happened in the past.
EMDR is carefully prepared and paced. It does not require you to describe every detail aloud, and it is only used when clinically appropriate.
Trauma-focused CBT
Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy helps you understand how a traumatic experience may be affecting thoughts, emotions, behaviour, relationships and the body now. Work may include developing coping and regulation skills, gently processing memories, and exploring beliefs such as blame, danger, shame or powerlessness.
Safe and Sound Protocol
The Safe and Sound Protocol, or SSP, is a structured listening programme using specially filtered music. It is sometimes used alongside therapy to support regulation, sensory processing and a greater capacity for connection and engagement.
SSP is not a replacement for psychotherapy and is not suitable for everyone. When used, it is introduced gradually, monitored carefully and adapted to the person’s responses. Evidence is still developing, so we do not present it as a cure or promise a particular outcome.
Somatic and nervous-system-informed work
Trauma and chronic stress are not experienced only as thoughts. They can also show up through tension, numbness, restlessness, pain, disconnection or feeling constantly on alert. Somatic work brings gentle attention to body sensations, movement and signals of safety or threat—without forcing the body to “release” or relive anything.
Polyvagal-informed ideas
Polyvagal-informed practice offers one way of making sense of shifts between connection, mobilisation and shutdown. We may use this as a practical language for noticing patterns and exploring what helps you feel more present. It is used as a clinical framework, not presented as settled fact or as a promise to “reset” the nervous system.
Integrative psychotherapy
Lauren may also draw on psychodynamic psychotherapy, Transactional Analysis, compassion-focused, acceptance-based and behavioural approaches. This allows the work to attend to present difficulties, earlier relationships, protective patterns, values and the therapeutic relationship itself.
Methods are not the whole story.
Techniques sit within a real therapeutic relationship. Curiosity, consent, collaboration and honest communication guide the work throughout. If something does not feel right, that becomes part of the conversation.
You do not have to choose.
The initial assessment helps us understand your goals, history, current support and readiness. Lauren will explain the options and recommend an approach in ordinary language.