What types of challenges can therapy and coaching address?
I support a broad range of personal and professional goals, including stress, career transitions, and relationship growth.
Do you offer free assessment?
Yes, I offer free no-obligation thirty-minute calls, this is a chance for me to learn more about you and check if we are a good fit. I can assess for all experiences and I may recommend another therapist depending on what you’re looking for.
How do I know if I need therapy or coaching?
Therapy focuses on healing, understanding problematic patterns that leave you feeling stuck in yourself and the aim is to improve your mental health and emotional well-being.
Coaching is more focused on pragmatic goal-setting and getting your life in balance with conflicting aspects of day-to-day life, and the aim is to improve your living environment.
Will I have to fill in questionnaires before and during each session?
No. This is only common practice in NHS Talking Therapies.
What happens in our first session?
Your first meeting is a chance to share your experience, explore your goals for therapy and/or coaching, and work together to identify how Jaime can support you Moving Forward.
Are sessions confidential and private?
Yes. Always. Confidentiality is key to guaranteeing a safe and trusting environment.
Sessions (45-90 minutes depending on your needs) are typically conducted online. From time-to-time (weather dependent) we may utilise local green spaces to enhance growth and engage in therapeutic activity – such as Mindfulness sessions at local parks.
What is your integrative approach?
I combine 3 approaches, borrowing or overlapping the following 3 approaches, because my clients have reported that their prior experiences with CBT felt protocolised, being deeply impersonal and invalidating of their life experiences, feeling “squeezed into boxes”, “overloaded with worksheets”, “criticised for not doing what the therapist said”. “It felt like being back in school”.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) IFS is a more holistic and human-centred form of therapeutic working – expanding on the “5 Areas” of CBT by incorporates past learning. IFS combines the “minds” that were created past learning and experience and explores them in more detail than the “challenging thoughts, reframing thoughts, reframing experiences”. IFS can be extremely effective in working with all parts of self and the human condition, but in particular tends to be much more effective when it comes to difficulties with Low Self-Esteem, Shame and Anger.
Perfectionism: (often shame and/or perfectionistic roots) you might hear “there’s a part of me that can make allowances for other people… but another part of me that doesn’t allow me to…” Shame: “the me now understands that I was just a child/I made a mistake BUT that doesn’t make me feel any less ashamed” this is an example of where logic does not resolve the core pain Here is a wonderful, short but informative video on IFS
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) ACT is a psychological approach that helps people build a more values-driven, meaningful life by developing psychological flexibility. Instead of trying to eliminate difficult thoughts or emotions, ACT teaches acceptance—making space for internal experiences without letting them dictate behaviour. It combines mindfulness skills, values-based living and committed action to support choices aligned with what truly matters. By noticing and observing thoughts rather than fighting or debating them, people learn to respond with intention rather than avoidance, fostering resilience, wellbeing, and purposeful living.
Cognitive defusion in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is the skill of changing how we relate to our thoughts. Instead of treating thoughts as literal truths or commands, or debating them with lists and worksheets of evidence for and evidence against, defusion helps us notice them as passing mental events—words, images, sensations. By creating distance, thoughts lose their power, allowing behaviour to be driven by values – not fear & avoidance. Defusion builds psychological flexibility and is especially effective with Neurodivergent individuals.
The de-facto principle in ACT is that life is suffering, but that a meaningful life can be enjoyed when we live a life that is consistent with our values, that we feel in-control of and that connects us to the world. When we are more psychologically flexible, we suffer less.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) CBT is a very structured psychological approach that helps people understand how their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours influence one another in “cycles”. CBT uses practical interventions to identify and modify (challenge) unhelpful thinking patterns to produce more balanced perspectives, and – through behavioural experiments – test new actions, build coping strategies, and reduce avoidance. Overall, CBT supports people to manage distress, improve functioning and “become your own therapist”. CBT excels in reducing frequency & intensity of Panic attacks, reducing nightmares and flashbacks in PTSD, fear in Phobias (including Emetophobia) and distress in breaking OCD patterns (“ERP”).
Many people enjoy CBT, especially if new to therapy with relatively recent symptom-onset, due to its “logical” and “quick-fix” symptom-reduction nature that often does not require clients to talk about personal sensitive issues like rejection or feeling isolated, childhood trauma, parental relationships or unresolved conflict. Some find the labelling of their problems as a “disorder” to be very helpful while others can experience the “label” as dehumanising.
Though it can vary by therapist, CBT is typically therapist-led which some like, and some strongly dislike. Many clients struggle to apply “rationality” to thoughts, behaviours, emotions, our lives and the world which are fundamentally irrational.
