LOCATION: Greenfield Crescent, Brighton & online
AVAILABILITY: Monday - Thursday 8.30am - 3pm in person
Monday - Thursday, 8am - 7pm
PRICE: £65 - £75 per session
SPECIALISMS:
Anxiety & Depression
ADHD
Relationship issues
Co-dependency
Trauma (adult & childhood)
Childhood issues (inner child work, trauma, attachment)
Bereavement and loss
Addictions
Self esteem
Stress
Work related issues
Clinical Supervision for therapists/trainees

Training

Nicola’s career began in 1996 in social care, working as a residential social worker in a children’s home with children aged 5–12 who had experienced abuse and neglect. This early experience shaped her understanding of how relationships and early experiences influence emotional wellbeing. She went on to work in a family centre, supporting parents and carers through the challenges of parenting, and during this time completed her Counselling Diploma in 2002. Nicola then moved into the addictions field, offering counselling and developing services for people affected by drug and alcohol use, including setting up a counselling service and commissioning residential rehabs for a local authority. Over the years, she has continued to develop her practice through further training, most recently in Dr Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry (trauma-informed therapy) and CBT approaches tailored for working with ADHD.

Approach

Nicola believes that everyone comes to therapy with their own unique experiences and needs, so she tailors her approach to suit each individual. She draws on a range of therapeutic models, including talking therapies such as CBT, which focuses on developing practical skills and strategies to challenge unhelpful thoughts and behaviours. Alongside this, Nicola often works in a more trauma-informed way, helping clients connect with the body to process and release long-held emotions and beliefs. This can support healing from past experiences and bring freedom from triggers and repeating patterns. Nicola also believes in the value of inner child work - gently reconnecting with parts of ourselves that may have been hurt or neglected as a powerful way of developing greater self-understanding, self-compassion, and emotional resilience.

Anxiety & Depression

Anxiety and depression often go hand in hand and can feel overwhelming to live with. The constant worry, racing thoughts and physical tension of anxiety can feed into feelings of exhaustion, sadness and hopelessness, while low mood can make it even harder to manage anxious thoughts, creating a cycle that can feel difficult to break. Rumination, or constantly going over the same worries and negative thoughts, is a common experience that can leave you feeling stuck and powerless.

Nicola offers a calm and supportive space to explore what’s happening for you and to help you make sense of your thoughts, feelings, triggers and patterns. Together you can begin to identify the underlying causes, develop healthy coping strategies, and find ways to reduce rumination and self-criticism and increase self-compassion. Her approach draws on practical techniques, such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and body-focused trauma-informed ways of working, helping you to feel more in control, grounded and free of this painful cycle.

ADHD

ADHD can make everyday life feel overwhelming at times, from managing time and responsibilities to coping with emotional ups and downs. It can affect confidence and relationships, especially when you can feel misunderstood. Nicola provides a supportive space to explore these experiences, develop self-awareness, and find strategies that work for your unique way of thinking and being. Nicola has personal experience of ADHD along with specific training to help you understand how this particular type of neurodiversity affects you and to recognise and build on the strengths and creativity which you will have in abundance but might not have realised yet.

Relationship issues

Relationships are so important in our lives and bring so much joy yet can also come with challenges and complications which at times can be difficult to navigate. Whether these are partners, children, family, friends or work colleagues, sometimes we find ourselves stuck in the same patterns, feeling unheard, or unsure how to express what we need. Therapy offers a place to slow things down and make sense of what’s happening, so that you can begin to relate to others and yourself in new and healthier ways. Nicola brings more than 20 years’ experience of working with individuals and families, along with warmth, understanding and perspective to help you explore what might be happening in the relationship(s) you’re finding challenging. Together, you can begin to develop lasting strategies, change repeating patterns, and work through the triggers that may be holding you back from the healthy and fulfilling relationship(s) you want.

Other information

Nicola decided to train as a therapist after experiencing the power of therapy herself during a particularly difficult time in her life. Feeling truly heard, understood and supported was a turning point, and she wanted to be able to offer that same experience to others. Since then, she has enjoyed working with people from all walks of life and across different cultures, recognising the courage it takes to reach out for help and the strength that can come from self-discovery. Nicola is described as warm, down-to-earth and compassionate, with a genuine curiosity about each person’s story and what matters most to them. In addition to her therapy work, she is also a qualified clinical supervisor and finds great fulfilment in supporting other therapists both in training and in practice to grow in confidence and reach their full potential.