Sonia Silve

LOCATION: Wilbury Road and Online
AVAILABILITY: Monday evening
PRICE: £55 per session £80 couples
SPECIALISMS:
Sexual and Intimacy Issues
Couples and Relationships
Trauma
Addiction - sex and/or porn 
Menopause/Perimenopause related issues 
Attachment Strategies 
LGBTQ+ 
HIV/AIDS 
BDSM and Kink 
Neurodiversity issues relating to sex 
Affairs 
Non-monogamy

Training

Sonia is a qualified Psychosexual and Relationship Therapist. She has worked within the NHS offering Psychosexual Therapy with individuals and couples. 

She also has over 30 years of experience working within Health and Social Care, working mainly with children and their families with complex trauma. This involved working with both adults and children, supporting with issues such as sexual abuse, domestic abuse and mental health issues. Sonia also has experience working within Adult Substance Misuse services for many years.

Sonia has studied the Adult Attachment Interview and likes to incorporate some of this into her therapeutic work; using attachment strategies to help her and her clients understand why they may be stuck in certain patterns of behaviour.

Approach

Sonia likes to tailor her approach to each person's needs. This involves completing an assessment and creating a plan collaboratively with her clients. She finds this works most effectively and helps clients to feel like it is their journey and to feel part of the process. Sonia will use different models and theories that are relevant to the issue and to the client's learning styles. Sonia likes to work at her clients pace using a trauma informed approach and compassion so that clients feel heard and supported.

Sexual and Intimacy Issues 

Psychosexual Therapy helps you understand what is going on in your body and mind which have created the issues you are having. These issues might be things like being unable to have penetrative sex, negative sexual experiences, body dysmorphia, sexual trauma etc. They may also be things like erectile dysfunction, effects of cancer treatment and addictions to sex and porn. 

Sonia specialises in supporting people with these issues and uses a model which incorporates you as a whole looking at you biologically, psychologically and socially. Sonia will help you to understand and move forward by carefully, at your pace, looking at events that may have caused this and help you to notice particular patterns of behaviour that may be unhelpful. 

Pain can be a big issue when it comes to sex and intimacy. By giving you an understanding of your anatomy, looking at arousal and using particular methods to help with pain, these can help reduce pain and help you to feel more sexual and intimate in the future.

Sonia will be there throughout the process to guide you and listen and when things are hard Sonia can support you using skills and techniques which calm your body and mind.

Couples & Relationships

Sonia is qualified and experienced in offering couples and relationship therapy. She provides a safe space for people to feel heard and understood. 

Couples therapy can feel like a big step in a relationship, especially if the issues are about sex and/or intimacy. Sonia uses a compassionate approach, making couples feel able to communicate their needs and feelings. 

Sonia likes to use her experience in Attachment strategies and the effects of trauma on children’s brain development to help clients gain an understanding about how they interact as adults within a relationship. 

Her job is to help you communicate more effectively using both cognition and feelings. Sonia uses a number of techniques to support couples with this and as part of the process the couple will need to do some work in between sessions to help improve communication and intimacy.

Trauma

Sonia studied Trauma Informed Practice at University and includes this in all therapy she does, using techniques to make clients feel safe and comfortable. 

Sonia’s main aim is to build a relationship with you that is supportive and non-judgemental so you feel held within the sessions. Sonia has many years of experience of working with Complex trauma, sexual trauma being one of those areas. Sexual trauma can cause many issues in a person’s life including issues with intimacy and feeling unable to have a relationship. 

Sonia will support you in building self-esteem, connecting with your body and helping calm your system down and help you to feel confident to make choices about your future. 

Sonia likes to provide diagrams and psychoeducation to help you gain an understanding of what is going on in your body when there has been trauma. Mindfulness techniques can also be effective and there is the option to use sensory items within the session to support you to talk about difficult experiences.

Other information

Sonia currently works in Management in the NHS. She enjoys working with the LGBTQ/ Kink & BDSM and HIV/AIDS communities regarding sexual issues. Sonia can offer short term or long term therapy.