Neuroaffirming counselling · Portchester & online
A space to reflect. Room to grow.
Neuroaffirming counselling for adults navigating burnout, identity and the question of what comes next. In person in Portchester, or online in the UK.
- Registered Member MBACP
- Gestalt trained
- In person in Portchester & online UK-wide
- Free intro call, no obligation
You might be here because something has shifted
Maybe you’ve run out of road — you’re doing the same job you always did and it’s costing you everything you have. Maybe a diagnosis has arrived later than it should have, and you’re rereading your whole life in a new light. Maybe your body is changing, or a relationship has, or a role you’d held for years has ended. Or maybe nothing dramatic has happened at all and you simply find yourself asking — is this it? Is this what I want?
You don’t need a crisis to deserve a space to think. You just need somewhere it’s safe to be honest.
- You're running on empty, and rest isn't touching it any more
- You've recently been identified as autistic or ADHD and you're working out what that means for you
- You're exhausted from being a version of yourself that other people find easier
- Menopause, midlife or an empty house has raised questions you didn't expect
- A relationship, a bereavement or a health diagnosis has changed the ground under you
- You want to understand yourself better, and you'd rather do it with someone alongside you
You are not a problem to be solved
A lot of us have been handed the message, somewhere along the way, that we’re too much or not enough. That there’s a correct way to be a person, and we’re doing it wrong.
I don’t work from that idea. I don’t think you’re broken, and I don’t think my job is to fix you. I think you already carry most of what you need to make sense of your life — and that it is much easier to find when someone is paying careful, unhurried attention alongside you.
So counselling with me tends to look like curiosity rather than correction. We notice what’s happening. We stay with it a while. We see what it has to tell us.
What it's like to work with me
Collaborative, not directive
I'm not the expert on your life; you are. I won't hand you instructions or homework you didn't ask for. We decide together what's useful, and you can change your mind at any point.
Neuroaffirming as standard
Your brain isn't a fault to be managed. We'll work with how you actually process, communicate and regulate — not against it. No eye contact, movement, fidgeting, silence and thinking time are all completely fine here.
Creative when words run out
Some things are hard to say directly. Gestalt counselling makes room for other ways in — image, movement, metaphor, writing, objects. Only ever if you want to. Talking is a perfectly good option too.
Hello, I’m Suzie
I spent a long career in the NHS as a radiographer, working directly with patients at some of the most frightening moments of their lives. That work taught me what it means to be treated as a person rather than a case — and how much difference it makes when someone slows down and pays attention.
It also, eventually, burned me out. That experience is the reason I’m a counsellor rather than a radiographer, and it’s why burnout is at the centre of my work now. I know what it is to keep going long past the point where going on is possible, and to find that rest alone doesn’t bring you back.
I trained in Gestalt counselling because of its holistic view of people, its collaborative stance, and the room it leaves for creativity. I also have lived experience of neurodivergence, and of the way it shapes families and relationships. That doesn’t make me an expert on yours. It does mean you’re unlikely to have to explain the basics.
Who I work with
Most of the people I see are adults navigating a period of depletion, change or reappraisal. Often that’s connected to burnout, to neurodivergence, to midlife, or to a transition that has unsettled a sense of identity.
Burnout and depletion
The kind of exhaustion that sleep doesn't fix, and that pushing through makes worse.
Read more →Late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults
Making sense of an identity that arrived late, and of the years before it.
Read more →Midlife women
Menopause, changing roles, changing relationships, and the question of what's yours now.
Read more →People in transition
Loss, illness, separation, an ending or a beginning you didn't plan for.
Read more →The practical bits
Daytime appointments, 9am–3pm. Weekly or fortnightly, short-term or longer — we'll work out what suits you.
Full fees and practical information →Not sure yet? That's a good place to start from
The first step is a free 20-minute call, by phone or online. There's nothing to prepare and no commitment at the end of it. It's simply a chance to hear how I work, tell me as much or as little as you'd like, and get a feel for whether I'm the right person for you.
If I'm not, I'll say so, and I'll do my best to point you somewhere better.
Book a free 20-minute call