Lalagay Steelman

I currently have appointments available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for remote video/telephone sessions.

Sometimes we feel stuck and can’t seem to find a way forward by ourselves. I am here to provide you with a safe space to explore what may be blocking your path and overcome difficulties in order to get back into the stream of life.

My background and core training is in humanistic therapy, which means I will treat you as a unique individual with inherent qualities that I can help you draw upon to resolve your present difficulties.  At the same time, I understand how you may need psychological skills to navigate your present difficulties that you may not have had opportunities to learn before. I therefore value teaching you such skills so that you can best help yourself outside of the therapy room in the complexity of your own life. 

In the past 8 years that I have been practicing as a therapist I have worked in diverse settings, from women's addiction treatment in a perinatal setting in the United States to specialist Dialectical Behaviour Therapy treatment in the private sector here in the UK.  These professional roles have helped me develop a contexualised approach to mental health difficulties that is trauma-informed and draws upon each individual's capacity for growth towards emotional and psychological resourcing in the face of life's challenges. 

In recent years I have become passionate about the body liberation movement, specifically helping individuals heal their relationship with food and their bodies in order to create a life worth living for themselves. In this work I draw upon the principles of Intuitive Eating and anti-oppressive practices, as well as my background in Humanistic therapy and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy training. 

I am based in Bristol and I currently offer online and telephone counselling. There is no one-size-fits all so we would agree together as to how often and for how long you would like to come to therapy. My sessions last for 50 minutes.

It’s important for you to find someone who is the right fit, and this can be even more difficult for people with marginalised identities. I therefore offer a free consultation for us to get acquainted and get a feel for whether this would be a good match.

I am committed to lifelong growth and learning for myself as my practice evolves over time. Some of my recent areas of interest include anti-oppressive practices, the body liberation movement, and the power threat meaning framework.

Your first session with me is a space for us to discuss in further detail what brought you to therapy and for you to ask me any questions you may have about this process. I can take some time to feel safe in this space and for us to develop a trusting working relationship, which is why I let you guide the pace. There is no expectation as to the “right” way to do this, and I will never pressure you to reveal anything beyond what you are comfortable with.

There will be some minimal paperwork to take care of in the first few minutes, and then we will proceed with the session. In getting to know you better we will also start to identify some goals for your time in therapy with me, so that we can get a sense of our progress moving forward.