Anita Duke

Hello and a warm welcome to Anita Duke Therapy.

My regular practice hours are Tuesday - Friday (8am - 6pm).

I welcome and respond to all enquiries, but to help prospective clients I publish details of my latest availability on the home page of my website, which I regularly update. Please find a link from this page.

Have life's experiences left you struggling? Are you feeling overwhelmed, stuck or lost? I offer a calm, caring, supportive space to help work through anxiety, stress, relationships, and the legacy of traumatic experiences and loss. Maybe I can help?

As an experienced, accredited integrative counsellor and somatic trauma therapist, I offer a welcoming, respectful and confidential space to talk - and be really heard. Time dedicated to unravelling what is happening for you and helping make sense of your difficulties. I will gently encourage you to explore your experiences and your relationship with yourself and others, whilst supporting connection to your natural inner resources and resilience for healing and wellbeing.

I take an intuitive, creative and compassionate approach to therapy, adapting my methods according to your needs and what, together, we find brings the emotional regulation, understanding, and changes you seek to move forward in life. I draw from a range of counselling and psychotherapy approaches, including talking therapy, somatic therapy, mindfulness and breathwork, psychodynamic techniques, parts therapy, clinical hypnotherapy, EMDR, CBT and NLP.

I offer both short and long-term therapy for:

• emotional balance & wellbeing

• anxiety & phobias

• stress & work-related issues

• trauma & loss

• relationships & family difficulties

• self-discovery & personal development

Getting started

I firmly believe that the therapeutic relationship is key to a successful outcome, so it's important you find a therapist you feel comfortable with and can learn to trust. As such, if I have availability I will offer a FREE initial, no-obligation consultation by telephone or Zoom (20 mins), to get a sense of our ‘fit’ and how we might work together.

You may only need a few sessions for a specific problem or coping strategies, or you may benefit from longer, deeper exploration. Together we’ll find what’s right for your circumstances, and your desired outcome.

I have a particular interest in the mind-body relationship and the impact of distressing or traumatic experiences on our bodies, thus my practice is grounded in modern trauma research and neuroscience, combining ‘top down’ traditional talking therapy with ‘bottom up’ somatic/body-based approaches.

Trauma therapy works to facilitate a sense of internal safety, stabilisation and resilience, before inviting the telling of your story and exploring what the body still holds. I safely pace the work - whether talking, creative expression, somatic release or EMDR - to support understanding, healing and resolution, and find meaning, purpose and re-connection.

I work with individual adults (all ages) from students new to adult life, through to those in or near retirement.

I work online across the UK and in-person in Bury St Edmunds, from my private, peaceful therapy room off the A134 Sudbury Road a few miles from the A14.

Sessions are a full hour (60 minutes) and I offer a range of times Tuesday – Friday (8am-6pm).

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

My practice centres around humanistic principles, valuing responsibility, choice, understanding of self and personal growth, whilst acknowledging the complexity and inequity of societal systems.

I welcome working with both difference and similarity and endeavour to make reasonable adjustments to ensure my services are accessible.

My skin colour, social identity and experiences may be different to yours, but I will endeavour to understand and respond to your lived experiences to the best of my ability. If rupture arises from our difference I will own and work to repair this, staying open to feedback and a life-long learning and ally process.

Governance and Jurisdiction

I work exclusively in the UK in accordance with English law, adhering to the ethical frameworks of the BACP and GHR.

My practice is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Further details and my current availability can be found at: www.anitaduketherapy.co.uk

I appreciate that starting therapy can feel daunting. This is one of the reasons I offer a free initial consultation, so that we may get to know each other a little.

I will start our first (intake) session explaining important ethical and day-to-day considerations of therapy, such as confidentiality, data protection and what to do if you can't make a session. If you are happy with this, I will ask a few general questions around your health and wellbeing, and invite you to complete a short clinical assessment. This helps me identify your therapeutic needs and supports ongoing reviews.

We will then begin gentle exploration of what brings you to therapy and the outcome you are seeking. I will encourage you to become curious and perhaps kinder to yourself.

If you are distressed or anxious, I'll sit alongside you until the feelings pass, perhaps supporting with co-regulation and demonstrating a resource.

You may be surprised to find yourself talking more than you expected and noticing that already something starts to change, but if it takes longer to open to the process that’s fine.

Together, we’ll find a pace and working style that feels right for you, undertaking regular reviews along the way - because this is your therapy, and you are at the heart of what I do.