Heidi Wood

My availability client hours are

Mondays 10:00 - 20:00

Wednesdays 10:00 - 20:00

Working face to face at

Five-ways Hub, 360b Ditchling Road, Brighton, BN1 6JG

Brighton Consulting Rooms, 18a Clermont Road (Preston Park Station) BN1 6SG

or via zoom.

I offer a free 20 minute consultation online, this is for you to share a little about yourself, what has brought you into therapy at this time, ask any question you may have, and see if I'm the right therapist for you.

For good therapeutic outcomes it is essential that you choose to work with a therapist that you feel comfortable and safe with.

As an integrative counsellor and psychotherapist I draw upon a number of modalities and theories, working empathically and intuitively I will use my experience to help support you get to the core of your presenting issues, challenges you face.

Working at your pace my focus is always on creating a safe, confidential, non-judgemental environment.

Over the past years I have specialised in Maternal and Dads Mental Health. Alongside running a private practice, I also work for the NHS community Midwifery team, visiting families during the postnatal period.

During 2018-2020 I led a weekly Pandas peers support group (UK charity for perinatal depression and anxiety) and co-facilitated a monthly Dads Mental Health group here in  Brighton.

At times, with your permission, we can pull upon experiential creative modalities, such as somatic body and breath work, any presenting dreams, creative arts, visualisation and meditations to help gain insight, growth and transformation.

Becoming a parent is one of life's most profound transitions. It can be beautiful and deeply rewarding - but it can also be isolating, over whelming and emotionally complex.

Matrescence and parenthood, just like adolescence, is a transition involving massive hormonal shifts, identity changes and emotional turbulence.

This new chapter brings new life and excitement though can also bring a sense of losing oneself, a grief for your former identity or confusion around new responsibilities and dynamics - especially when paired with pressures and standards formed from societal expectations. Independence and autonomy can go out the window and new harmful coping methods to manage anxiety/stressors can emerge.

Dads can also be vulnerable and traumatised, having witnessed a difficult birth. Parenthood can bring up attachment issues relating from their own childhood, feelings of loss, guilt and anger may be suppressed. Many men miss the closeness and erotic spark once experienced before becoming a parent. These are sensitive subjects that can be shared, talked about in a safe confidential therapeutic space.

Following on from your initial enquiry and consultation, should you wish to book a first session I will then forward you a copy of my therapy contract which will outline everything you need to know. During our first therapy session I will take a short assessment.

Ideally I ask you to book in 6 sessions, this allows time explore what has brought you into therapy, acquire an understanding of your past history, and gain insight and resources, as these 6 sessions come to an end we can review and see if would like to continue or end therapy for now.