Amy Binns

I centre my work around care, respect and curiosity. I offer a robustness and a willingness to work with challenge. I passionately believe that given the right environment, we have the capacity to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves. I recognise that beginning therapy can be daunting and overwhelming, so I am always mindful to work with you to find a supportive pace for our work together.

I work in a relational, integrative and embodied way. This means that I attend to the relationship between myself and clients, recognising that this can give us insight and information about other relationships and dynamics in our lives. I believe the therapeutic relationship can become a safe container for exploration and healing. I draw from various therapeutic modalities, including body psychotherapeutic theories, meaning I can respond to what is emerging in our work with a unique and collaborative approach. Including our bodies, through bringing awareness, can support us in having a more connected and deeper understanding of self.

I have a long-standing commitment to recognising and challenging how social injustice and oppression impact our lives and unfold within our stories. Within my work, I stay alive to how these issues are held in the wider field within society and politically. Whilst we might not discuss these things directly within sessions, I believe these issues will inform how we locate ourselves within the world.

I work with an awareness and knowing of LGBTQ+ issues, with an openness and commitment to working with issues of sexuality and identity.

I offer clients the possibility to work outdoors. I find the creativity and holding that outdoor therapy can offer to be enriching for the work. 

I am currently offering face to face, outdoor and online sessions. I am an insured and fully registered member of the BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy).

I have over 18 years; including 10 years as a qualified therapist; of experience working with a diverse range of clients with complex issues, predominantly within the third sector.

I have worked for Women's Aid, rape crisis centres, counsellor in specialist sexual violence services, led on a Hate Crime Mediation Service and worked with adults with learning disabilities and complex needs. I am committed to working in a trauma informed way, with issues of diversity and oppression at the heart of my work.

I qualified as an Integrative Humanistic counsellor. I have a solid foundation within various modalities including Person-Centred, Psychodynamic and Gestalt theories.

I completed a post graduate body psychotherapy diploma in Embodied Relational therapy. This training supports me to honour the importance of what our bodies are holding for us, and explore creative ways to give space for expression.

I have undergone a one year training in Wild Therapy. This informs my work and encourages curiosity about the blocks we find in ourselves and how this impacts our experience of being human. This aspect of my work can take many different forms, for example outdoor walking and talking sessions, exploring one's place in the landscape and physical movement/expression. I am particularly interested in our internalised "wild" and how this can often be lost or detached from, through our conditioning. 

We would meet initially for a session up to 30 minutes, which is free. This would be an opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have and for me to ask a little about what has brought you to counselling. The hope would be for us to get a bit of a sense of each other and whether we might be a good fit to work together. If you decide you would like to proceed, we will then find a mutually suitable time for our work.