Katie Smith

I offer sessions Monday to Thursday between 9.30am and 5.30pm. My waitlist is open for new clients looking to start therapy within the next month. 

Hello, I'm Katie and I support the chronically overwhelmed to recover from burnout.

If stress is weighing you down and you’re struggling to cope, I can help you to regain control and restore a sense of balance in your life.

Burnout has a habit of creeping up on us: often we notice it’s there, lurking in the background, but try to ignore or dismiss it. Although we do our best to “push through” we inevitably get to a point of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. If you are experiencing or heading for burnout you might be:

• A perfectionist with unrelenting standards who learnt from an early age that it doesn’t feel safe to fail
• A workaholic who has sacrificed sleep, relationships and joy, believing that productivity is a measure of your worth
• A frazzled multi-tasker, sandwiched between too many demands, trying to please all of the people all of the time
• An academic high achiever – you need to perform and succeed to feel that you belong and matter
• A peri-menopausal woman navigating the “U-bend of life” whilst also spinning too many plates

Burnout is the result of an accumulation of prolonged and unmanaged stress. While it’s often understood as an occupational issue, it’s far more complex that that. It can help to imagine burnout as a large ball of wool with lots of stands of stress that have got tangled together. Some of these strands represent external stressors such as work-related pressure, caring responsibilities or major life changes. Whilst other strands represent internal stressors, low self-esteem, unrealistic expectations or a fear of failure for example. Untangling a ball of wool requires a patient, methodical approach; this is what I can offer you. Together we’ll untangle your stress and find healthier ways of coping with it. 

I offer online and in-person sessions. My studio is a 5 minute walk from Cardiff Central Train Station. 

As a Pluralistic Therapist I’ve been trained to use a range of therapeutic approaches.

Pluralism is not about being fixed in one way of thinking or doing things; my starting point will be to talk to you about the aspects of burnout that you are struggling with and what you would like to change. Together, we’ll develop a bespoke route map for therapy, that will be individual to you. 

If you haven’t had therapy before you might not know what type of approach could work best for you and that’s OK. 

If you like structure and have a solution focussed mindset, we would generally take a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) approach. My aim would be to support you to develop coping strategies for dealing with your challenges through focusing on how your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes affect your feelings and actions. I'm also a qualified Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist - this is a science backed form of hypnosis which supercharges CBT interventions and helps to sustain change at a deeper level (with clients often experiencing faster results).

If you’d prefer to work in a non-directive way, focusing on the here and now, with the aspiration of developing greater self-awareness, we would be more likely to take a Person-Centred approach. I’d walk alongside you and encourage you to recognise and use your inner wisdom to see your challenges from a different perspective.

If you are interested in learning more about your body’s response to stress, we could use Polyvagal Informed Therapy. This approach blends neuroscience with body-centred techniques to help you to regulate your nervous system.

If you struggle with people-pleasing, perfectionism and self-abandonment, EMDR can help. These are often coping mechanisms that have developed in childhood in response to negative experiences. EMDR helps by reprocessing the memories attached to these experiences, reducing their emotional intensity which will allow you to to develop new, more positive beliefs about yourself. 

Your first session is an assessment session which I will generally split into 2 parts.

Contracting: I want you to feel confident about what you can expect from me throughout our work together and to understand what I am expecting of you. Having a contract in place ensures that your therapy will be performed in a safe and professional manner. I’ll talk through the contract with you, answer any questions you might have and give you a written copy which we will both sign. 

Exploration: We’ll also devote a good chunk of time in your first session to exploring what you are currently experiencing and your best hopes for therapy. I don’t want you to feel like you are being interviewed so will only ask questions that are relevant to your situation. Once I’ve got a good understanding of the challenges that you are facing and where you’d like to be, we’ll talk through the different therapeutic approaches we could use and collaboratively agree a route map for therapy. This will be tailored to your unique wants, needs and preferences – I avoid a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

If the choice of therapeutic approaches feels a bit overwhelming, don’t worry – it’s not like having to pick a team. Think of what I offer as a buffet; there might be an approach that’s instantly appealing to you, or you might prefer to ‘taste’ a few or 'pick and mix'. Remember, your therapy is all about you and what you want, need or might prefer. I am flexible and adaptable and will work with you to create a route map that will be as unique as you. 

My goal for the assessment session is for you to leave with clear expectations about how we will work together and what we are likely to achieve. If by the end of the session you feel ready to commit to the process, we can book your next session but if you want to take some time to decide before taking the plunge, that is absolutely fine.