Ava Kinsey

If you’re reading this, perhaps you are not in a good place. Maybe slightly off the track, struggling to make sense of your thoughts and feelings, or even completely overwhelmed. You may need support, guidance, or just an empathetic other who can give you their undivided attention in a safe place where you don’t need to censor yourself.

I qualified as a psychodynamic psychotherapist and counsellor. I work at the NHS both as an adult psychotherapist at a complex trauma unit, and as a perinatal psychotherapist working with vulnerable, high-risk parents and their infants and toddlers. Before that, I worked as a psychotherapist in secondary care at the NHS, treating clients who experienced early relational/sexual trauma or were diagnosed with PTSD, complex PTSD, or personality disorders.

I view therapy as a safe, non-judgmental space in which you can explore your sense of self, your relationship with others, and all the painful aspects of life that might be difficult to put into words. I take the therapeutic relationship between us very seriously since that is the vehicle for change. It is important to me to co-create a confidential relationship in a non-directive way, where you don’t have to censor yourself and can say whatever comes to your mind. Therapy then can become a refuge: anything that is happening in your life can feel safer with someone accompanying you on the journey.

Being psychodynamic means that we explore the interplay between what you are aware of, and what you are not; how early coping strategies that have helped you survive impact your current life, and how relationships in the present are influenced by past relationships.

Although psychodynamic by training, my practice is informed by many theoretical approaches: attachment theory, developmental neuroscience, somatic experiencing, and humanistic psychology. I can teach you techniques and strategies to regulate your nervous system and develop a somatic capacity to tolerate overwhelming emotions.

I have two practices. One is in north London, a 15-minute walk from Finsbury Park tube station, a 20-minute walk from Highbury&Islington, and an 8-minute walk from Holloway Road Station.

I also have some slots available in central London, Bloomsbury.

www.avakinsey.com

I work on a sliding scale and we can work together in a short-term, issue-focussed, or in an open-ended way.

The first few sessions are initial consultations during which you can decide whether I am the right therapist for you and whether you'd like to work with me either short-term or in an open-ended way.

In the first session, we also discuss the therapeutic contract that sets out some important boundaries so that you can feel safe.