Tess Sterland

I offer therapy sessions in-person in Angel & King's Cross, as well as online via Zoom. I'm available most weekdays & some evenings.

I offer a warm, empathic space for people who’d like to explore how they are feeling about their lives. My sessions often hold a spectrum of reflective moments of profound depth, creative moments that reveal what our minds might not be able to grasp, and moments of humour and play that strengthen our connection and remind us that we’re human.

I am committed to actively creating a therapy space where clients can speak about all parts of their lived experience, including the ways that they have been marginalised or othered in our society. It’s important to me that my approach is open-minded, curious and a non-defencive and I welcome conversations about how our differences or similarities may impact our work together.

I also have a passion for working with those who are neurodivergent (diagnosed or wondering whether you might be) and those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Whatever your reason for seeking therapy, choosing a therapist can be an interesting process. You might have found this profile whilst scrolling through a therapy directory, unsure of why you’re drawn to different faces or blurbs and why others don’t feel like the right fit. In my mind, your therapy journey has already started. This process is already helping you understand what qualities you feel drawn to right now, even if it might feel confusing, overwhelming or frustrating. The information I’ve included above will hopefully help you to get a sense of how I work and whether we would be the right fit, but feel free to request a 20-minute free phone call or Zoom to get to know me a bit better.

Please email me if you’re interested in working together or have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you.

I am an integrative transpersonal therapist. Depending on your individual preferences, I draw on these different therapeutic traditions in the following ways:

• psychodynamic (exploring how your childhood and relationship with caregivers provides a blueprint to behaviours, feelings or relationships in the present)
• person-centred (I will provide a non-judgemental, empathic space for you to explore your psyche, following your lead on what you’d like to focus on)
• Gestalt/somatic (this involves incorporating how you are feeling in the present moment in a session, including how your body is responding or what our interactions are telling us about the content of our session)
• Transpersonal (our work can include exploration of things such as dreams, spirituality, myth, symbols, nature, ancestors and poetry. My training is rooted in a soulful approach, and I’m interested in the ways that the story of your life connects with the wider web of human stories. We might explore an impactful dream you recently had or I might invite you to draw after a visualisation, creating meaning from the images and symbols that your subconscious brings to our work.)
• Parts work/IFS (this approach assumes that we all have different parts of our psyche, and sometimes these parts are in conflict or respond unhelpfully to our current circumstances. Working in this way would involve me guiding you in visualisations to get to know this part better and communicate with it, hoping to shift the ways that it might dictate your behaviour.)

I offer a free 20-minute phone consultation so you can get a better sense of me, ask any questions you'd like and decide whether you'd like to book in a first session. Please email me if you'd like to schedule this phone call in.

Our first full session will be an opportunity to get to know each other better, without the commitment of further sessions.

This first session will usually involve the following:

• I’ll outline the practicalities of how I work and we’ll talk about confidentiality
• Any questions or concerns you have
• The reason that you’re seeking therapy, in your own words. We might explore a little about your history and what might be your initial aims in our work.
• Discussion of whether it feels good to book in future sessions to continue our work together.