For Women Who Carry It All: Therapy That Holds You While You Heal

The talking therapy world can be confusing and overwhelming - You know you need support, but there are so many types of therapy, and therapists, on offer - How do you choose the right therapist for you?

In this blog post, I share the underpinnings of the very specialist type of psychological therapy that I offer, to help you decide if I feel like a good fit for your needs.

I offer therapy that is women-focussed:

First and foremost, it's importnat to note that many form of therapy have been developed, researched and promoted based more on the needs of men, rather than women. This is becase the field of psychological therapy as we know it today, was developed within patriarchial structres.

Contrary to many modern psychological approaches (CBT being a common one), which view wellness as a concept located within individuals only - I wholeheartedly believe that women and mothers need a type of therapy that can explore the connections between people, and between people with the systems they live between, and between people, those systems and the wider world.

I believe women and mothers need something different, and I prioritise offering this - More women-focussed, feminist therapy. Since I qualified as a Doctor of Clinical Psychology, I have specifically developed my practice to learn as much as I can about fertility, pregnancy, perinatal mental health, matrescence, motherhood, perimenopause and menopause, and the intersectional ways in which our societal structures too often define and control our experience of these life transitions.

I offer therapy that is trauma-informed: 

My approach is also trauma-informed. I specialise in offering therapy that allows us the opportunity to get to the root cause of your difficulties - for real, embodied, sustainable long-term change, rather than just 'treating' the surface level 'symptoms' you are experiencing right now.

I certainly offer 'more than CBT' (although I do also integrate CBT techniques too, when that feels useful).  ​Many of my clients have had CBT or short-term counselling in the past, and have usually found it useful to a degree, but are now ready for more deep, longer-term, more sustainable healing, as they often report to me that their gains from the CBT or counselling were more short-lived than they had hoped. ​​

I offer cycle-breaking therapy

that doesn't undermine the love you have for your own parents: 

As part of this trauma-informed approach, together we are very likely to explore your childhood experiences. I can support you to explore how the ways that you were parented may be impacting on how you parent today, and also may be impacting other areas of challenge in your adulthood (e.g. personal or working relationships, confidence, etc.).​ I can help you to stop repeating family patterns, and build a family life that works for you now, and into the future. 

Together we will explore your childhood experiences, and we will acknowledge, validate & honour all of the hard feelings from that time that you still hold within you now, but which you think you ‘shouldn’t feel’ - We will compassionately & gently unpack why you feel so guilty for feeling anything negative about your childhood, and we will allow the very real and understandable mixed feelings about your childhood to be acknowledged.

We will do all of this while simultaneously honouring and being very compassionate & respectful of your parents, and all that they did for you, and all that they provided for you, which you are grateful for.  ​We will honour all the ways in which your parents absolutely did their best for you, and we will compassionately acknowledge the struggles they were also facing in their lives, while they were parenting you, many of which they would have had no control over.  

This is the type of therapy that best supports cycle-breaking parenting, as it very intentionally brings compassion to all of the parents in your ancestral lineage - in all of the generations - including your own parents, and to you too.

I offer therapy that is compassionate & encourages your emotional expression: 

In the therapy I offer, I use a compassionate, emotionally focussed approach - This type of therapy ​actively encourages emotional release & processing - The vast majority of my clients come into therapy having been trying to hold in their strong emotions for too long. I personally know this experience too - often we are very worried about burdening others with our feelings, or we believe we "shouldn't be" feeling how we are, so we try to push down our feelings. Or sometimes, we are just so busy in our lives that there is no time for feeling our emotions ...

In my therapy room, you don’t need to hold it in anymore. It is time to let your feelings flow freely from you. And you don’t need to worry about burdening me either - for me, it is always an honour for me to be in the presence of a woman in her emotional truth. There are so few opportunities in our lives to have this sort of no-strings-attached permission to just ... FEEL. I am incredibly passionate about providing you one of those opportunities within each appointment you have with me.

Allowing our emotions to be felt in the presence of an empathic, compassionate, validating & supportive person is one of the most powerful ways I know of for us to heal & truly change our mental health trajectory going forward. ​

I offer mind-body therapy, that gets you out of your circling, constantly whirring mind: 

The therapy I offer aims to quieten your mind, and reconnect you with the wisdom of your body, and of your soul. In a therapeutic relationship with me, you have the potential to do more than change your mind - you have the potential to to tune into the messages your body is giving you, and ultimately re-wire your brain, and nervous system for more calm, ease and inner peace.  This in turn can then reconnect you to your soul's whisperings - I find that when I am in honest & respectful communication with my body, I can absolutely hear my soul, my inner knowing and my intuition far more clearly. 

Thorough this consideration of mind-body-soul connections, I can also help you understand the connections between your physical health and your emotional health, and I can help you to learn how to reconnect with the inherent wisdom of your own body as a powerful source of your own healing. ​

Perhaps you have physical health challenges associated with Perimenopause or your menstrual cycle (PMDD, PMS, migraines, etc.). Or perhaps you have chronic pain, or a functional illness, which traditional medical medicine struggles to support you with. In exploring your relationship to these symptoms in a holistic way, we can begin to shift your experience of these symptoms to bring some relief. 

​I offer therapy that helps you to make sense of your experiences and struggles with a new story: 

This type of therapy empowers you to finally let go of the old ways that you’ve always made sense of your struggles, such as thinking: "There must be something wrong with me", or "It’s only me that struggles like this", "I shouldn't be struggling like this" and "It’s all my fault".

Together we will gently encourage you to let these old stories go, as we create new understandings and make sense of your struggles in a new, and much more compassionate, way. 

I use an intersectional feminist therapy lens for this work, so I can support you to learn how the social structures & cultures we live in, and were raised in, shape our identities & insecurities as women, mothers, parents & humans.

Together we will explore how your relationship to your anxiety & other emotional struggles have been cultivated by your environment, and we will bust the myths that our society holds about women's emotional distress. We will examine the various factors that have contributed to you feeling this way, all of the time, so that you truly begin to believe that your struggles are absolutely not 'just who you are'. 

I offer therapy that maximises your self-care practices, for the long-run, while never compromising on the care you need to offer everyone else: 

I offer therapy that can educates you about the daily practices for good mental health that can make the biggest difference to your life. I will teach you how to consistently implement the practices of self-compassion (based on the work of Kristin Neff), shame-resilience (based on the work of Brené Brown), embodiment (based on the work of Hillary McBride & Deb Dana's Polyvagal therapy) & cyclical living (based on Red School's teachings) to supercharge your self-care.

I educate my clients about the most impactful self-care practices I know of, that also never need to compromise on the care you give, to anyone else in your life. In fact they will all make you a better, more compassionate, calmer and more supportive carer for others. 

You absolutely CAN look after you, and the important people in your life too. You can get your needs met far more often, while also continuing to meet the needs of your children. You can engage in self-care without guilt. I can help you achieve this. ​

It will be my pleasure to hear from you, if you think I might be a good fit, for the support you need.

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I'm Dr. Jenny Turner, clinical psychologist, mum and founder of Mind Body Soul Psychology - a specialist, trauma-informed, private psychology service for mothers in midlife - I can help you finally begin to relate to your own anxieties, overwhelm, shame, guilt and /or rage in a way that enriches your life.

I offer online appointments to women based all over the UK, and I offer in-person appointments in Ripon, North Yorkshire - click here to find out more: www.mindbodysoulpsychology.co.uk

You might also like to follow me on Instagram, @drjennypsychologist , for regular moments of solidarity in the challenges of this midlife mothering journey, as well as compassion & inspirations for guilt-free self-care, at this time of life.