Pippa Counselling

10/09/2025

Feeling newly inspired and topped up with the latest knowledge and frameworks to work with my wonderful clients who are going through the often extreme pain of narcisstic abuse by a partner, family member, friend or in the workplace.

This PESI course, which included some fascinating content on gaslighting and codependency, was led by a raft of incredible speakers including the brilliant Dr Ramani Durvasula, with her pioneering work supporting adults and particularly those going through divorce or separation. She shared the latest guidance on issues like parental alienation and strategies to use with clients who are going through the family courts (which are frankly not fit for purpose).

Dr Ramani advocates using the term Antagonistic Relational Stress over narcissistic abuse. I love this as it brings the focus back to the client, the person who is on the receiving end of this mistreatment, through absolutely no fault of their own.

Dr Lindsay Gibson shared some fascinating insights into emotional immaturity and working with systemic abuse from family systems and ways to support clients who’ve experienced a childhood marked by abuse and/or control from their family of origin.

As a therapist with both lived and professional experience of this incredibly damaging and insidious form of abuse, I feel privileged to be able to work with and support my clients in the best and most informed way possible.

I work with a framework to help clients explore and navigate issues around attachment, inner child healing and nervous system regulation, as well as working with them somatically to release stored trauma and emotions.

Please reach out via pippacounselling.com or reply Call if you’d like a free 15 minute call to see if you think we’d be a good fit for therapy.

30/07/2025

Self abandonment can be the result of core beliefs such as 'I'm not good enough' or 'I'm too much.' Understanding this protective pattern is the first step towards healing and finding a sense of meaning and purpose in your life.

*New post alert!* I've written a piece to help you learn how to reconnect with your inner child and shift these beliefs. Read more here:

What is self abandonment?Self abandonment is often one of the reasons my clients come for therapy, though they may not initially be able to pinpoint it. It’s the unconscious way we disconnect from our own needs, boundaries and emotions in order to feel safe, accepted or loved.It might look like: ....

08/07/2025

Do you feel it's time to prioritise your mental health? Perhaps you've been struggling with anxiety, challenging relationships or low self esteem. Or maybe you want to learn about nervous system regulation, attachment or inner child healing?

You can now book and schedule therapy sessions in the comfort of your own home at pippacounselling.com/booking

06/06/2025

Have you ever felt guilty for saying no? Discover how boundaries aren’t barriers but a powerful tool for healing attachment wounds and honoring your inner child. Read the full post and download a free inner child boundary worksheet at pippacounselling.com

23/01/2025

You’ve probably heard or read about inner child work and may be curious about what it is.

You inner child represents the part of you who feels misunderstood, pushed down, criticised, emotionally unsafe.

Think of those time when you’ve responded with deeply felt anger or emotion to a seemingly innocuous comment, tone of voice or felt belittled or upset by someone. It’s a sense of feeling powerless and profoundly misunderstood, which can leave you in tears, shut down or filled with wordless rage.

In the therapy room, I may notice you laugh with delight when recounting something, or catch my eye to collude with a sense of mischief. I see it so often when I see clients for their first therapy session: looking at me with such hope but also self doubt. Will she be able to understand me? Or will she treat me like everyone else treats me? It’s about stripping back the layers of conditioned coping mechanisms to help you be/see the person you’ve always been.

These can be signs that your inner child is present and has a strong voice which it’s desperate and determined to express.

When this part can’t express itself, your body tries to convey this need through physical symptoms (such as chronic fatigue, anxious looping thoughts and skin conditions.

l’ll be honest: it’s not always an easy process and there’s no quick fix. This is about the end goal, wanting to feel more of the good stuff like joy, connection, curiosity, self love.

For me, inner child child work was the missing piece to really unlock my authentic self and to better understand myself, my emotional responses and all my relationship patterns from friendships and colleagues to partners and family members.

In sessions, this may involve an inner child meditation, story writing, visualisations and reparenting work. It’s always about helping you to feel safe, connected and truly seen and heard.

If you’re interested in booking a free 15 minute call, please reply with “intro call”.

21/01/2025

How can therapy improve your self esteem?

Investing in your self esteem isn’t selfish - I believe it’s fundamental to living a fulfilling life. Every step toward better self worth, no matter how small, creates ripples that positively impact all areas of your life.

I believe that these different therapeutic approaches - attachment work, inner child healing, and nervous system regulation - create a powerful framework for building lasting self esteem.

My experience - both personal and professional - has led me to specialise in these areas, so I best support you in your journey to healthy self esteem.

I’ve written a (long, sorry!) post about this, going through the signs of low self esteem and explaining how each of these therapeutic approaches is key to understanding and healing the parts which are keeping you feeling stuck, misunderstood and with persistent anxious, looping thoughts.

Have a read at pippacounselling.com or comment “self esteem” and I’ll send it to you.

19/08/2024

A little snapshot of what I do, in my therapy room as well as out and about!

If you’re curious about inner child work, exploring your attachment style and managing your nervous system responses, then please get in touch.

I offer a free 15 minute call for you to find out if you think we’d be a good ‘fit’.

Book now at pippacounselling.com ✨

28/03/2024

This has been resonating with me as it’s something that’s come up a few times with my clients this week… it’s often a lightbulb moment for those who hadn’t been aware of the power of the narrative they’d constructed for themselves, which was actually keeping them feeling ‘stuck’.

Does anyone else relate to this?

17/03/2024

Some suggestions for self soothing when your nervous system is activated.

Whether you’re feeling drained and exhausted after a difficult phone call, wired and spiky after having to ‘mask’ for too long at a work event, or numb and shut down after an argument with your partner… hopefully you’ll find something that resonates here, to help you gently bring your nervous system back to a more regulated state.

Is there anything you do that I can add to this list?

If you’d like to know a bit more about the incredible benefits of nervous system regulation work or anything I’ve mentioned here, please get in touch at pippacounselling.com

I have one or two spaces available for new clients, in exeter or online.

29/02/2024

Triggers are our external expression of pain.

They might feel horrible in the moment - that ‘here we go again’ feeling when you react instinctively to something or someone.

But triggers can be potent sources of learning, giving us insight and a glimpse into our internal worlds.

We’re often so used to thinking - or over-thinking - and being aware of our thoughts. We may not realise that we also have a rich and wonderful internal world inside us, that can give us all sorts of clues about our health, beliefs and behaviours.

We’ve probably all experienced a visceral sense of pain or shock or numbness, when you accidentally send a text to the wrong person, or catch sight of your ex unexpectedly. It can feel like a jolt of electricity shooting through your veins with a sympathetic mobilising response from your nervous system.

You might feel an overwhelming urge to run away (flight) or irritated (fight) or to appease (fawn).

Some of the work I love doing with clients is to teach them to track what’s happening with their internal world and get to know and understand what’s going on for them when they respond instinctively.

Suppressing or denying those sensations when these patterns of behaviour start to repeat themselves can be profoundly damaging. This is where chronic pain and illness can occur, as you feel increasingly disconnected and annoyed with your body.

Gentle somatic therapy, along with inner child and attachment work, can kickstart the process of reconnecting with your body and feeling self compassion.

These exercises can be done in person, with face-to-face therapy sessions, or online.

If you’d like to know more, drop me a message or book in for a free discovery call.

20/02/2024

You might be surprised to hear a psychotherapist say this, but here goes: sometimes, talking *isn’t* always helpful!

You may have had counselling and found that it could only get you so far - but that you ended up feeling stuck, or maybe feeling even worse than before.

I had a preconception when I first had therapy around 10 years ago that the only way to break free from my trauma was to tell my counsellor what had happened in as much painful, raw detail as I could.

I was often in pieces in these sessions, reliving and re-experiencing traumatic memories in the presence of a therapist who just watched me, mostly in silence. The sight of her, silently and - or so I felt at the time - sitting in judgement, made me feel ten times worse than before I’d started therapy.

Compassionate connection is the heart of healing.
You just know when you’ve found the right therapist for you - where you can sit with them and feel your body is able to relax, where your shoulders drop and your breathing can slow down.

Someone to help you find your voice and seek connections and relationships in all their guises, which keep you feeling safe.

I can thank that counsellor now, as our lack of connection fuelled my decision to put myself through the intense training as a psychotherapist, to be the therapist I desperately needed back then 💕.

So if words are not always the answer to help release and heal from trauma: what is?

For me, it’s been a potent combination of polyvagal and embodied psychotherapy. Understanding, accepting and gradually changing my nervous system responses has truly been life changing.

And helping my clients to slowly but surely start to reconnect with their bodies and help them begin to feel safe in a world which has felt precarious or uncertain, feels pretty awe-inspiring too ✨