EMMA NEWMAN COUNSELLING
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"Recovery begins with embracing our pain and taking the risk to share it with others"
John Bradshaw
About Me
I am a fully qualified integrative psychotherapeutic counsellor with experience in working with adults, teenagers and children.
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I am dynamic and active as a therapist and people come to me for this reason, I will not just, listen and nod!
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My core counselling and psychotherapy training was with Spurgeon's College in London where I was fortunate enough to train under wonderful tutors in many modalities such as Transactional Analysis, Psychodynamic therapy and Attachment theory which all shaped me as a therapist.
I have since continued my therapeutic training to become an EMDR practitioner, further my study and interest in Transactional Analysis, working with childhood trauma, working with parts and inner child healing to name few.
I have also completed many of Carolyn Springs courses on working with trauma, dissociation, dysregulation and sexual abuse, along with many other short courses on topics such as grief and loss, working therapeutically with neurodivergence and integrating mindfulness, art, stones and clay therapy into my practise.
I believe in not just working with the mind but also the body as both are very much connected.
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I have qualified as EMDR practitioner this year and integrate this into my practise working on any negative beliefs you may hold, difficult behaviours or habits, processing traumatic memories and working on fears and phobias. I believe the modality to be transformational at processing and desensitising you to certain life difficulties.
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing and is approved by the NHS as a successful trauma therapy. It can help treat single or multiple traumas, PTSD, phobias and presentations such as phobias, anxiety etc
Please get in touch for more details if you think this could help you.
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I am a member of the BACP and ACC and follow both their guidelines for working safely and ethically and maintain a minimum of 30 hours of continued professional development each year.
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I have also trained with Place2be and have worked in many primary schools in the South East, counselling children creatively through a combination of talk, art, play and clay therapy. Whilst I don't work with children under 12 in my private practise at the moment, the experience of working with children keeps me curious, creative and playful in my therapy practise and helps with inner child healing work and understanding or early childhood development and psychology.
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I have also worked as part of a counselling agency team in South East London offering low cost counselling to a wide variety of people going through anything from complicated grief to long term depression and anxiety.
I now work in full time private practise and enjoy working with a variety of individuals experiencing lots of different challenges. Please note I don't work with people in an immediate mental health crisis, I work with people ready and open to doing the inner work of therapy.
I continue to invest in my professional development on a monthly basis as well as benefitting from monthly group and individual supervision to ensure I am continuing to learn and keep up to date in the psychotherapy world.
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I decided at 16 years old that I wanted to be a therapist as I love human psychology and meeting and listening to new people, but was advised by my school to revisit this idea when I was a bit older and wiser, so I have enjoyed two careers! My first was in newspaper and magazine publishing, I spent 12 years working on various publications in London, my favourites being BBC Good Food Magazine, Olive and delicious magazine. It was a busy, glamourous and faced paced life and I loved the creativity and how socialable it was!
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However, I am now enjoying a more relaxed, slower pace of life in beautiful Sevenoaks, doing what I feel is my life's work. Being able to help others who are experiencing difficulties in life is an honour, it is such a great pleasure to be able to journey with people in this way and I never take my clients trust in me for granted.
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In my personal life I enjoy walking my rescue dog Elsie in the woods or by the sea, chilling at home with my cats watching a film or cooking a curry. I also love to socialise with friends and family over a meal and I love relaxing in a yoga or breathwork class, swimming or sweating it out in the sauna. I am also a avid reader of anything and everything!
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CAN I HELP YOU?
I believe that healing happens in relationship, and in my practice, nothing is too difficult, too messy, or too small to bring to the table. As a relational therapist, I am here to walk alongside you, offering a witness who is truly unshockable. Whether you are neurotypical or neurodivergent, I provide a space where you can finally stop 'editing' your story. My work is rooted in deep specialisms, guiding individuals through the heavy landscapes of loss, grief, and miscarriage, as well as the complex aftermath of childhood traumas and difficulties which can result in anxiety, depression or negative beliefs and unwanted behaviours. I also have a particular heart for those navigating difficult family dynamics and the unique challenges faced by children of alcoholics. Having navigated my own journey through complex family dynamics, divorce, neurodivergence and addicitions, I combine clinical expertise in EMDR, Attachment Theory and Transactional Analysis with the tactile, healing power of Art and Stone Therapy and I find my personal experiences help greatly too.
We won't just talk about your experiences; we will use creative tools, somatic practices and mindfulness to give shape to things that words cannot always reach. Together, we will explore the 'rabbit holes' of your past to build a more resilient, authentic future.
SERVICES
IN PERSON SEVENOAKS, ONLINE, TELEPHONE, WALK & TALK
I offer an initial 15min video call free of charge so we can see if we feel we are the right fit to work together and to arrange a time to start your counselling sessions. Please email me to arrange a time that suits us. Emmanewmancounselling@gmail.com
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I offer sessions in person in Sevenoaks, online, on the telephone, or "walk and talk therapy" sessions outside in the fields and woodlands of Sevenoaks. Some clients find a mixture of the above helpful.
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For integrative talk therapy​ your first session will be 60 minutes as we go through a questionnaire so I can get to know you better. Sessions after this point are 50 minutes long and on a weekly as the work I do with my clients is in depth.
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For EMDR sessions the first 4 sessions are 90 minutes and we can either continue with the 90 minute sessions after that or drop to shorter 50min sessions once the initial processing has been done.
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Within my practise I do offer a limited amount of low cost sessions specifically for those who are unemployed or counselling students, please get in touch to enquire about availability. These sessions are offered on a strictly weekly basis for a time limited period.
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Contact me to schedule your first appointment. Let’s work together to better help you manage your life’s journey.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Common Questions
HOW LONG WILL THE PROCESS TAKE?
This is hard to answer as some clients get what they need from 6-12 sessions, but others find longer term work more beneficial, I offer open ended work for those needing longer support, on average I find most people have around 20 sessions. I am happy to discuss fortnightly sessions after 6-8 weeks if this is appropriate.
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If you are coming specifically for EMDR sessions as stand alone, the minimum around of sessions is 4 and sometimes with EMDR you might get what you want from these 4 sessions alone.
Please remember we are all unique and every persons life and journey is different.
HOW DO I SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT?
Please email me and we can work our a mutually agreeable time to arrange a free video call and we can go from there.
HOW MUCH ARE THE SESSIONS AND HOW LONG DO THEY LAST?
My integrative therapy sessions are 50 minutes which is the standard counselling "hour" that most counsellors offer. First sessions are 60 minutes as they involve an assessment.
Your investment is £65 per session, which should please be paid before the session begins via bank transfer. Please note rates are reviewed each January and I will let you know if they are increasing.
EMDR sessions are 90 min sessions priced at £110 per session, with a minimum of 4 weekly/fornightly sessions.
The 90 min EMDR sessions are helpful if you want to purely use EMDR as a modality without the talk therapy and are good for when you feel you want to go a bit deeper. Breathwork, mindfulness and grounding are offered as standard at the end of each EMDR session.
IS IT REALLY ALL CONFIDENTIAL?
Yes, I am a member of the BACP and ACC and follow their strict ethical guidelines on confidential note taking. All your details and information is kept securely and not shared with anyone. Everything you tell me is 100% confidential, I will not speak to your doctor or any family members or anyone else without your permission. The only time I might talk to you about including someone else, like a doctor or a family member etc, is if you are in serious danger of harming yourself or someone else,or if you think someone is going to physically harm you, but we would do this collaboratively.
WILL YOU GIVE ME ADVICE?
In a nutshell, no I won't give you advice. A good counsellor should never give advice as honestly, the answers lie within you. I will however help you find the confidence to trust your own instincts, which can be a long process, but that is okay and will help you in the long term, not just the short term. I do however feel psycho-education, book and podcast recommendations can help you tremendously, so I do try and offer this as part of your therapy.
I AM ON ANTI-DEPRESSANTS, IS THIS OK OR WILL YOU TELL ME TO COME OFF THEM?
It is fine to be on anti-depressants and also come to counselling, I would never tell you to come off anti-depressants, I do believe they can be helpful, especially in combination with counselling.
I suggest keeping in close contact with you GP about your dose and letting them know you are doing counselling. Never come off anti-depressants immediately, this should be discussed with your GP and done under their guidance gradually.
Brene Brown
"If we share our story with someone who shows us empathy and understanding, shame cannot survive"