Services

Psychological Assessment

A psychological assessment is a structured and collaborative process designed to develop a comprehensive understanding of an individual’s psychological functioning, emotional wellbeing, and therapeutic needs. It forms the clinical foundation for determining the most appropriate form of support and care.

In this initial appointment, evidence-based psychological frameworks are used to evaluate not only the person’s presenting difficulties, but also the wider personal, relational, developmental, and contextual factors influencing their mental health. A key part of this process involves compassionate and careful history taking, which may include exploration of significant life events, early experiences, past or current mental health challenges, and any previous engagement with psychological therapies.

It is important to emphasise that, although the assessment involves gathering essential information, it is conducted in a conversational and respectful manner, with a strong focus on compassion, sensitivity, and the person’s readiness to share. Each individual’s narrative is honoured, and there is no pressure to disclose more than feels emotionally safe or appropriate.

The assessment process also considers a range of key Clinical Factor Including:

The complexity, severity, and intensity of emotional, psychological, and physiological symptoms

The individual’s current level of safety and stability
The availability of personal and professional support systems
The individual’s goals, expectations, and desired outcomes from therapy

As part of this process, any current or historical risks to wellbeing—including self-harm, suicidal ideation, or risk from others—will be explored. This is approached with clinical care, confidentiality, and ethical sensitivity. Risk assessment is essential not only for ensuring safety but also for shaping an appropriate and responsible treatment plan.

The assessment helps determine whether therapy is clinically appropriate at that time. If so, a recommendation is made regarding the most suitable therapeutic approach, including the length, focus, and pace of therapy.

Additionally, the assessment assists in determining whether the individual’s needs are best supported through the individual therapy stream or the specialist trauma therapy service. This distinction allows for tailored, ethically sound, and clinically appropriate care, based on the nature and depth of the presenting concerns.

What Happens Next

If therapy is indicated, a proposed way forward will be discussed. Therapy sessions typically take place once weekly, either online or in person at consulting rooms in East London. The length and duration of therapy would be guided by several factors including the client’s goals and the outcome of our clinical assessment.

The therapeutic work will be a collaborative process, with regular reviews to ensure that the approach continues to meet the client’s evolving needs and is delivered within a framework of clinical integrity, respect, and compassion.

Individual Therapy

This therapy stream is appropriate for individuals experiencing a broad range of mental health and emotional wellbeing concerns. It is particularly suited to those dealing with depression, anxiety, stress, grief, relationship issues, and other difficulties that do not primarily arise from unresolved trauma or complex developmental experiences.

Unlike the Specialist Trauma Service Stream, which is designed for individuals with complex trauma-related presentations, this stream is intended for clients whose difficulties may be situational, recurrent, or longstanding, but are best addressed within a general psychological therapy framework. The approach is integrative, drawing on a range of evidence-based therapeutic models—including cognitive-behavioural, psychodynamic, relational, and emotion-focused therapies—and tailored to the needs and preferences of each individual.

All new clients begin with a psychological assessment, which facilitates a shared understanding of the presenting concerns, psychological history, and therapeutic needs. This assessment helps determine whether therapy is appropriate at this time and guides the integration of the most suitable therapeutic approach, our focus, and duration of the work. Sessions typically occur on a weekly basis and can be short-term, time-limited, or longer-term, depending on the complexity of the issues presented.

Areas of Specialism

Vanessa has particular experience in supporting clients with:

Depression and low mood

Generalised anxiety and stress
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Burnout and work-related difficulties
Fertility and reproductive health issues
Late-stage pregnancy loss and baby loss
Personality and relational difficulties
Emotional regulation challenges
Grief and bereavement
Health-related psychological concerns

This therapy stream provides a reflective and supportive space for individuals seeking to improve emotional wellbeing, enhance self-awareness, and make meaningful changes in their lives.

Specialist Trauma Service

This service is designed for individuals whose psychological difficulties are rooted in the impact of trauma. It is appropriate for those experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), complex trauma, and dissociative presentations, particularly when these difficulties are longstanding, developmental in origin, or have not responded to more general therapeutic approaches.

Therapy within this stream is phased, trauma-informed, and tailored to the nature and severity of your experiences. The approach prioritises safety, stabilisation, and the gradual restoration of self-regulation and relational trust. It is grounded in contemporary understanding of how trauma impacts the brain, nervous system, body, emotions, identity, and sense of self, and it is delivered with clinical sensitivity, attunement, and care.

How This Stream Differs from Individual Therapy :

While both streams provide high-quality, evidence-informed care, the Specialist Trauma Service Stream differs from the broader Individual Therapy Stream in the following ways:

Clinical Focus : This stream is specifically designed to address the complex psychological sequelae of trauma, including dissociation, fragmented memory, identity disruption, somatic distress, and relational difficulties stemming from traumatic attachment or chronic exposure to adversity.

Therapeutic Framework : The work is conducted within a phased model of trauma therapy, often beginning with psychoeducation and stabilisation via resourcing, and progressing to deeper trauma processing only when clinically appropriate. Interventions are typically drawn from EMDR, parts/ego state-informed therapy, attachment-focused models, and somatic approaches that are specifically adapted for trauma recovery.

Pacing and Readiness : Greater emphasis is placed on therapeutic pacing, with careful attention paid to the client’s window of tolerance, nervous system regulation, and readiness for processing. This contrasts with more general therapy, which may focus primarily on a talking therapy model and therefore, on cognitive insight or behavioural change at an earlier stage.

Integration of Trauma-Specific Models : Treatment draws on specialist trauma protocols and adaptations that are not typically used in general talking therapy. This includes work with fragmented or dissociative parts, pre-verbal trauma, and body-based responses that are hallmarks of complex trauma presentations.

Areas of Focus within the Trauma Service Stream :

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD can occur following a single traumatic incident or series of distressing events. Common symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, emotional numbing, avoidance, and hypervigilance. Therapy supports stabilisation through resourcing and the safe processing of traumatic memories, helping to reduce distress and restore a sense of control.

Complex Trauma

Complex trauma is often the result of repeated or prolonged interpersonal trauma, such as abuse, neglect, or growing up in a chronically unsafe environment. It can affect emotional regulation, sense of identity, trust, and relationships. Treatment involves a carefully paced, structured approach, beginning with stabilisation through resourcing nfs psychoeducation and later moving toward processing, integration and recovery.

Dissociative Presentations

Dissociation is a protective response to trauma and can involve feeling detached from one’s body, emotions, or sense of identity. It can often lead to disruptions in aspects of memory or consciousness. Therapy helps to gently increase internal awareness and coherence, facilitating greater connection between dissociated or fragmented parts of the self and building a more stable and resilient internal world.

This stream recognises that trauma recovery is not about reliving the past, but about restoring safety, connection, and personal agency—at a pace that respects both your nervous system and your individual readiness for change.

Specialist Treatments

EMDR and integrative trauma therapy.

An evidence-based treatment approach offered within the trauma stream is Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR is a structured, evidence-based intervention that helps individuals process traumatic memories and reduce their emotional intensity. It uses bilateral stimulation (such as eye movements or tapping) to support the brain’s natural capacity to process and integrate distressing experiences, reducing symptoms like flashbacks, anxiety, and emotional reactivity.

In this service, EMDR can be integrated with parts or ego state work, especially when trauma has led to internal fragmentation or dissociative experiences. Ego state work is based on well-established psychological theories and research that recognise we all have different “parts” or internal states—such as protectors, critics, or younger selves—that serve specific roles in how we cope with life’s challenges. Following trauma, these internal parts can become rigid, stuck in survival roles, leading to inner conflict, emotional distress, or disconnection from the self.

Therapy aims to foster greater awareness, communication, and cooperation among these parts in a way that is respectful and non-pathologising. This integration of EMDR with parts-based approaches provides a flexible and compassionate framework for safely working through the complex impacts of trauma while supporting a more cohesive and resilient sense of self.

Specialist Treatments

EMDR and integrative trauma therapy.

Clinical Supervision

We provide clinical supervision to counsellors, psychotherapists, and psychologists. Our approach is integrative, drawing on training and experience in a range of evidence-based models, including psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural, EMDR, and ego state-informed therapies. Supervision is carefully tailored to the developmental stage, theoretical orientation, and individual needs of each supervisee, offering a collaborative and reflective space that fosters professional growth, ethical practice, and clinical insight.

Reflective Practice

We also offer reflective practice to professionals in other caring roles, such as those working in healthcare, education, social care, and the charitable sector. These sessions may be delivered one-to-one or in groups and are designed to support emotional resilience, ethical reflection, and professional sustainability. Vanesa’s experience in Occupational Health informs our understanding of the systemic pressures that often arise in these settings, including stress, burnout, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, moral injury, discrimination, and bullying.

Consultation in Organisations

We also provide consultation to organisations seeking to improve staff wellbeing, navigate complex interpersonal or systemic challenges, or integrate psychological thinking into their services and structures. Consultation may involve advising on trauma-informed practices, supporting teams following critical incidents, addressing workplace dynamics and culture, or developing reflective spaces for staff.

These services are tailored to the organisation’s specific context and needs and can be delivered as one-off sessions, time-limited interventions, or ongoing support. Psychological consultation supports not only the wellbeing of individual staff members but also contributes to healthier, more resilient teams and ethical, responsive systems.

Academia and Teaching

We offer academic teaching and clinical supervision within doctoral-level Counselling Psychology programmes. Dr Vanessa Contreras has held positions as a guest lecturer, clinical tutor, and director of studies, contributing to the academic and professional development of Counselling Psychologists in training.

These roles have included delivering teaching on psychological theory and practice, trauma, interpersonal neurobiology and attachment, clinical skills, and professional identity development. As a research supervisor guided candidates through the development of original projects that added to the wider field of applied psychology.

Academic services can be offered as one-off lectures, modular contributions, curriculum input, or ongoing research supervision. All teaching is informed by clinical expertise and a commitment to ethical, culturally responsive, and evidence-based practice, with the aim of shaping reflective, competent, and values-driven practitioner psychologists.

My Values

My work is rooted in a humanistic value base which focuses on respecting the unique experience of the client; facilitating their potential to grow, orienting the work towards empowering the individual, respecting the client as an expert in their life and experience; appreciating their uniqueness and individuality and understanding the person within their social and cultural context.

Humanistic value

The core of my practice encompasses a commitment to understand and engage with my clients in a way that affords them the deepest value and respect.

Ethical Framework

This code of conduct provides me with the parameters within which I am able to make sound professional judgements in my work.

Practitioner Identity

I have developed as a practitioner who is highly reflective and can gain a deeper and more complex understanding of myself in the context of others.