Sharmaline Attygalle

Please do email me to enquire about my current availability. I hope to secure you a booking soon.

I understand that taking this first step may be intimidating and that is normal. I offer a free 20-minute phone consultation which might gentle introduce you to the therapy and to me.

There is no commitment to continue at this point. You may like to follow this with an initial assessment where we can look at what has brought you to therapy and what your goals are.  We will get an idea of whether we would like to continue working together.

My working hours are:

Mondays - Thursdays 10:00 - 20:00

Fridays 10:00:00 - 13:00

The therapeutic hour is 50 minutes.

Sessions are held on the same day and same time on a weekly basis.

There are regular reviews to assess the progress and make any adjustments and updates to your goals.

Parents are welcome to the reviews with the client's consent.

I am an Eating Disorders Therapist with an in-depth experience in working with Young People and Adults who have disordered eating and eating disorders. I understand that the ED behaviours and cognitions may both help and hinder your growth. 

The work is rooted as a talking therapy set in a safe and confidential therapeutic space. The therapeutic relationship between the client and therapist is crucial. It is based on being open, non-judgemental and creating empathic understanding. We will work together to explore the underlying issues that have contributed to the eating disorder mindset and behaviours.

The evolving therapeutic process aims to empower you to feel ready to change, set yourself free and move forwards. 

I am an Accredited Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and abide by their ethical framework and code of conduct.  

I work as an Integrative Therapeutic Counsellor and I have been running my own private practice called Your Haven Counselling for over 10 years.  I have specialised and gained extensive training and expertise in eating disorders and its co-existing conditions such as poor self-esteem, anxiety, perfectionism, obsessive compulsive behaviour to name a few. 

Please do have a look at my website www.yourhaven-counselling.co.uk

As an Integrative Therapeutic Counsellor I use Humanistic (Person-Centred, Gestalt, Existentialism)Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy , Transactional Analysis Therapy and Solution-Focused Therapy.

Being a medical doctor and having a degree in psychology enabled me to follow a career in mental health.  My journey has given me a wealth of insight and knowledge which I value in my work as an eating disorders therapist.

I offer therapy sessions:

- for Adults, Young People and Children (12 years and over)

- individual sessions

 - online sessions

- sessions of a therapeutic hour of 50 minutes

- sessions on a weekly basis

- on the same day and at the same time

- a free 20-minute phone consultation

- an initial assessment to verify your goals and ensure we are willing to continue with therapy

- an explicit contract setting out the framework and boundaries of our therapeutic work together

- open-ended or time-limited therapy

- regular reviews

- safe ending of the therapy 

Eating disorders therapy starts with completing a questionnaire and keeping a food diary to assess your relationship with food.

We will consider your predisposing factors, identify the precipitating point and explore your perpetuating factors that maintain the ED. This involves exploring the many drivers such as your relationship with food, the faulty thinking, rigid rules and habits, your relationships, self-esteem, perfectionism and the emotional regulation of the anxiety, depression and the feelings of guilt and shame.

Therapy is guided by a parallel track approach; the nutritional rehabilitation track and the cognitive-emotional track.

I provide psycho-education throughout to support your change. Therapy may involve maintaining food diaries and completing homework tasks. Work is also done on relapse prevention and maintaining recovery.

Please feel free to contact me to discuss any questions you may have about counselling and to check my availability.

I understand how daunting it may be to start counselling; to meet an unknown person and expectation to open up to them about your concerns. 

I offer you a safe and warm therapeutic space to gently settle down and feel comfortable. 

The initial session will allow us to meet and get a sense of whether we would be happy to work together.  This will also give us the opportunity to discuss what brought you to counselling, what your goals are and how I can support you in these. 

The aim is to gradually start establishing a professional and therapeutic relationship for the ensuing therapy. 

For the eating disorders therapy there is a questionnaire which I ask you to complete before the initial session.  We will introduce the information from the questionnaire to the sessions identifying and acknowledging the possible work needed.

The therapy for disordered eating and the many eating disorders involves work on the willingness to engage in the therapy and the motivation to change.  Therapy does not promise to be easy and there are many ups and downs. We will look at what is keeping you stuck and address the ambivalence and resistance that may undeniably exist.