Azima Ryan

- Winnie the Pooh

Therapy is a conversation, albeit with someone who is more interested in helping you to grow, than in helping you to stay in your familiar way of being in the world.  The relationship I build with you will support you to feel "safe, but not too safe" during the process of therapeutic change.

My work is grounded in a variety of theoretical traditions, from the empathy and compassion of humanistic approaches, to the significance of exploring our relational patterns from childhood, the wisdom of the body, and existential concerns.  

My life experiences inform my work.  I spent many years as an actor and performer, and I believe creativity is available to everyone - we all need to play, sometimes!  I have also worked at Bethlem Royal Hospital with mothers and babies, and with people in suicidal crisis at Maytree Centre.  These experiences taught me to look beneath psychiatric symptoms to the person underneath, and to ask:  what is not being said?  What would happen if the anxious thoughts, the depression, the ideas of suicide, had a voice? And what if there was someone there to listen?

The relationship between my client and myself is the core of the therapy.  It is a boundaried container for the difficult feelings and memories that come up; it is also a very real exchange between two human individuals.  As therapy progresses, and trust and rapport build, the work can deepen, and both myself and my client  are changed by the continuing process of our relationship.  This 'alchemy' as Jung called it, can transform trauma and distress into the 'gold' of healing and growth. 

I work in person, online, and by phone.  I have a practice in Central London, near Chancery Lane, and in Bellenden Road, Peckham.

My training was in an 'integrative' approach, and was a lengthy, experiential process of many years.  This included personal therapy, group process work, and treating clients under supervision from a senior colleague. 

After you contact me, we can have a brief phone consultation before arranging a first session.  When we meet in person for the first time, I will ask you to talk about what has brought you to therapy.  After this session, we will decide if working together feels like the right thing, and arrange a regular appointment at the same time and day each week.  

Therapy normally happens weekly; however, if we have been working together for some time, this can be reduced according to your need.  

I have been an integrative psychotherapist since 2014, training on the MSc in Integrative Psychotherapy at Metanoia Institute.

I have supervised qualified and trainee therapists since 2021, and been a tutor and supervisor on the Integrative Relational Counselling BA degree at Kingston College. 

In addition, I trained as a supervisor with Robin Shohet and Joan Wilmot at the Centre for Supervision and Team Development, London, including training in the Seven Eyed Model of Supervision.

Supervision can be undertaken weekly, fortnightly or monthly as required. Currently I am only supervising online. 

I am an integrative relational therapist and supervisor.

My philosophy of supervision is primarily to nurture the inner voice of the practitioner, as well as to draw out the stories being played out in the client-therapist relationship. 

In service of this, I will guide you to pay attention to the relationship with your client in the room, to how you feel with them, as clues as to how they may be unconsciously constructing you into a role from their past.

I will sometimes use a variety of creative methods to play with and uncover the deeper meanings held within your client work. 

Whatever our feelings are towards our clients, they hold significance to both their story and ours. The supervisor inevitably becomes a part of this universe of meaning, and so the relationship between supervisor and supervisee may also be held to the light.