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.