Martina Ferri

I work in-person on Mondays (10.00 am to 7.30 pm), Tuesdays (10.00 am to 7.30 pm) and Wednesdays (2.00 pm to 7.30 pm).

I work online on Thursdays (9.00 am to 6.00 pm).

Hi, my name is Martina (She/Her). I am a qualified counsellor and psychotherapist (MBACP), offering online and in person counselling in Leeds city centre. I am incredibly passionate about working with individuals to provide them with the tools to build a healthy relationship with their minds and overcome their negative experiences.

I believe therapy provides an eye-opening journey for individuals to make peace with others, but mostly ourselves. I can support you in this journey of self-discovery and acceptance by providing a confidential, compassionate and inclusive space, where you can feel safe to reflect on the emotional impact that your past experiences and interpersonal relationships have on your day to day life. This process can support you in identifying patterns across your feelings and behaviours, so that together, we can gently challenge these and start to create a new sense of self-awareness and clarity around your needs and wants.

Over the years, I have gained experience working with a range of individuals experiencing different mental health difficulties that impacted their ability to cope and grow in life. Whether they were struggling with a difficult relationship with a parent, an abusive partner or issues around their body image, it was often easier to point a finger towards themselves. This started to create an overwhelming cycle of blaming, self-deprecation and feelings of worthlessness.

If this sounds like you, therapy can help you unravel these thoughts and feelings, recognise where they come from and learn to understand how to accept and value yourself for your strengths as well as your imperfections.

My therapeutic practice is based on the values of inclusivity, compassion and confidentiality.

I adopt an integrative approach, founded on the knowledge that each person is unique. In other words, I believe that the client is the expert about themselves, so their experiences and needs are better understood through their perspective. It is my role to adapt my ways of working to you and what best meets your needs.

The relationship we build is central to the therapeutic process. I strive to create a relationship based on trust and mutual respect, where you can feel safe and able to reflect on the emotional impact that your past experiences and interpersonal relationships have on your day to day life.

In working at a pace that feels comfortable for you and fostering an encouraging environment, I can guide you through this process of reflection and self-discovery, where together we can start to identify patterns across your feelings and behaviours, so that we can gently challenge these and start to create a new sense of self-awareness and clarity around your needs and wants.

Like all sessions, our first will last 50 minutes. During this time, you are free to tell me what's been on your mind and what you would like to take or achieve from therapy. If you’d like to, we can discuss specific goals you have in mind and any preferred way of working together. If you're finding it difficult to know what to say, don't worry - there are exercises we can do together to take the pressure off and to ease you into reflecting on yourself. The most important thing is that you feel comfortable and safe, so if it takes us a while to get there, that's okay too.

Additionally, I may ask you some questions around your childhood and adult life, as well as your relationships, coping strategies and lifestyle. This information helps me understand your needs and gain some context around what it feels like to be you.

Before the end of the session, I will make some time for us to reflect on the session and to discuss my therapeutic contract. This will help us set the expectation and boundaries of the therapeutic relationship and cover some practical aspects, such as the frequency of sessions, confidentiality, cancellations and payment. I will provide you a copy of this (electronically or printed), so you can take your time to look over it.

You will be given the choice to sign up for regular sessions after we completed our first. I will hold our agreed time slot for a week for you, but you are welcome to take more time to make your decision, though I would not be able to guarantee the same slot.