Shona Moncrieff

I currently have availability. 

Please contact me for an informal chat to see if we will be a good fit to work together. 

Hello! Thank you for taking the time to stop to read my profile.

I know how overwhelming it can feel to choose a therapist that will be right for you, as I've been through the process myself! There are so very many reasons that a person seeks therapy. Feeling stuck, overwhelmed, and overwhelmed leads to high anxiety. Anxiety may lead to feeling a lack of control over your life and create negative inner dialogue and overthinking. This can be caused by past trauma in childhood, or trauma in the present which can create patterns of thoughts, behaviours, and defense mechanisms that may no longer be helping, but doing more damage when we try to move forward in the present and look towards the future. I work from a trauma-informed approach, and I find that when people come to me, they often say things like, "There are so many people worse off than me.", or "I don't consider myself to be suffering from trauma because I only......" The truth is trauma is subjective. Just as we experience pain differently from person to person, trauma affects us from person to person. I believe that trauma is whatever is traumatic for you! We all experience life differently, and so we all respond and react to life events differently.

My reasons for training as a therapist were a combination of my deep need to understand my ways of thinking and responding to the world through any existential crises and challenging lived experiences, and a real need to support others who may be feeling the same way.

As a pluralistic therapist, I work collaboratively, creatively, and intuitively. I encourage clients to 'come as they are''. you will be welcomed into a warm, empathic, open-minded, non-judgmental, and safe space.

I welcome everyone with open arms and work from a neuro-affirmative approach to therapy and into a safe and secure therapy space. I look forward to meeting you and working together to find new ways to live your life in a more empowered, knowledgeable, confident, and happy way! :)

I hope that my friends and family will describe me as happy, honest, loyal, kind, and empathetic. I want clients to feel that they can approach me, and feel that they can come to our session and be welcomed whoever they are, whatever they feel, and wherever they are in their therapeutic journey. 

I work informally and professionally and in both an informed and intuitive way. We are both there to learn about ourselves, and with you being the expert in your own life and with knowledge of your feelings, I see my role as someone there just to gently challenge, guide, and actively listen. I hope to create a safe space for you to feel that you can say whatever it is you need to say, and be able to feel exactly the way you feel and experience validation, empathy, and understanding from me as your therapist. 

We will always be working at your pace, and in a way that feels comfortable for you. In the beginning, we get the chance to know each other, and then gently find out what the issues are that we need to address if you don't already know. We will then work collaboratively to find different types of methods, theories, techniques, and interventions, and through psychoeducational and learning new skills and techniques to make life feel more manageable and happier.

Our first session will be mostly taken up with a certain amount of administrative work. This is because I need to be sure that I am the right person to help you and to get some historical information that will help us through the therapeutic journey. 

It is an opportunity for us to do some 'contracting' - which sounds very formal, but is just there to ensure that we are both on the same page about what is and isn't acceptable within the therapeutic relationship and process, and what kind of expectations we both have.

The most important part of the first session is to try to get to know each other and hopefully make you feel at ease, and ensure that you feel that I am the right therapist for you.