Welcome to Pensieve

Counselling & Life Coaching |Milborne St Andrew

A space to untangle your mind and find clarity

Welcome to Pensieve

Hi, I’m Nicky

This is a space to slow things down, make sense of what’s happening, and begin to feel more grounded in yourself.

As an Anxiety UK-approved, person-centred counsellor and coach, I believe you already have the inner wisdom to navigate your life; sometimes you need someone alongside you as you learn to trust it by bringing somatic awareness into sessions to help regulate your nervous system.

This is your journey, and there is no judgment or expectation to do things a certain way. Just us, working in a way that works for you.

Whether you are looking for Short-term focused sessions to support specific topics or dilemmas, or open-ended, long-term therapy to explore deeper patterns and self-discovery.

Together, we can help you get to know yourself more deeply and find a way forward. If you’re looking for a safe space to ‘simply be’ and gently work through difficult feelings, I would love to hear from you.

Nicky x

Established: 2017. Mental Health Support for Teenagers, Adults, including Neurodivergence

Relationships including the One with Yourself

Whether you are navigating a long-term partnership, parenting, dating, workplace dynamics or juggling complex family or friendships, relationships can leave you feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes the dynamic itself is the challenge. Often, the natural challenges of connecting with others can cause past emotional pain, trauma, or old survival strategies to surface in unexpected ways. You might also be reeling from being abruptly left or abandoned, struggling to make sense of what happened.

When these painful experiences and pressures take over, we can find ourselves feeling flooded, highly defensive, or completely shut down. We might find ourselves losing sight of who we are in the process, or feeling entirely disconnected from the people around us.

If you want to improve your connections, safely break those old survival patterns, navigate loss, and learn how to be more you around others, you don’t have to figure it out alone.

Get In Touch

Curious about my approach? Read more about how I work with the nervous system, attachment patterns, and internal battles to help you feel more like you.

My approach

Life's Struggles

Every life transition and struggle shows up uniquely in our minds and bodies. Below are the common areas which, more often than not, intertwine.

If you are experiencing emotional distress or feeling overwhelmed by life’s pressures, I offer a safe, collaborative space to help you step out of survival mode and back into yourself.

Stress Coaching

Constantly “wired” and unable to switch off?

Merely surviving the day? Carrying a heavy, silent load that ruins your sleep, saps your concentration, and leaves you with a limited capacity to cope?

When chronic stress overloads your system, traditional task management isn’t enough. Stress is your body’s gentle way of signalling that something needs attention.

Together, we can focus on mind- and body-based support to safely release the built-up pressure that your mind cannot simply think away.

Anxiety Counselling

Anxious about being anxious?

Overwhelmed, flooded by feelings? Panic? Racing thoughts, going over and over the past, doubting yourself? Don’t feel good enough? Confused about why you feel the way you feel?

When your mind and body are locked on red alert, it is exhausting just to get through the day. It can stop you in your tracks, preventing you from getting on with your life.

Anxiety isn’t just in your head; it is a physical, nervous system response to feeling unsafe.

Together, we can slow things down, listen to what those feelings are trying to say, and help you find your way back to calm.

Depression Therapy

Feeling flat, heavy, or completely disconnected?

Stuck in a fog? Feeling exhausted, empty, with no motivation or joy in the things you used to love? Finding it hard to see a way forward, or feeling like you are just moving through mud every single day?

Depression can feel like your entire system has gone into a deep, heavy shutdown. It is often the body’s way of protecting you when emotional or physical overwhelm has simply become too much to carry.

Together, without any pressure to just “snap out of it,” we can gently meet you exactly where you are, slowing things down to safely help you reconnect and find your way back to a sense of warmth and vitality.

Grief and Loss Counselling

An echoing silence

Heartbroken, lost, angry, or completely numb? Grieving for what was, feeling like a piece of your world is permanently missing, or struggling to navigate a life that suddenly looks completely unfamiliar?

Grief is not a problem to be solved or an illness to be cured; it is the raw, physical weight of love with nowhere to go. It can leave you feeling like your world has come tumbling in.

Together, at your own pace, we can create a safe space to sit with the loss, honour your feelings, and help you carry the weight without becoming consumed by it.

Trauma Therapy

Is the past taking over the present?

Feeling frozen, hyper-vigilant, or easily startled? Disconnected from your body? Haunted by old survival patterns that keep playing out in your life and relationships today, even though you are safely in the present?

Trauma isn’t just about what happened to you; it is about what remains stuck inside your nervous system. Your mind might know you are safe now, but your body is still fighting to survive.

Working entirely at your pace, we can gently listen to your physical experience to help your system finally settle, let go of the past, and safely ground itself in the here and now.

Direction and Alignment Coaching

Feeling stuck, unfulfilled, or looking for a clearer path forward?

Nothing obviously wrong, yet you are not thriving? Going through the motions but feeling empty, directionless, or disconnected from your natural energy? Or perhaps you are quietly drowning under the invisible emotional toll of managing a long-term health condition?

You don’t need to be in a crisis to deserve support. Often, a lack of fulfilment or the emotional wear-and-tear of a physical illness is your system telling you that something needs to change.

Together, we can safely unpack what is holding you back, navigate the psychological impact of health challenges, and help you align with yourself again.

Your Way

face to face counselling poole, blandford, dorchester

Counselling and coaching sessions are shaped around how you naturally think, feel, and communicate. This includes supporting various neurodivergent differences in attention, sensory sensitivity and processing experiences.

I work in a flexible, person-centred way, responding to what feels most helpful for you at the time.

Sessions may feel conversational and free-flowing, more structured, or quieter and more reflective, depending on what you need that day. We might explore thoughts, emotions, or body sensations, and sometimes use imagery or metaphor where helpful.

Tailoring sessions to suit you – Helping you feel more comfortable.
In-Person | Online – Mix and match to fit varying routines.
Creativity in Counselling – Expressing yourself in your own way.

Session Pace and Structure

I have no agenda. We work at a pace that feels manageable for you, and nothing needs to be prepared in advance unless you would like to.

Information

Payment and cancellation policy.

Fees

60-Minute Session: £55
90-Minute Session: £75
(In-person, online, and telephone counselling and coaching).

I offer a free 30-minute, no-obligation phone or Zoom call, where you can ask any questions and get an idea of whether we might be a good fit to work together.

A limited number of concessionary rates are available. Please enquire if this would be helpful for you.

Private Health Insurance & Corporate Schemes

I am a Registered Healthcare Provider with Healthcode, allowing me to accept clients funded through private medical insurance and corporate health trusts. I am currently recognised by:

Vitality Health
Alliance Health Corporate
Anxiety UK (Approved Therapist Scheme)

Please contact your respective insurer or corporate provider to confirm your eligibility and secure your pre-authorisation code prior to starting therapy.

Ready to take that first step?

If you would like to chat about how my counselling and coaching services in Dorset can support your unique path, please get in touch to arrange a warm, informal conversation.

Get In Touch