Katie is a therapist, writer and trauma-sensitive writing tutor.
Katie offers workshops, courses and bespoke sessions in therapeutic writing using a trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive methodology that is underpinned by international research. In 2017, she received a scholarship to train with Write Your Self, a global movement that supports people to reclaim their voices through creative writing after trauma. She was the first guide to be trained in this methodology in the UK.
Katie also practises as a psychotherapist and currently works in the North West of England in Liverpool, as well as online. Outside of her private work, she has worked in the charitable sector with disadvantaged people for the last 10 years.
"Thank you Katie for a wonderful course. I feel that I am at the start of an exciting adventure through writing! Thanks for holding the space so well for everyone...you are a marvellous and inspiring role model." Participant feedback
Counselling and Psychotherapy in Aigburth, Liverpool and online
“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin
I offer both short and long-term counselling and therapy for adults in Aigburth (Liverpool) and surrounding areas, as well as online. I am committed to creating a therapeutic space for us that is safe, non-judgemental, empowering and collaborative, where we can actively work towards the change and growth you want to see, and where I walk beside you on your journey as an equal.
As a psychotherapist, I am interested in the stories we tell ourselves, especially those stories that seem to replay at times of stress, loss or great change in our lives, like “I’ll never be good enough” or “this was always going to happen to me”. At some point in our history, these stories may have enabled us to survive, and they can be incredibly nuanced and multilayered. These stories can determine how we look out into the world, make sense of it and how we engage with other people. Eventually these stories may need rewriting, reevaluating or shedding completely so that we can move forward. Together we will work to understand your story and how it has lead you here. In doing so, this makes room for a new story to be told and a new self to emerge.
Often, I find that people come to therapy either feeling lost, stuck or confused, unable to picture a way forward. I believe that a lot of the distress we feel comes from things outside of our control. We may not be able to change or stop the events taking place around us, but we can change our relationship to them, how we think about them and how we respond.
My practice is easily accessible from Aigburth (L17), Mossley Hill (L18), Allerton (L18), Woolton (L25), Speke (L24), Garston (L19), Wavertree (L15), central Liverpool (L1, L2, L3, L8) and Warrington (WA1).
Areas I can help with
I can work with a broad range of issues, and I have a particular interest and experience in these areas:
- Trauma
- LGBTQIA+
- Identity
- Sexuality
- Anxiety and panic
- Depression
- Shame
- Navigating loss, grief and change
- Low self-esteem
- Self-criticism
- Perfectionism
- Relational or relationship difficulties
- Workplace difficulties, including stress, burnout and discrimination.
I am a queer, trans-affirmative and neuro-inclusive therapist. I am very passionate about working with the neurodivergent community.
I use Transactional Analysis (TA) as my main way of working, a humanistic and versatile form of therapy that focuses on rediscovering your agency and giving voice to the different parts of ourselves (i.e. feelings, thoughts or behaviours) that we either push aside or keep hidden. TA acknowledges the vibrancy, diversity and complexities of each person and I encourage all of my clients to do their own reading around the model as it is very accessible. I also incorporate other therapeutic tools and approaches into my work to broaden and deepen the therapeutic experience for my clients, such as:
- Therapeutic writing / creative writing
- Emotional Freedom Technique (also known as EFT or 'tapping')
- Simple trauma-sensitive yoga practises
- Creative visualisation
- Polyvagal exercises to support with feelings of safety and connection.
Any tools that I introduce into our sessions beyond traditional talking therapy will be with your consent, discussed with you first and aligned with your therapeutic goals. You will be able to easily practise any of the tools I use without me at home.
Sessions are £50 per hour.
Workshops and Courses in Therapeutic Writing
"We write our traumas; our trauma does not write us. The person who experienced the trauma and the person writing about it are not one and the same." - Marian McCurdy
**Next course running February 2025 online: book your place here.**
Our stories matter.
After a difficult, overwhelming or traumatic experience, we can be left feeling powerless, without voice, language or agency. Research shows that traumatic events can immobilise those regions of the brain which we need to put words to our experiences, and therefore understand them. For those of us with a history of trauma, writing can be a valuable catalyst for healing and recovery.
It can offer us a way back from silence and shame.
Through writing, we can begin to cultivate linguistic control over the trauma and reorganise our story, in the supportive presence of like-minded peers. I provide short interactive workshops, longer courses and bespoke sessions in therapeutic writing, both in person and online.
Using a trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive writing methodology, my workshops and courses aim to help participants to reclaim their voices through writing. My longer courses include key knowledge about trauma, trauma-sensitive writing exercises, as well as tools and resources to help writers find out what they need to create a sustainable and healing writing practice in the longer-term.
"A very enriching and healing experience." Participant feedback
© Katie Watson 2024