THE ART OF BEING HUMAN
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one and precious life”
– Mary Oliver –
Living and working in an urban environment can be stimulating and full of opportunity, yet also isolating, and emotionally demanding. You may find yourself juggling work, relationships, responsibilities while wondering how to live with more ease and authenticity.
When life is out of balance, you may:
- Feel depleted or disengaged when returning to work after time away
- Experience strong emotional reactions to situations that once felt manageable
- Struggle with questions of meaning, purpose or direction
- Feel disconnected from your values, needs or sense of self
Therapy can offer a steady, reflective space to pause and explore what is troubling you. It provides an opportunity to develop greater emotional grounding and resilience, so you can respond to both external pressures and inner emotional turmoil with more clarity, choice, and self-understanding.
Psychodynamic & Relational Therapy with Yvonne Siegel
Experiencing Distress
“One who looks outside, dreams. One who looks inside, awakens.”
– Carl Jung –
Our emotional lives are complex and shaped by early relationships and wider social systems, and you may be experiencing these understandable responses to complex personal and systemic factors:
- Feeling not enough, too much or that there is something wrong with you
- Becoming emotionally triggered and wanting to understand underlying patterns
- Using coping strategies that do not serve you anymore
- Having symptoms that present in dis-ease, anxiety and depression
- Experiencing symptoms of anxiety, low mood, emotional overwhelm
- Struggling with self-esteem, imposter feelings, procrastination, work–life imbalance
- Feeling a sense of not belonging – perhaps related to neurodiversity, migration, sexuality, living as part of a minority culture in the UK
Looking inside ourselves can be uncomfortable and humbling – it takes courage to face the questions and emotions that we have been suppressing for years. Together, we can explore long-standing emotional patterns, beliefs, and protective strategies that once kept you safe but no longer serve you.
Deeper Questions About Life
“The external life is but a shadow of the inner reality.”
– Hazrat Inayat Khan –
For some people, therapy is not only about symptom relief or coping strategies, but also about engaging with deeper questions of meaning and what it means to be human. Therapy can unlock the mystical journey of life, prizing you open to experience human existence in its conscious and unconscious dimensions.
My psychotherapy training encompasses transpersonal psychology which allows conversations around spirituality, seeking meaning and purpose in life and finding an interconnectedness with the greater whole.
I have a particular interest in spiritual ecology and the ways in which connection with nature can support emotional regulation and a sense of belonging. Experiences of awe and wonder in natural environments can reduce stress, anxiety and low mood, and support a felt sense of connection beyond the individual self.
I am also interested in the healing properties of art and music as forms of expression and shared human experience. For some people, these creative outlets offer moments of aliveness and magical connections that can counter feelings of existential loneliness.
Therapy in German and English
If there are German clients looking for therapy, I am bilingual and offer therapy in German and English and understand the nuances to being able to express early life experiences and emotions in your mother tongue.
The Therapeutic Process
Our sessions will have an unfolding process in a safe and non-judgmental space. Once there is a trusting rapport, there is an opportunity look deeper into psychological and unconscious patterns informed by your past relational and cultural experiences. I work in a trauma-informed way as we move at your pace to prioritise emotional safety, collaboration, and consent.
By engaging in the therapeutic process, you will be able to build a different relationship to your emotions and past experiences by creating a space to feel, observe and hold them with curiosity and kindness – it is not your emotions which are destructive, but your relationship to them.
Therapy is a time to find your inner compass as you navigate what is going on for you by pausing, slowing down, being seen & heard, and attuning to your emotions as you process, feel, release, and reconnect to your innate wisdom, inner resources, and your true desires.
When it feels supportive, we can work with the symbolic, imaginal, and existential dimensions of experience. This may include exploration of imagination, dream work, symbolism, archetypal energies and creative art forms, which brings in a magical realm of the therapeutic process.
My therapeutic style is to work in a grounded, clear and robust approach, underpinned by psychodynamic, existential and humanistic psychotherapeutic methodology informed by evidence-based practices.
I Support Clients Around These Issues
- Family dynamics & conflict, boundaries, and enmeshment
- Co-dependency, relationship difficulties, and attachment-based patterns
- Cultural identity, belonging, and intersectional experiences
- Transgenerational and developmental trauma
- Displacement, migration, and loneliness
- Bereavement, grief and loss
- Stress and overwhelm
- Recovery following traumatic or destabilising life events
- Anxiety and low-level depression
- Life transitions and periods of uncertainty
- Workplace challenges including redundancies, career change, and organisational dynamics
- Shame, perfectionism, imposter syndrome, self-esteem, and assertiveness
My approach is relational and contextual as we explore your material in relation to your personal history, culture and social environment. Coming from an international background and having lived in different countries and cultures, I bring sensitivity to issues of identity, belonging, displacement and intersectional difference you may be experiencing.
Therapeutic Coaching
Coaching can work well alongside psychotherapy if you are seeking a more structured and forward-focused way of working, while remaining emotionally attuned and reflective. Therapeutic coaching integrates emotional depth with gentle momentum, supporting change without bypassing your inner experience. Sessions are more guided and help translate emotional insight into thoughtful action, which may cover topics such as:
- Exploring what success means to you, beyond external expectations or validation
- Stepping outside your comfort zone while learning to stay present with the uncertainty and feelings that often accompany change, such as career transitions, new relationships, or personal projects
- Developing sustainable habits and nurturing a more compassionate relationship with your body
- Making space for joy, playfulness, creativity, and rest
- Living with greater integrity and self-respect, aligned with your values, strengths, and qualities
Coaching supports clearer thinking and perspective. Patterns of circular or self-limiting thinking are gently explored and loosened through structured, solution-focused conversations, allowing space for broader, more expansive ways of seeing yourself and your possibilities.
Building resilience in relation to mental and emotional blocks is an important part of the process. Together, we reflect on your current reality, how you understand it, and whether your ways of thinking are supporting or constraining the vision you have for your life.
A block of coaching sessions can help you clarify a vision for how you want to live and work, and begin taking grounded, intentional steps towards a life that feels more aligned, sustainable, and fulfilling.
What I Offer
I am an Integrative Psychotherapist and currently see clients primarily face-to-face, with blended online options available. I am also a qualified Life and Executive Coach and offer therapeutic coaching, as well as executive/life coaching.
I work with people from a wide range of social, cultural, international and professional backgrounds and offer:
- Short-term and long-term therapy for adults
- Integrative psychotherapy incorporating psycho-educational, emotional, and skills-based interventions
- Life and Executive coaching informed by NLP practices
- Academic mental health coaching for students in further education
I am committed to working in an intersectional and LGBTQ+ affirming way. I aim to offer a space where diverse identities, relationship structures, cultural backgrounds, and ways of being are respected and understood.
I am a full member of UKCP, MBACP and the Association of Coaching and abide by their code of ethics. I am committed to ongoing professional development to best serve my clients.
About Me
I have been working in the mental health field since 2007, supporting individuals therapeutically from diverse backgrounds and across different stages of life. I have also been working as a Specialist Mental Health Coach with UCL and LSE students since 2020.
Before entering private practice, I worked across the non-profit, commercial, media, youth and entrepreneurial sectors. This gives me a grounded understanding of professional life, organisational dynamics, and the emotional pressures many working adults face in their careers.
From spring 2026, I will be practising as an Ecotherapist on Hampstead Heath.
Training and Qualifications:
- Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy (CCPE)
- NLP Practitioner Certificate (PPD Learning)
- Life & Executive Coaching Certificate (Results Coaching Systems, part of the Neuroleadership Institute)
- Diploma in Marketing (CIM)
- BSc, Manchester University
Contact:
Please send me an email to arrange an initial Zoom call, to discuss what you are looking for and for you to decide whether we would be a good match to work together.
Rates:
Fees range from £90 – £100 per 50 minute session
Sessions:
Psychotherapy sessions at City Therapy Space:
I work on Tuesday evenings from 5pm – 10pm.
