Carina Badger (she/her)

Therapist Directory Listing Category: Psychotherapists and Counsellors

About the Therapist

About the therapist:

I'm a UKCP-accredited psychotherapist and Certified Transactional Analyst (Psychotherapy), and my practice is psychodynamic and existential.

Psychodynamic means I'm interested in what isn't immediately obvious — in the parts of your inner life that operate outside your awareness but shape your choices anyway.

Existential means I'm equally interested in what you're facing now: freedom, limitation, loss, mortality and the question of what you want your one life to be for.

I work relationally. That means I don't sit outside your experience assessing it — I'm in the room, affected, and willing to think with you about what happens between us. It also means I take my own responsibility in that seriously, through regular supervision and my own therapy.

I came to this work after fifteen years as a solicitor, which taught me a good deal about how people cope, what they hide, and the cost of holding it all together.

Sexual identity:

Gay
Lesbian
Other
Queer

Gender identity: Female

Gender history: As assigned at birth

Non-monogamy: Yes

Intersex: No

Neurodivergent: Yes

Personal pronouns: she/her

Qualifications - Links to websites:

BACP number: 388754
UKCP number: 2011175213

My website

Qualifications - Additional:

Certified Transactional Analyst (Psychotherapy)
Postgraduate Diploma in Integrative Transactional Analysis (Level 7, four years)
Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Counselling and Psychotherapy (Distinction, two years), including advanced training in models of grief and loss
Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling (accredited by BACP, two years)

Further training includes:

Certificate in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Somatic Transactional Analysis
Certificate in Delivering Group Therapy
Certificate in Interpersonal Neurobiology: Polyvagal Theory and Beyond
Certificate in Diversity within Contemporary Relationship Therapy: working alongside trans, non-binary and questioning clients; polyamory, polygamy and arranged marriages; kink; bisexuality and sexual fluidity; neurodivergence, sex and relationships (one year)
Couples Institute Developmental Model of Couples Therapy: integrating attachment, differentiation and neuroscience (one year)

My psychotherapy qualification required four years of taught training to Master's level, a UKCP mental health familiarisation placement, over 750 supervised clinical hours before certification, one hour of supervision for every six clinical hours throughout, and weekly personal psychotherapy for a minimum of four years.

I train regularly. Recent workshops include trauma-informed practice, existential psychotherapy, working with suicidal ideation, anxiety and social anxiety, autism and ADHD, menopause, imposter syndrome, fatphobia, mindfulness and the breath, and equity, diversity and inclusion.

Experience and approach:

My core training is in Transactional Analysis.

My practice is mainly psychodynamic and existential. I have also completed certifications in somatic Transactional Analysis, interpersonal neurobiology and gender, sexuality and relationship diversity therapy.

For more details of my certifications, take a look at my website.

Certificate in Diversity within Contemporary Relationship Therapy: Working Alongside Trans, Non-Binary and Questioning Clients; Other Loves: Polyamory, Polygamy and Arranged Marriages; Kink; Bisexuality and Sexual Fluidity; Neurodivergence, Sex and Relationships
Certificate in Interpersonal Neurobiology: Polyvagal Theory and Beyond
Certificate in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

I undergo regular training to support my practice. Programmes I have completed include gender, sexuality and relationship diversity (GSRD) training, Weight Stigma and Fatphobia in the Therapy Room, counselling and psychotherapy for grief and loss.

Approaches: