Lori Parker | Inclusive perinatal, matrescence & cycle-aware therapy

Therapist Directory Listing Category: Online Therapy

About the Therapist

About the therapist:

Hi, I’m Lori (she/her). I offer heart-centred, intersectional counselling online across the UK and in-person in South Manchester.

My path into counselling was shaped by my own lived experience navigating trauma, identity, matrescence and belonging as an AuDHD, queer, Black mixed-race woman and mother. I know first-hand how overwhelming reproductive transitions and hormonal shifts can be, especially when you are a sensitive soul whose identity leaves you navigating systems that were never built to protect or centre you.

I work with clients who are looking for a safe-enough container where they can go at their own pace and have space for whatever their nervous system needs. In a session with me, you don’t have to have it all figured out. Your feelings get to be felt and seen just as they are, supporting you to feel more understood, grounded and at home within yourself.

How I can support you

While you are welcome to bring any part of your story into our sessions, we might work particularly well together if you are looking for support with:

Menstrual cycle challenges: Navigating PMDD, endometriosis or simply figuring out how your unique cycle impacts how you feel in your body and mind. I hold space for both the physical and emotional impact of cycle challenges, alongside systemic issues and the frequent struggle to be taken seriously by healthcare providers. Together we can explore your needs, feelings and experiences through a cycle-aware lens.

Reproductive experiences: Supporting you through fertility, pregnancy, birth, baby loss, miscarriage and abortion, as well as the huge identity shift of matrescence (becoming a mother/parent). I draw on my background as a former doula, bringing deep, embodied knowledge of the perinatal journey into my counselling work and holding space for every outcome without empathy and acceptance.

Intersectional family life: Space to explore creating and nurturing a family across different intersections. Whether you are navigating a fertility journey, blended families or raising children whilst holding the different intersections of your own identity, I hold space for it all

Sexual identity:

Gay
Lesbian
Other
Queer

Gender identity: I use another term

Gender history: Prefer not to say

Intersex: No

Neurodivergent: No

Personal pronouns: she/her

Qualifications - Links to websites:

Core Qualifications & Registrations

Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling
Certificate in Counselling Skills
NCPS Accredited Registrant Member

Specialist Perinatal Care & Menstrual Cycle Training

Red School Menstruality Leadership Programme
3-Step Rewind Practitioner Training
Nurturing Birth Doula Training

Continuing Professional Development

CPD Online Counselling
CPD Working with Dissociative Disorders in Clinical Practice
CPD Working with Shame
CPD Exploring Race & Identity in the Counselling Room
CPD Neurodivergent Life Mapping

Qualifications - Additional:

Award	Awarding body	Year of award

Experience and approach:

As a counsellor, I work in a really relational and collaborative way, using my own lived experience alongside my professional training to create a neuro-affirming, culturally sensitive therapeutic space that I hope feels supportive and understanding.

I’m not the kind of “blank slate” therapist who just nods along from a distance. Our sessions are a real, human-to-human space where we meet as equals.

I deeply trust your own inner wisdom and capacity to heal, and at the same time, I also know that when anxiety and overwhelm are high, it can be hard to tune into what you need in therapy and so a more guided holding can be really beneficial. I don't believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, I work responsively and realistically. I like to take a creative approach so that your therapy can really be shaped around your actual lived reality and not an unrealistic ideal.

Before training as a counsellor I worked as a menstrual cycle coach and full-spectrum doula, supporting women through experiences such as baby loss, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, matrescence and menstrual cycle awareness. These experiences deeply shaped how I understand emotional wellbeing and they continue to inform my cycle-aware, relational approach to counselling.

Approaches: