Skye Blyth-Whitelock

My approach to us working together:

People often come to therapy feeling overwhelmed, stuck, disconnected or unsure where to begin but with a sense that they want things to be different.  You may have specific issues you want to work on but you also don’t need to have the right words or a clear story to start - we can take things slowly and make sense of things together.

My approach is to be alongside you with care, warmth and understanding, so that you don’t have to navigate things alone.  I take a whole person, holistic approach that affirms and welcomes all of you - your identities, experiences, thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations.  As an integrative counsellor, I draw on a range of therapeutic approaches depending on what feels most helpful for you in the moment.  In practice, this means I work responsively, rather than following a one-size-fits-all model.

I mostly offer talking therapy but at times I might suggest a simple exercise, like writing or moving, that taps into different parts of your body-mind, so you become more aware of thoughts or feelings that may have been held unconsciously.  I also support you to identify and stay with sensations in your body, so that you can develop an increased bodily awareness, to understand and listen to what your body is communicating to you.  

I work relationally, which means the relationship we build together is an important part of the therapy.  Feeling safe, respected and understood is essential and I welcome clients sharing how it feels to work with me.  I often check in about how our work together is going.  This can help build trust and also gently highlight patterns that may show up in your other relationships.

For me, there personal is political.  I am a member of the Feminist Therapy Network and of Therapists against Conversion Therapy and Transphobia (TACTT).  I take an intersectional, anti-oppressive stance in my work that is affirming, compassionate and liberatory.  I do not see distress as something that is "wrong" with you but as something that is shaped by the contexts and systems we live within.  We can explore together how to face exclusion and injustice in a way that feels empowering for you, whilst celebrating the strengths and joys that your identity brings.

My professional experience:

I’ve worked in the charity sector throughout my career and in mental health and wellbeing for over ten years, managing service provision, offering one-to-one counselling and facilitating groups.  This includes:

• Providing counselling and trauma stabilisation for women and young people with various charities (Social Interest Group, Brighton Women's Centre, DePaul UK)
• Holding community grief tending spaces online for genderqueer people and in person for anyone who is grieving  
• Holding reflective parenting groups for kinship carers and fathers whose partners are accessing perinatal mental health services (Anna Freud)
• Managing therapeutic and emotional wellbeing provision in schools and colleges (Mind) and for parents / carers and children under 5 (Anna Freud)
• Managing humanitarian delivery for refugees in conflict-affected countries in the Middle East (War Child UK, ActionAid, International Service, UN Women)