Sabrina Mengrani (they/she)
It can be exhausting, trying to fit in. Feeling like you’re wearing a mask all the time. An emptiness inside, maybe. But in making the decision to start therapy, you are choosing yourself. Your wellbeing, your energy, and your heart over the dissatisfaction, melancholy, the repeated frustrations. Nothing will change unless something changes.
And it can feel overwhelming to want to change, but there is something in you (no matter how small that part) that perhaps believes it could be better. That there is more to living than this. Trusting that part can be scary. It is also the first step.
My goal as an accredited psychotherapist is to move with you through emotional difficulties, using creative interventions and metaphor to think about that which can be difficult to put into words. The work is relational and seeks to deepen personal understanding of patterns and sensations (yes we will be thinking together about your childhood). I hope that through this work you can get to know yourself better.
Therapy is a place that is uniquely yours. To be messy, to let go, to reveal the parts you don’t want to admit exist. To be witnessed, and be seen. To figure out and reveal all the different parts that make up who you truly are.
A warm, integrative, trauma-informed approach
I work with a wide range of experiences, holding the importance of appreciating the full complexity of identity, and maintaining curiosity over judgement. I use a variety of approaches according to what you might need, including the following:
Psychodynamic: Exploring childhood experiences, attachment, and early patterns that continue to shape how you experience the world and others today.
Person-centred: You are at the heart of the work. I follow your lead, your felt sense and lived experience. I am walking alongside you, not in front.
Somatic & body-based: There is wisdom in your body that may be being ignored – caught in your breath, tightness in your chest, clench of your jaw. Drawing attention and giving space to these responses allows connection to yourself in a way words can’t always reach.
Creative & expressive: It can feel way too vulnerable and exposing to confront uncomfortable memories and patterns head on. Music, visual arts, storytelling, and metaphor can allow for a different angle of exploration.
Grounded in attachment theory and neuroscience, my integrative approach honours the pace you lead with. This considers not only significant traumatic events, but also the impacts of structural oppression, colonialism, and emotional neglect from the family home and the outside environment.
Informed by my own experience of difference, I am aware of the limitations of Western therapeutic frameworks and individualist approaches, and work to actively challenge them and honour cultural wisdom.
Focus and expertise
I specialise in working with adolescents and young people, with a particular interest at exploring intersections of identities, be that gender and sexuality, neurodiversity, culture and race, or religion, and how they interact with issues of anxiety, depression, self-esteem and confidence, and feelings of belonging in the world.
Navigating who you are and getting to know parts of yourself the world tells you to hide can be exhausting. I want to welcome all aspects of you.
However while these experiences can be particularly challenging in adolescence, they continue to be areas of exploration throughout adulthood, so age is certainly not a limiting factor here. Please do feel free to reach out for an initial conversation if working together might be of interest!
Reflective Parenting
I also offer reflective parenting sessions, creating a space where parents and carers can think together about dynamics and patterns that are emerging in the family in order to better support their child. These sessions may explore parent and carer's childhood and family experiences, but is different to personal therapy in that the child and the impact on the child is at the centre of the work.
This can be useful as an alternative to 1:1 therapy with your child.
Qualifications
I am fully accredited by the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), the UK’s leading psychotherapy regulatory body, under their College of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy and Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy College (membership 2011186385), with an MA in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents.
I have worked with clients from age 3 to older adulthood, in schools, therapeutic centres, and private practice, across 1:1 and group settings, online and in-person, across a range of difficulties, including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, childhood trauma, CPTSD, terminal illness, anger, and grief, and work closely with a UKCP accredited supervisor in accordance with UKCP and BACP ethical standards to ensure my ongoing critical reflection, professional development and accountability.
MA Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy
UKCP 2011186385