Work with what is underneath the insomnia, not just the symptoms, with a BACP accredited therapist.
Sleep difficulties are unusually exhausting, not just because of the tiredness, but because they tend to generate anxiety of their own. You may have started dreading bedtime. You may lie awake calculating how much sleep is still possible. You may wake at three in the morning and be unable to settle back, as your mind starts cycling through the day ahead. Whatever the pattern, the thing that often makes it worse is the knowledge that you need to sleep and cannot.
For some people, insomnia is its own problem. For many, it is a signal: the surface appearance of a nervous system that is not finding enough safety to let go. Stress, unprocessed experiences, grief, anxiety, trauma and hypervigilance all interfere with sleep in specific ways. Addressing sleep in isolation rarely works for long. Addressing what is underneath often does.
Sleep problems are not one thing. They show up in distinct patterns, and each pattern points to something slightly different about what is happening underneath. Some people cannot fall asleep, lying in bed for hours as the mind keeps spinning. Others fall asleep quickly but wake at three or four in the morning, often with a sense of dread that prevents them from settling again. Some sleep through the night but wake exhausted, as though their nervous system has been working a second shift while they were unconscious. And some have lost their normal sleep rhythm entirely, with bedtime drifting later and waking time becoming unpredictable.
Understanding which pattern you are dealing with matters. Sleep onset insomnia is often anxiety in disguise, the moment your day quietens enough for your mind to start unloading. Early-morning waking is more often associated with depression and unresolved emotional material. Light or unrefreshing sleep frequently points to chronic hypervigilance, where your nervous system never quite drops into deep rest because it does not feel safe enough to let go.
I work with sleep difficulties using an integrative approach. Where practical, I draw on principles from CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia), the gold-standard, NICE-recommended psychological treatment for chronic insomnia. CBT-I addresses both the cognitive patterns that keep the insomnia cycle running, the catastrophising about how tomorrow will go, the increasing dread of bedtime, and the behavioural patterns that can gently interrupt it, including stimulus control, sleep restriction and a more realistic relationship with the bed itself.
Where the sleep problem is rooted in something deeper, anxiety, trauma, grief, burnout, we work at that layer as well, because treating the symptom alone usually leaves the cause intact. For some people, EMDR is useful where sleep disturbance is rooted in specific traumatic experiences such as accidents, bereavements, or events from earlier in life. For others, nervous system-informed work and gentle somatic awareness are the most important piece, helping the body learn that it is safe enough to switch off. Hypnotherapy can also be a powerful adjunct for sleep work, particularly where the sleep problem has become a deeply ingrained habit pattern.
In my experience, chronic sleep difficulties almost always have a story underneath them. Some of the most common causes I work with include long-standing anxiety, where the mind has learned to use the night as its problem-solving time, and unresolved trauma, where the sleeping state feels too vulnerable to enter. Grief disrupts sleep profoundly, particularly in the first year after a significant loss. Burnout often presents with paradoxical insomnia, where the more exhausted you are, the more wired and unable to switch off. Major life transitions, the end of a relationship, the loss of a job, becoming a parent, retirement, can disturb sleep for months. And for some people, sleep difficulty is the legacy of a particular event or period that has never been fully processed, where the nervous system remembers the danger even when the conscious mind has moved on.
We start by understanding your sleep pattern, what it is actually like across a typical week, what you have tried, and what seems to make it better or worse. From there, depending on what emerges, we may focus on practical changes to the conditions around sleep, or we may spend more time on what the sleep problem is signalling, or both. The pace follows what is actually useful. For some clients, the early sessions involve building a clearer picture through a simple sleep diary so we can see patterns rather than guess at them.
Individual counselling sessions are 50 minutes and cost £70. Sessions take place online across the UK via a secure video platform. There is a free 15-minute consultation if you would like to ask questions before booking.
Therapy is one of the most effective treatments for chronic insomnia, particularly when the insomnia is fuelled by anxiety, stress, trauma or unresolved life events. CBT-I, the gold-standard psychological treatment for insomnia, is evidence-based and recommended by NICE. If your sleep difficulty is medical in origin (sleep apnoea, restless legs, hormonal disruption), a GP referral is the right first step. Otherwise, therapy is well-placed to help.
When the day quietens, the nervous system finally has space to surface what it has been holding. For people with high background anxiety, hypervigilance, or unprocessed difficult experiences, bedtime can become the first quiet moment of the day, which is exactly when the mind begins to unload. Therapy helps build a daytime relationship with these feelings so they no longer wait until 11pm.
Many clients notice meaningful improvement within four to eight sessions, particularly with CBT-I-informed work. Where insomnia is rooted in deeper trauma or long-standing anxiety, the work usually takes longer because we are addressing the underlying cause as well as the surface symptom. We discuss realistic timeframes early on.
Yes. All my sessions are online via secure video. Many clients find that working from home actually helps with sleep work because we can talk about the bedroom environment, the wind-down routine, and the practical context of their evenings in a way that feels grounded and immediate.
Sessions are 50 minutes and cost £70, online via secure video. There is a free 15-minute consultation if you would like to ask questions before booking.
If insomnia has taken over your nights, therapy can help you understand what is keeping your system awake and gently shift it.
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