About My Work
You may look like you’re coping on the outside while privately feeling anxious, overwhelmed, exhausted, disconnected or unsure of yourself. Perhaps your relationships are difficult, you struggle with boundaries or people-pleasing, or you simply have a persistent sense that something isn’t right.
I’m a UKCP-registered psychotherapist and Certified Transactional Analyst (CTA), with over a decade’s experience working with trauma, abuse and psychological complexity. Alongside private practice, I work with organisations including Kent Sexual Assault and Abuse Services and Woman’s Trust, supporting survivors of domestic abuse, sexual violence and complex trauma.
My approach is trauma-informed, feminist and power-aware. I won’t ask you to see your struggles in isolation from your relationships, experiences, identity or the wider world around you. Together, we explore the patterns and coping strategies that helped you survive and whether they are still helping you now.
Trauma, Abuse & Coercive Control
I specialise in domestic and sexual abuse, coercive control, grooming, childhood trauma, ritual abuse, exploitation, dissociation, shame and chronic anxiety.
You don’t need to know whether what happened to you “counts” as abuse. You may have spent years questioning yourself, walking on eggshells, blaming yourself or doubting your own reality.
Therapy can help you make sense of what happened, understand its impact and begin to rebuild trust in yourself.
I also teach therapists and mental health professionals about my feminist approach to working with domestic and sexual abuse, with a particular focus on trauma, coercive control, power and the systems that shape abuse and recovery.
Neurodivergence
I work with ADHD, autism, dyslexia and other forms of neurodivergence, including masking, sensory overwhelm, rejection sensitivity, self-criticism and exhaustion from trying to fit into expectations that don’t fit you.
I don’t see neurodivergence as something that needs fixing. Therapy can help you understand yourself differently, reduce shame and find ways of living that feel more sustainable and authentic.
Women, Identity & Relationships
Much of my work is with women navigating confidence, boundaries, people-pleasing, burnout, motherhood, menopause, identity and relationships.
You may have been taught to see these struggles as personal failings. Instead, we can explore what happens when we understand them in the context of pressure, expectations, relationships, inequality and long-term stress.
How I Work
I’m warm, steady and direct. Where trauma or abuse is involved, we begin with safety and stabilisation before moving into deeper work.
This isn’t about simply managing symptoms or learning to cope better. We look beneath the surface at patterns, relationships, coping strategies and power so that you can feel safer, clearer and more connected to yourself.
Therapy can be a place to breathe, be believed and start to understand yourself in a different way.
If something here resonates with you, I’d be glad to hear from you.
Access to Therapy
I’m unable to offer concessionary rates in my private practice. However, alongside my private work, I provide therapy through survivor charities, including Kent Sexual Assault and Abuse Service (KSAAS).
If you are a survivor of sexual abuse or sexual violence, you may be able to access free therapy with me on Thursdays in Ramsgate through KSAAS.
For more information or to self-refer, visit www.ksaas.org.uk.
Laura McCarthy
MSc (Psych), CTA, Dip., UKCP, MBACP
Individual Counselling
Initial Session
During the initial individual session, which is typically 50 minutes long and charged at my standard fee, I’ll begin by asking some administrative questions. This includes gathering your address, date of birth, and your doctor’s details, to ensure that I have all the necessary background information to continue our work together.
Next, I’ll ask you about the reason that brought you to therapy.
Towards the end of the session, we’ll collaborate to decide if we feel comfortable working together and establish what you would like the ultimate outcome of therapy to be and decide if the work should be short-term (ten sessions), long-term (six months to one year), or if it should remain open-ended.
Weekly or Fortnightly Sessions
I offer therapy on a weekly or fortnightly basis. Sessions will be held at the same time and date each week and will be 50 minutes long.
Missing or Re-scheduling Sessions
If a session cannot be attended 48 hours notice is required. Sessions not attended without 48 hours notice will be charged at my usual fee.
I will always try to find an alternative appointment time, however re-scheduled appointments in the same week are not always possible.
Couples Counselling
Couples Recovery Sessions
I am currently fully booked for regular ongoing couples counselling. At present, I am offering focused, one-off Couples Recovery Sessions, held on the first Sunday of each month from 1pm–3pm. My next available session is Sunday 6 December.
Relationships can reach a point where you know something needs to change, but you no longer know how to change it. You may be caught in the same arguments, struggling to communicate without conflict, dealing with a rupture in trust, or feeling increasingly disconnected from one another.
My Couples Recovery Sessions are intensive two-hour therapeutic sessions designed to give us enough time to get beneath the immediate arguments and understand what is actually happening in your relationship.
Rather than beginning an open-ended course of weekly couples counselling, we use the two hours to focus on the difficulties that have brought you to therapy now. We look at the patterns you have become caught in, what each of you is experiencing within the relationship, what is fuelling conflict or disconnection, and what needs to change.
The extended session gives us time to slow difficult conversations down, identify recurring patterns and help you hear what your partner is actually trying to communicate. Where there has been a loss of trust or emotional connection, we can begin exploring what has happened and what repair would require from both of you.
What happens in a Couples Recovery Session?
The work is active and focused. I will help you to:
- identify the patterns keeping you stuck
- understand what happens when communication breaks down
- express difficult feelings and needs more clearly
- listen to and understand your partner’s experience
- explore recurring conflict, disconnection or loss of intimacy
- identify what each of you needs to take responsibility for
- begin repairing trust where repair is possible
- agree practical changes to take back into your relationship
For some couples, one focused session can create enough understanding and movement to begin making changes themselves. For others, it can help clarify what further therapeutic work may be needed.
Couples therapy requires more than turning up
Couples therapy works best when both people are willing to be curious about their own contribution to the relationship, rather than coming to therapy primarily to demonstrate what their partner is doing wrong.
You do not have to agree with one another. You do, however, need to be willing to listen, reflect and consider another perspective.
My role is not to decide who is right, persuade one partner to accept the other’s position, or referee an argument. My role is to help you understand the relational patterns operating between you and support both of you to communicate differently.
That requires honesty, accountability and a genuine willingness to consider change.
Safety and suitability
Couples therapy must also be emotionally and physically safe.
Where a relationship involves coercive control, abuse, intimidation, fear or significant concerns about one partner’s safety, couples therapy may not be appropriate. In these circumstances I may recommend individual therapeutic or specialist support instead.
Similarly, if one person is unwilling to engage in the process, repeatedly shuts down discussion, or uses the session to blame, intimidate or control their partner, meaningful couples work cannot take place.
I will always prioritise the safety and wellbeing of both people over continuing couples therapy simply because a session has been booked.
Booking a Couples Recovery Session
Couples Recovery Sessions are 120 minutes and are currently available on the first Sunday of each month between 1pm and 3pm.
My next available session is Sunday 6 December.
Because these are limited monthly appointments, advance booking is recommended.
Cancellation and Rescheduling
I require at least 48 hours’ notice if you need to cancel or rearrange your appointment. Sessions cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice are charged at the full session fee.
I will always try to offer an alternative appointment where possible, although because Couples Recovery Sessions are offered on limited dates, an alternative appointment may not be available within the same month.
Issues Worked With
Abusive Relationships
Domestic Abuse (Emotional, Physical, Sexual or Financial)
Domestic Violence
Post Separation Abuse
Narcissistic Abuse
Coercive Control
Gaslighting
Love Bombing
Gender Based Violence
Sibling Abuse
Trauma
Trauma Bond
Childhood Trauma
Child Sexual Abuse
Ritual Abuse
Mind Control
C-PTSD & PTSD
DID / Dissociation
Bullying
Panic Attacks
Suicidal Thoughts
Pre-Trial Therapy
Anxiety
Depression
Anger
Low Self-Esteem
Identity Issues
Neurodivergence (ADHD, ADD, Dyslexia)
Career Issues
Bereavement
Body Dysmorphia
Chronic Illness
Couples
Relationship Issues
Marriage Counselling
Pre-Marriage Counselling
Infidelity
High Conflict Separation & Divorce
Neurodivergent Couples
Heartbreak
My Fees
Individual (50mins)
£ 85
Per SessionCouple (60mins)
£ 100
Per SessionCouples (120mins)
£ 175
Per 120-min Recovery SessionRamsgate, Kent or Online
(Sun-Tue 1-7pm)
Individual (50mins)
£ 125
Per SessionCouples (60mins)
£ 150
Per SessionCouples (120mins)
£ 250
Per 120-min Recovery SessionHarley Street, London
(Sat 9am-12pm)
My Qualifications
Training & Qualifications
- Certified Transactional Analyst (CTA) (EATA).
- MSc. in Psychotherapy (Middlesex University).
- Clinical Diploma in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy (Metanoia Institute).
- Diploma in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapeutic Counselling (Metanoia Institute).
- Clinical Supervision Certificate, viewed through an Intersectional lens (TA East London Institute).
- Clinical Certificate in Trauma-Focused Therapy (The Link Centre).
- Level 4 Clinical Diploma in Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling (EKRCC)
- Diploma in Life Coaching (New Skills Academy).
- CPD training in pre trial therapy, anti-racism and the Equality Act 2010.
Clinical Experience
- Nine years of experience in private practice
- Two additional years as an Associate Counsellor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire.
- Two years of specialist mentor experience for undergraduate university music students.
- I provide supervision to other counsellors and psychotherapists.
- I am currently an outreach counsellor for East Kent Rape Crisis Centre.
- I am the counselling and supervising trustee for Woman’s Trust. (Woman’s Trust is the charity that helps women in London overcome the mental and emotional harm caused by domestic abuse).
- I specialise in working with clients diagnosed with personality disorders and have a particular interest in those diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD).
Ethical Principles
I am deeply committed to, practice and abide by the principles and ethics of EATA.
Memberships
To demonstrate my competence I am a member of several organisations, each of which requires the fulfillment of particular standards of training and knowledge by its associates.
- Full clinical member of the UK Council of Psychotherapy (UKCP)
- Registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
- Member of Metanoia Institute.
As a reflection of my work with abuse survivors, I have been accepted as a member of:
- Ritual Abuse Information Network and Support (RAINS)
- European Society for Trauma and Dissociation (ESTD)
- Anti Victim Blaming, Trauma-Informed Network (AVBTI)
Leadership Experience
Apart from my psychotherapy work, I also have 25 years of experience in the business industry and have worked as a marketing director in high-profile music companies, entertainment venues, and leisure experiences, which often entailed high-pressure situations.
My extensive leadership experience has enabled me to develop valuable skills that help people thrive in stressful situations. I am adept at mentoring and coaching individuals to reach their potential in both academia and business.
My Ramsgate practice is a 1 minute walk from both Waitrose and the seafront. Being 1 mile away from Ramsgate Train Station, I am within easy reach of Margate, Broadstairs, Dumpton, Birchington, Westgate, Pegwell, Sandwich, Deal, Dover, Whitstable and Herne Bay.
My London practice is in Harley Street W1G, making it within easy reach of North London, Islington, Euston, Camden and Central London. – Please note: hours at my London practice are currently very limited.
