Fiona McAlister

I’ve been there too and would be honoured to help you navigate this exploration as you discover yourself, change what you wish to change and learn how to trust yourself.

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Therapy with Fiona

We all experience pain and difficulty from time to time. For some of us – perhaps for you – life experiences may have left traces of trauma at multiple levels: emotional, physical, thinking patterns and beliefs, spiritual. As you continue through life, you may have developed protective coping strategies whose job it is to prevent you from re-experiencing the traumatic pain and the symptoms caused by adverse experiences. My trauma-informed approach aims to create a contained space for you to explore all this.

We will take as much time as you need to develop a trusting relationship so that you feel able to dig deep – to learn the skills of staying with your pain, to share your vulnerabilities with me, to tell me your story, to explore your grief and loss. Perhaps we will sit quietly together as you experience your pain or give space and time for you to express your anger. We will help you gain insight into the sources of your anxieties and trauma. I will bear witness to your experience and see you as you work through your pain, loss, grief and trauma.

We will work holistically to help you discover and process those traces, using a variety of methods and approaches. Together we might:

• Talk about your past in a journey towards understanding who you are now in your present;
• Bring your awareness to the trauma held in your body through mindfulness, somatic work, breath work, movement;
• Give respect and compassion to your inner voices to learn what your multiple parts wish to tell you;
• Look at issues in your present and what your thoughts, feelings and behaviours can teach about your beliefs of yourself and the world;
• Explore your personal philosophies in a search for life’s meaning;
• Work creatively with drawing, cards or objects to help you express unarticulated emotions.

Additionally, I might suggest other resources you can explore outside of our sessions to enhance your developing skills, such as books, articles, videos, podcasts, or exercises to practice between sessions.

By combining some or all of these techniques, I will be led by you as we create your therapy together to enable you to challenge unhelpful self-beliefs, tune into the wisdom of your body, integrate the impact of trauma, develop ways to more skilfully manage relationships, attune with your purpose in the world.

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A Little More About Me

Before training to be a psychotherapist, I worked for many years in the social care and voluntary sector, both as a paid professional and a volunteer, as frontline and in senior management. The people I’ve supported have been many and varied; young people from trauma-filled backgrounds, people with disabilities, older people nearing the end of life, adults with mental health issues, people living with HIV and AIDS. I bring all that I have been honoured to learn from those people into my therapy room, always aiming to use my insights for the benefit of the client.

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Areas I work with:

I work with young people aged 18+ and adults across a range of areas. My specialisms are working in-depth with survivors of child sexual abuse, adults coping with the impact of parental neglect and dysfunctional families, and people struggling to understand the impact of their trauma on the dynamics of their relationships. I support people preparing for and integrating the impact and insights gained from plant medicine / psychedelic experiences. I am also interested in exploring the feminine and masculine; how women and men connect to and express their identities through the different stages of their lives.

I also work with the following issues:

• Anxiety and fears
• Bereavement, Loss and Grief
• Emotional abuse
• Family dynamics
• Low self-esteem and negative self-beliefs
• Midlife experiences of perimenopause and menopause
• Preparation for and integration of psychedelic experiences
• Parenting issues
• Relationship dynamics, breakdown and divorce
• Search for life’s purpose / meaning
• Self-harm
• Shame
• Stress
• Suicidal ideation
• Trauma (episodic and developmental / relational)
• Work related issues (including coaching)

Supervision

I believe that supervision offers practitioners a space to pause and slow down; to be given a safe place to reflect with depth on our relationships with clients and their impact on us (such as countertransference); to review our skills and areas for development; enhance our confidence in our practice; consider our own self-care needs – all in the service of the people we are supporting.

I combine CSTD’s seven eyed model, with my own integrative therapeutic approach. I offer constructive feedback, helpful challenges and questions to support practitioners to reframe situations where they feel stuck, co-creating a learning environment. I am open to working with supervisees from diverse backgrounds, working in a variety of settings. This includes qualified therapists in private practice; student trainees on placement; and therapists in teams, working within the complexity of multiple relationships between the organisation, client and supervisee.

I support the supervisee’s work within their own modality as well as offering other approaches, such as exploring the supervisor and supervisee’s own embodied experiences to gain deeper illumination into the dynamic in the therapy room.

I work in line with the BACP ethical guidelines, and my supervision practice is supported by my own regular in-depth integrative and trauma-informed supervision, as well as my personal mindfulness and somatic practices.

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Psychotherapy Qualifications and Experience:

I started my psychotherapy training by gaining a Foundation Certificate Course in Counselling and Psychotherapy with Naos in 2016, then an Advanced Diploma in Humanistic Integrative Counselling at CPPD Counselling School two years later. I went on to complete a Diploma in Trauma Therapy in 2021, and continue to broaden my learning as a therapist throughout the year by engaging in continual professional development. At the start of 2024, I qualified as a Clinical Supervisor, having studied at the Centre for Supervision and Training Development (CSTD).

As my work as a therapist deepens, I have come to understand how fundamentally our bodies as well as our minds are impacted by the experiences in our lives. To embody this awareness in my practice for the benefit of my clients, in 2025 I completed a Certificate in Integrative Embodied Psychotherapy. In 2026 I became a qualified Yoga Teacher, with the intention of creating a personalised one-to-one therapeutic yoga service to help more people understand and befriend their bodies.

Starting my therapy practice as a student, I have worked for a variety of organisations including as a volunteer counsellor for ELMS, a mental health charity offering short term therapy; a psychotherapist for the Koan Practice; and a volunteer therapist, consultant, group facilitator and supervisor at One in Four, a specialist charity providing services to survivors of sexual abuse, domestic violence and trauma.

Professional Body

I am an Accredited Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). Additionally, my work is supervised by a qualified supervisor and Accredited member of BACP.

https://www.bacp.co.uk/

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Contact:

Please email or call me for an initial chat; I offer a free 20-minute consultation for you to explore what you are seeking from working with me, what I can offer you and whether we’re a good match.

07795 299 719
fiona@therapywithfiona.co.uk
therapywithfiona.co.uk

Rates and Practical Information:

For therapy:
I work with young people aged 18+ and adult individuals; my rate is £80 for 50-minutes session or £85 for 60 minutes (depending on availability)

For supervision:
My rate is £65 for 60 minutes of supervision for qualified therapists and £50 for trainees; the cost for longer sessions is pro rata.

Please note that, as the use of plant medicines / psychedelics is currently illegal in the UK, I cannot provide access to the medicines or carry out illegal medicine-assisted work. My practice does not support or encourage the use of illicit substances in unregulated and illegal frameworks.

Sessions

If you decide to work with me, we would usually meet weekly, in person or on-line. I am available at the BTR on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. During the consultation and in our first session, we will agree a contract through which I guarantee your confidentiality, identify the areas you wish to work on, and discuss together the length of therapy that might suit you (I work open-ended), though we will continue to review this in partnership throughout our time together.

For supervision, I work on-line and am happy to meet at the frequency that suits your needs (weekly, fortnightly or monthly).

Directions to Barnsbury Therapy Space