About Me
Hi, I’m Rachel (she/her), an accredited therapist based in Shipley, West Yorkshire. I’m passionate about working with queer clients and people who have always felt different in someway to help them improve their relationships and better manage anxiety. I set up my practice to use my lived experience and training to provide high-quality, trauma-informed therapy to my community. I have a particular interest in working with people from difficult/dysfunctional family backgrounds to help them overcome challenges and build lives they love.
Since I was a teenager, I’ve been passionate about reducing mental health stigma and have written zines, blogs and articles and spoken to groups on the subject. I came to work as counsellor after experiencing the life changing effect good therapy can bring. My lived experience brings understanding of how anxiety and low self-esteem can make you feel like you’re broken, and my own journey has brought me proof that change is always possible.
Because I’ve had my own long-term therapy, I know what it’s like to be sitting in the other chair in the counselling room – how scary and vulnerable it can be to open up to a stranger. This experience has directly informed my commitment to be welcoming and approachable, particularly at the start of therapy.
RACHEL KAYE COUNSELLING AND ONLINE THERAPY
I have over 5 years’ experience as a therapist, including working for an LGBTQ+ charity, in private practice, and supporting staff and students at an FE college. I’m a BACP accredited therapist (which means I’ve met the organisation’s higher standard as a competent, ethical and independent practitioner). My previous work in University and Arts settings and participation in activist/queer/feminist communities means I know first-hand the joys and challenges these spaces can bring.
I therefore have particular experience and interest in supporting clients facing workplace burnout and stress, navigating high pressure environments and work life balance, helping them to be their authentic selves.
My background also informs my understanding that mental health is interconnected with our wider environment, including experiences of discrimination and marginalisation, living / working conditions, social support and access to health care.
I am committed to making my practice as inclusive as I can, particularly to those who have previously struggled to find a therapist who understands and values their perspective, identity and experiences. I often work with clients who have experienced therapy that wasn’t queer affirming, or that didn’t bring them the lasting change they were looking for. Alongside my work in private practice, I currently work with the lgbtq+ charity Yorkshire MESMAC, an organisation who provide free access to counselling. I am committed to examining my own areas of privilege and am educating myself as I strive to make my practice as anti-oppressive as possible – including undertaking training on the impact of racism, neurodiversity, class and disability.
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– QUALIFIED TO POST-GRADUATE LEVEL (COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY)
– BACP ACCREDITED THERAPIST
– SPECIALIST TRAINING IN DELIVERING
COUNSELLING ONLINE
– SUPPORTED BY LGBTQ+ SPECIALIST CLINICAL SUPERVISION (from a Pink Therapy Advanced Accredited Gender, Sex and Relationships Diversities supervisor)
– I UNDERTAKE REGULAR TRAINING AND CPD TO KEEP MY SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE UP-TO-DATE – with a focus on working with LGBTQ+ clients, trauma and the body and self-compassion
– A cap on the number of clients I work with and an intentionally limited practice to provide attention, quality and investment in self-care
‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’
Mary Oliver