Helping you understand yourself more deeply and find a way forward that feels genuinely yours.
Ingrid Strobl is a BACP Registered Integrative Counsellor offering individual counselling at Cherry Tree Therapy Centre in Buckhurst Hill. She works with adults experiencing anxiety, bereavement and loss, stress, relationship difficulties, the impact of childhood adversity and times when life simply doesn’t feel as fulfilling as it once did.
You may be dealing with a particular life event, struggling in a relationship or facing a decision that feels impossible to make. Or perhaps there isn’t one obvious problem. You may have become aware of patterns that keep repeating, feel increasingly overwhelmed, or know that something needs to change without being sure what that change should look like.
Ingrid offers a warm, thoughtful space where you can begin to understand what may be happening beneath the surface and explore what you need at your own pace.
People often come to Ingrid because they have already tried to make changes themselves but somehow find themselves back in the same place.
You may have tried thinking your way out of the problem, telling yourself to respond differently or promising that next time you will do things another way. Yet some patterns are difficult to change through rational thinking alone.
Counselling can give you an opportunity to slow things down and explore not only what is happening, but why certain feelings, responses or relationships may have become so difficult.
For some people, this is also about feeling stuck in patterns of overthinking or finding that their mind is difficult to switch off.
Ingrid’s aim is to help you develop a deeper understanding of yourself so that the past does not have to continue determining the choices you make in the present.
Ingrid has particular experience supporting people through bereavement and loss. Grief can affect far more than how you feel about the person you have lost. It can alter your sense of identity, change relationships and routines, and leave you trying to understand how life is supposed to continue when something fundamental has changed.
There is no single correct way to grieve and no timetable for when you should feel better. Bereavement counselling gives you somewhere to talk honestly about your loss and the feelings that accompany it, without having to protect other people or pretend that you are coping better than you are.
Anxiety can show itself in many different ways. You might find yourself worrying constantly, anticipating what could go wrong, replaying conversations or struggling to make decisions because every possibility feels loaded with risk. Sometimes you may not even know exactly why you feel anxious. You simply know that your mind rarely settles and that you can’t switch off.
Ingrid works with anxiety by becoming curious about what may sit underneath it rather than simply trying to make the feeling disappear. Counselling can help you understand your responses, recognise patterns and begin developing a different relationship with difficult thoughts and emotions.
Our earlier experiences can continue to shape how we see ourselves, relate to other people and respond when we feel vulnerable, rejected or under pressure.
Ingrid has a particular interest in working with adults affected by childhood adversity. This doesn’t mean that counselling has to become entirely focused on your childhood. The starting point is always what is happening for you now.
Sometimes, though, it can be helpful to explore whether earlier experiences are still influencing your present-day relationships, self-esteem, emotional responses or expectations of yourself. Understanding where a pattern came from can make it easier to recognise that you have choices about what happens next.
You may find that the same difficulties seem to appear repeatedly in relationships, even when the people or circumstances change.
Perhaps you struggle to express what you need, worry about disappointing other people, find conflict particularly difficult or notice that certain situations trigger a much stronger emotional response than you would expect.
Counselling can provide space to explore these relationship difficulties without deciding who is right or wrong. Instead, Ingrid helps you become curious about your own experiences, responses and needs, and about what may be happening underneath the patterns you recognise.
Sometimes there isn’t a dramatic crisis. Life has simply become too much. You may have spent a long time meeting other people’s needs, coping with responsibilities or pushing through stress until you reach a point where you feel emotionally exhausted or disconnected from yourself.
If you have started wondering “When did I lose myself?”, counselling can offer somewhere to step outside the demands of everyday life and pay attention to what has been happening for you.
For people experiencing prolonged pressure and exhaustion, it can also be useful to understand the signs and stages of burnout and how chronic stress can affect both emotional and physical wellbeing.
Ingrid describes herself as gentle, present and non-judgemental. She is deeply interested in what you bring to counselling, but she also pays attention to what may be difficult to put into words.
Sometimes, as she puts it, the things that are left unsaid can speak the loudest.
Her aim is to create a warm and welcoming environment where all emotions are allowed and you do not need to arrive with a polished explanation of what is wrong.
Ingrid listens carefully and without judgement, while also gently helping you explore what may be happening underneath the surface. Clients have described feeling safe and understood with her, including when talking about difficult experiences or experiencing overwhelming emotions.
Ingrid is an integrative counsellor, drawing primarily on psychodynamic and person-centred approaches. This means there isn’t one fixed formula for counselling. Each person arrives with their own history, culture, personality and needs, and Ingrid adapts the work to the individual in front of her.
Much of the focus may be on what is happening in your life now, but sometimes it can be helpful to consider experiences from earlier in life and whether they continue to influence how you feel or relate to others today.
At other times, Ingrid may suggest a body-focused or creative exercise when words alone do not quite capture what you are experiencing. Practical issues can also be thought through together when that feels useful.
The aim is not to tell you how to live your life, but to help you understand yourself more fully, become increasingly compassionate towards yourself and make choices that better reflect who you are and what matters to you.
Before becoming a counsellor, Ingrid spent more than twenty years working in corporate events and marketing.
Over time, she wanted to move towards work that felt more meaningful and centred around people. Her own experience of counselling led to an interest in the importance of the therapeutic relationship and eventually to training as a counsellor.
Her previous corporate career also gives her an understanding of the demands and pressures that can accompany busy working lives, although her counselling work is centred on understanding the whole person rather than simply solving a workplace problem.
Ingrid holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling and is a BACP Registered Counsellor.
Ingrid offers long-term, one-to-one counselling sessions lasting 50 minutes.
She is available:
Friday: 9am–8pm
Saturday: 9am–12pm
Sunday: 9am–12pm
Sessions cost £65, with concessions available.
Ingrid works in English and German. She prefers to work face-to-face, although online sessions can be arranged when meeting in person is temporarily not possible, provided the majority of the work remains face-to-face.
The first session is an opportunity for you and Ingrid to begin getting to know one another. You can talk about what has brought you to counselling and what you hope might change, while Ingrid will explain how she works. You will also discuss practical matters such as confidentiality and what happens next.
There isn’t a fixed answer because everyone moves through counselling at a different pace. Ingrid offers long-term counselling rather than prescribing a set number of sessions.
No. Your sessions belong to you. Ingrid views what happens within counselling as an invitation rather than an instruction, which means you decide what you want to talk about and can choose not to explore something further if you do not feel ready.
Ingrid’s preference is to meet face-to-face in Buckhurst Hill. If there is a period when this isn’t possible, online sessions can be arranged, provided most of your sessions remain in person.
You don’t need to know. Some people begin counselling because of a specific event, while others simply know that something feels off but they can’t explain why. Part of the work can be understanding what you are feeling and what may be contributing to it.
If you would like to explore counselling with Ingrid, complete the form below and our team will be in touch.