Sometimes you know something needs to change, but you can’t quite understand why you keep finding yourself in the same place. You may be overthinking everything, struggling with difficult family or relationship dynamics, finding it hard to set boundaries, or noticing patterns of people-pleasing, low confidence, or self-doubt that you can’t seem to shift on your own.
Nina is an experienced BACP Accredited Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor who helps people make sense of what is happening in their lives, understand where their patterns may have come from, and find a clearer way forward.
Her particular areas of interest include difficult family and relationship dynamics, anxiety, self-esteem and confidence, boundaries, grief and loss, people-pleasing, shame and feeling stuck. She particularly enjoys working with people who want to understand themselves more deeply and make meaningful changes in the way they live and relate to others.
Nina describes herself as a very human therapist. She is warm, open, and easy to talk to and believes that therapy doesn’t need to feel overly clinical or formal to be effective. There can be room for humour alongside difficult conversations, and you don’t need to arrive knowing exactly what to say or where to begin.
Clients often tell Nina that they feel genuinely listened to and understood. She creates a space where you can talk freely without feeling judged, but she is also comfortable gently challenging you when this might help you see something from a different perspective.
Nina doesn’t expect you to have the right words or immediate answers. She asks thoughtful questions, reflects what she notices, and checks her understanding rather than making assumptions. Sometimes this means slowing a conversation down and making room for uncertainty rather than rushing towards a solution.
For Nina, feeling understood often needs to come before trying to change something. Exploring why your responses make sense in the context of your experiences can help reduce shame and self-criticism and create space for greater compassion towards yourself.
You might find yourself wondering why you repeatedly end up in difficult relationships, why saying no feels so uncomfortable, why you worry so much about what other people think, or why experiences from the past still seem to influence how you feel today.
Perhaps you know you are a people-pleaser but don’t know how to stop. You may struggle to maintain boundaries, procrastinate despite wanting things to change, or recognise the same behaviours appearing again and again.
Nina works collaboratively with you to understand these patterns rather than simply focusing on the symptoms they create. Together, you might explore earlier experiences, family dynamics, relationships, beliefs about yourself and the coping strategies you have developed along the way.
Understanding something, however, is only part of the work. Nina also helps clients translate insight into change by developing practical tools and healthier ways of coping that can be carried beyond the therapy room and into everyday life.
Nina works with people experiencing anxiety, worry, overthinking, panic, stress and feeling overwhelmed. She understands how exhausting it can be when your mind rarely seems to switch off or when worry begins affecting your confidence, relationships or ability to enjoy everyday life.
Her CBT training enables her to help clients understand the relationship between thoughts, emotions and behaviours while also exploring the wider experiences that may be contributing to how they feel.
For some people, this might involve developing practical ways to manage anxiety or panic. For others, the work may lead to exploring perfectionism, people-pleasing, low self-worth, difficult relationships or experiences that have contributed to a persistent feeling of not being good enough.
Relationships are one of Nina’s particular areas of interest, including the relationships we have with partners, parents and other family members.
Difficult family dynamics can continue to affect us long after childhood. You may find yourself taking responsibility for other people’s feelings, avoiding conflict, struggling to say no or feeling guilty when you try to put your own needs first.
Therapy can provide an opportunity to understand these dynamics and recognise the role you may have learned to occupy within your relationships. Nina helps clients develop greater confidence, insight and assertiveness, including learning how to establish healthier boundaries without feeling that they have to become a different person in order to do so.
Nina also has particular experience supporting people through grief, bereavement and loss.
While completing her psychology degree, she volunteered within the NHS supporting people with severe and enduring mental health difficulties. She later worked as a voluntary bereavement counsellor within an NHS palliative care unit.
Working alongside vulnerable adults during some of the most difficult periods of their lives had a significant influence on Nina’s decision to become a psychotherapist and continues to inform the compassion and sensitivity she brings to her work today.
Nina is an integrative psychotherapist, which means she doesn’t believe that one therapeutic approach suits everybody. Her work is influenced by person-centred therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Compassion Focused Therapy, mindfulness, Solution Focused Therapy and transformational coaching.
In practice, this means therapy can be adapted to what you need.
At times, the work may be exploratory, helping you understand yourself, your past and your relationships more deeply. At others, it may be more practical, looking at unhelpful thinking or behavioural patterns, developing coping strategies, strengthening boundaries or considering what you could do differently.
Nina aims to help you move from “I don’t understand why I keep doing this” towards greater clarity about yourself, your relationships and the choices available to you.
Before becoming a therapist, Nina spent many years working in the corporate world. She had always been interested in people’s stories and human behaviour, but her own experience of therapy also helped her appreciate the value of being able to talk openly and receive support when you are ready for it.
Her previous career gives her an understanding of workplace pressure, stress and burnout, as well as the questions that can arise when the way you are living or working no longer feels right for you.
Nina also holds a Diploma in Transformational Coaching and can work with people who want to explore change, confidence, direction and what they would like the next stage of their lives to look like.
Nina doesn’t see therapy as being about “fixing” people. Instead, she hopes clients begin to understand and accept themselves more fully, experience less shame and become more confident in making choices that reflect what they actually need.
For some people, this means becoming more assertive and developing healthier boundaries. For others, it may mean responding differently within relationships, finding more effective ways of managing anxiety or recognising that they no longer need to repeat patterns that once helped them cope.
Nina knows therapy is making a difference when clients begin taking what they have discovered in the therapy room into their everyday lives: becoming more authentic, trusting themselves more and feeling empowered to make changes for themselves.
Nina is a BACP Accredited Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor.
Her qualifications and additional training include:
Nina offers face-to-face counselling in Buckhurst Hill as well as online therapy.
She is available most days except Fridays.
Session fee: £80
Block bookings: Available
Concessions: A small number of lower-cost sessions may be available depending on individual circumstances.
Yes. You don’t need to arrive at therapy with a diagnosis or a clear explanation of what is happening. Many people simply know that they feel stuck, overwhelmed, or unhappy, or that something in their life or relationships isn’t working as they would like. Nina can help you begin untangling what you’re experiencing and understanding what may be contributing to how you feel.
Nina works with anxiety, worry and overthinking. Therapy can help you understand what may be driving and maintaining these patterns, while also developing practical ways of responding differently to difficult thoughts and feelings.
Yes. Nina often works with people who find themselves putting other people’s needs before their own, struggling to say no or feeling guilty when they try to establish boundaries. Therapy can help you understand where these patterns developed and gradually become more confident and assertive within your relationships.
Previous therapy not feeling right doesn’t necessarily mean therapy isn’t for you. Nina understands that the relationship you have with your therapist matters. Her approach is warm, conversational and collaborative, and she places considerable importance on helping clients feel comfortable, understood and able to talk openly.
Nina is trained in both psychotherapy and transformational coaching. Therapy may be more appropriate when you want to understand emotional difficulties, past experiences or recurring patterns in greater depth, while coaching can be particularly useful when you are looking towards goals, decisions or future change. Nina can also integrate elements of both approaches, helping you understand what may be holding you back while supporting you to make practical changes and move forward.
Nina has postgraduate training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and incorporates CBT into her integrative approach where it is appropriate. Rather than using exactly the same approach with every client, she draws on different therapeutic perspectives according to what you are experiencing and what you hope to achieve.
Yes. Nina offers both online therapy and face-to-face appointments at Cherry Tree Therapy Centre in Buckhurst Hill.
You don’t need to know exactly what is wrong or arrive with everything neatly worked out. You might simply know that something isn’t working, that you’re tired of repeating the same patterns, or that you’d like to understand yourself and your relationships better.
If you’d like to explore whether Nina could be the right therapist for you, complete the enquiry form below. Our team will take the time to understand what you’re looking for and help you take the next step.