Donna Burgess:
Integrative Psychotherapist-in-training (NCPS, UKCP student member) & Senior Coach (ICF, EMCC)
If you are looking for mental health support and care, you are in the right place. I am glad you are here.
My name is Donna Burgess. I am a People Practitioner, Coach and Psychotherapist-in-training. I have a long-standing curiosity in how minds work and how we adapt to the challenges inherent in being human.
I support people like you to navigate a variety of life and work-related matters, including confidence, career, burnout, anxiety, identity, relationships and bereavement. I have a particular interest in early-life adverse experiences, including childhood trauma, and in exploring the diverse/holistic cognitive and embodied ways suffering might be alleviated.
My hope, as your therapist, is to walk alongside you, in collaboration, creativity and care. Together, through our therapeutic relationship, we will unpack your story, tend to your wounds, and help you move towards new ways of being, generating greater self-awareness, self-compassion and self-confidence.
This may involve exploring both your lived experiences (cognitive, somatic, developmental), as well as external factors (cultural, systemic, familial).
My approach combines therapy with coaching, amplifying the impact of each discipline. Therapy reveals why we do the things we do. Coaching creates action from these insights.
I hold theories lightly, use non-shaming language, and avoid pathologising. I recognise that whilst healing sometimes means exploring difficult material, we can also allow space for humour. I believe in reminding people of their agency, in hope and the possibility of change.
I am proactive in evolving my work towards ever more anti-oppressive practices. As an ethically-minded practitioner, I honour the Codes of Ethics of the bodies to which I belong: UKCP, NCPS, ICF, EMCC. I am also registered with the ICO, DBS-checked and insured.
About Me:
Having started my career as a technologist, I moved into team leading and mentoring in 2005, and people-centric roles in 2015; before retraining as a Transformative Coach in 2022, and Neurodivergent-Inclusive Coach in 2025. This career evolution, combined with fifteen years of self-directed learning in the mental health space, led me to train as a Counsellor and therapist. And I am currently working my way towards an MSc in Integrative Psychotherapy at the Metanoia Institute.
My approach is integrative and relational. It encompasses psychodynamic teachings (early life experiences, attachment, unconscious influences…); humanistic principles (empathy, genuineness, curiosity…); the therapeutic relationship itself (attunement, collaboration, co-creation…); and somatics (breathwork, sensation tracking, mindfulness…). Occasionally, I refer to parts work and behavioural techniques.
I love to learn and undertake regular Continued Professional Development (CPD).
Integrity and fairness are my key personal values, and I bring these to every session.
Therapy With Me:
I work within the low-cost therapy and counselling service at HQ Therapy Rooms. I am available for weekly sessions, both online and in-person.
