Kate Hammer

ABOUT ME

As a psychotherapist and coaching psychologist, I work with adult clients who are overwhelmed, exhausted, uncertain or stuck.

Life should be liveable, not intolerable. The stress of life, the demands of family, or the perils of moving forward might be wearing you out. Negative self-talk, a nagging sense of unworthiness, or a ferocious inner critic may be throwing obstacles in your way.  If you’re feeling spread too thin, overstretched by work, parenting or divorce, entering or emerging from burnout (or rustout), the therapeutic space I offer can help you press pause and learn to reset.

What brings you to therapy?

I help people with anxiety, burnout, carer responsibility, career change, climate anxiety, closed-mindedness, confidence, decision paralysis, depression, disappointment, divorce, emotional freedom and self-regulation, existential crisis, gender identity, grief, heartbreak, identity crisis, immigration, inner critic, isolation, loss of purpose, meaninglessness, moving home or work, non-belonging, panic attacks, personality development, procrastination, racial trauma, restlessness, rootlessness, rust out (boredom), self-worth, sensitivity, transitions chosen (like graduation or retirement) and unchosen, including a loved one’s death, and uprootedness.

What I provide:

I provide a contained space and supportive presence. As you decide to trust it, your hidden self, your worries, doubts and insecurities will enter into our dialogue. Paradoxically, with them comes new possibilities. In time, you may find yourself dusting off the dreams you’ve parked on the top shelf of your adult life, unfulfilled and half-forgotten, and perhaps venturing forth in fresh directions you now feel better prepared to pursue.

My postgraduate qualifications

• Gesellschaft für Logotherapie und Existenzanalyse Psychotherapy Diploma, Counselling Diploma
• Psychology MSc Distinction - University of Derby
• Business and Personal Coaching (Work Based and Integrative Studies) Pg Cert - University of Chester
• In 1998, I earned a PhD in an arts subject.

Logotherapy, existential analysis and coaching psychology share the common aim of connecting people to their capacity to live fulfilled, autonomous, connected lives.

The way I work

• I help clients summon the resources (or develop the flexibility) to better navigate life's challenges. You might call it "inner leadership".
• How? I ask questions, hold silence, bear witness and gently confront as needed to help a person contact their inner knowing. Together, we'll look for the slices of freedom within your circumstances.
• Reframing through creative analogies, squeezing pockets of joy out of the grind and finding humour all help.
• What's more, when we listen to the inner criticism that wears you down, it softens. We perceive what it protects. With integration comes greater ease.

What next?

• We begin with a brief telephone or online call. I’ll invite you to describe the burdens bringing you to therapy and what change you seek. It’s fine to know simply that life for you isn’t going well right now.
• When we first meet in-person, we’ll continue to map your concerns and how you’d like therapy to help you live better.
• I can take the reins and direct our conversations, or we can co-create a consulting space that ebbs and flows between therapy and future-focused coaching, according to your needs.

Practicalities

• I offer regular in-person sessions on a weekly or fortnightly basis.
• Most of my availability Mon-Thur is between 9am and 6pm.
• Fees for each session are due in advance. I can issue receipts for clients wishing to make insurance claims. I do not, however, work directly with insurance providers.
• I'm not able to offer concessions or student rates at present.