gestalt therapist, lecturer, supervisor

Why therapy at all?

Sometimes things stop working.

You might feel stuck, overwhelmed, or no longer yourself.

Maybe something in your work, your relationships, or your inner world is asking for attention.

Therapy offers a space to pause, to explore, and gently begin to understand what is happening, with someone by your side.

What I can offer is

I offer a safe, confidential, and supportive space where you can feel heard and welcomed.

Together, we explore what is holding you back, your patterns, your doubts, and your emotional experience, so that you can move towards greater clarity and a more authentic way of being.

About me

I am a Gestalt Integrative Counsellor and body-oriented therapist.

I offer a space where you can slow down, feel, and begin to understand what is happening in your life, at your own pace.

My work is shaped by an interest in trauma, attachment, and the connection between mind and body. I work with people from different backgrounds and life experiences, and I hold culture and identity as an important part of the process.

Alongside my private practice, I also teach counselling in London and occasionally in academic settings, exploring emotional intelligence and personal growth.

Change begins where we allow ourselves to be seen.

Welcome to my practice

You might be here because something doesn’t quite feel right.

You may feel stuck, overwhelmed, or simply not yourself. Or perhaps something in your life is asking for attention, and you don’t yet have the words for it.

I offer a space where we can slow down and explore what is happening, together.

I will meet you with warmth, presence, and honesty.

I pay attention not only to what is said, but also to what is felt, held in the body, or left unspoken.

We will work at your pace, with care and curiosity, allowing things to emerge rather than forcing change.

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In my practice I draw on Attachment-based approaches and on the latest research in the field of neuroscience, that means I am able to help you understand yourself from many different perspectives including looking at your patterns of attachment to important people in your past and present life, and what neuroscience and the field of interpersonal neurobiology is able to tell us about how our brains are wired for both survival and relationships.

I support clients in long-term open-ended practice and in short-term time-limited therapy, and have considerable experience helping clients dealing with depression, low mood, sense of loss, family or relationship problems, anxiety, sex, gender and sexuality issues, self-harm, concerns around work and career, self-esteem and self-worth issues.

With a background in education, acting and marketing & PR, I can easily relate to issues with the creative professions such as managing stress and self-worth.

I also offer supervision to trainees as well as experienced therapists, following mainly the seven-eyes model and believing in a collaborative, equalising space to foster professional and personal growth..

Education and Training

• BA, University of Genoa, Italy, magna cum laude, 1999

• Master in Gestalt Integrative Counselling, Gestalt Centre, Genoa, Italy, 2010

• Diploma in Psycho-Pedagogy of Drama & Movement. Teatro dell’Ortica/Ministero della Salute, Genoa, Italy, 2010

• Advanced Training in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), 2015, London

• Advanced Training in Attachment-based family therapy (ABFT), dr. Guy Diamond, London, London 2018

• Certified in Attachment and Trauma Therapy, London, 2017

• Advancement training in treating dissociative disorders, with dr. Kathy Steele MN, London, 2018

• Interpersonal Neurobiology, How Make Psychotherapy work, with Dr. Daniel Siegel, London, 2018

• Certified in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT), ICEEFT

• Advanced training in Gestalt Therapy from a field-emergent perspective, with Dr. Dan Bloom, New York Gestalt Institute

• Certified in Internal Family System, PESI education, London, NY 2023/2024

To this I will add my plan on how to start our journey together.

But what this call is really about is to see if we click.

Regardless of technicalities and different psychological approaches, a healing journey might be a long one.

 And to go through such a deeply intimate journey with the wrong therapist might not only be difficult but really counterproductive.

So it is important we do get an impression of each other before we commit. 

If we decide to work together

Our initial meeting would be an assessment, and sessions usually take place weekly at a mutually agreed time. Monday to Thursday, daytime or evening.

The session lasts up to 45 min (Gestalt intervention might be very intense, not suitable for long sessions), and costs might range from 85£ to 125£ (some concessions available).

I also run a scheme based on your income, few slots available a year, no questions asked you pay what you can.

To make an initial appointment or ask any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Confidentiality will apply from these first contacts.

Telephone- 07435142633
email - patrizia@patriziavadala.co.uk
I practice in Twickenham,  Clapham and online.

Supervision

I offer supervision to either trainee (concessions are applied) and qualified counsellors or therapist.

The model I lean on and found so far being very solid, is the Seven-eyed model of supervision.

My approach is Integrative Gestaltic, but in the many years of practice also enriched with other therapeutic approaches, I can say that my supervision is too, integrative inspired.

Besides, exactly as in the seven-eyes model, all is explored in a relational and systemic way.

I have a very collaborative and equalising style, where I respect the supervisee’s sense of their client and the owning of their intervention, at the same time providing a safe, holding space for you and your caseload.

 Fee is 85£ for a 45 min session, 120£ for 1.5 h/month (according to last BACP requirements).

I abide to BACP ethical requirements.

I did not choose Gestalt therapy, rather the contrary.

After a major life crisis, when I was feeling a total failure, I bumped into a “Centre”, open and inclusive, where a guided relaxation was held weekly, no question asked, you could crush on those padded floors in an ancient building in the historical centre of Genoa, my hometown.

 I was benefitting from Mindfulness, since the very first session, and I did not even know what that was.

 That is the very (very) naïve start of what would have become my transformational life journey.

That centre was a school, of Gestalt psychotherapy and the teachers and founders were lead characters in the development of counselling in Italy.

 I graduated as a Gestalt Integrative Therapist in 2012 and in the same year as a Psychopedagogic -Drama therapist.

Already before my graduation, I felt strongly that the body was the leader, the temple, the keeper of many wise answers I was looking for, in my 40 years on this planet. And I started to research and to experience drama courses and body movement experiences.

From that research I met a number of theatre professionals, from different line of drama approach (existential, avant-garde, social and classical), from whom I drew as many tools as possible to access the body and foremost the emotions in the body.

 From these wonderful, at time discomforting but still enriching experiences, my drama-counselling course was born: at and for the Gestalt Centre, I run very successfully for 3 years a course that was putting together the counselling principle of personal development in a compassionate, non-judgemental way, with the Gestalt approach of placing the body, the emotions, and the experiential quality of it, at the very foreground. The tecniques applied were directly borrowed by the training of the professional actor.

I named it “fall in love with yourself” (Italians speak always of love!) a journey to discover your inner self-awareness”.

 From that invaluable experience, my very first courses, I learnt a lot, especially from my students, who attended with enthusiasm and commitment, generously accessing their utter vulnerability.

Still today I carry all of them in my heart with a great sense of gratitude.

Fees and contracts

I am happy to offer an initial consultation/ chat on the phone or preferably on Zoom; it will be important for the both of us, so that we have a “sense” of each other, and you will have the opportunity to explain what your main needs and problems are.

I will explain how I work, how exactly my therapeutic approach translates in the therapy session, what other theories I might use or infer in my work, and what can be expected from therapy. For example, we will certainly want a weekly meeting if we want to have the benefit of the therapy from the very beginning.

Today, I run similar courses, shorter, and more focused on “smaller” goals:

1 - Self-awareness, how to access, 5 sessions £120

2 - My body, my bestfriend, 5 sessions

3 - My voice, my compassion

4 - Body awareness, mine.

5 - Body awareness, others’.

Both online and in presence.

Please enquiry

Once a month, I run a group therapy session, mainly GT approach.

Please enquiry.