Online counselling for adults affected by abandonment, betrayal, attachment wounds, and harmful relationship dynamics.
Relational trauma can take many forms.
It may come from early experiences with parents or caregivers, including emotional neglect, inconsistent care, or narcissistic or controlling parenting. It may also arise in adult relationships, where betrayal, broken trust, emotional abuse, or repeated patterns leave you feeling hurt, destabilised, or unsure of yourself.
Whether these experiences happened in childhood, within your family, in friendships, or in intimate partnerships, their impact can shape how safe and steady you feel within yourself and with others.
You might notice:
- Self-doubt or low self-worth
- Difficulty trusting yourself or others
- Fear of abandonment
- People-pleasing or self-abandonment
- Feeling emotionally overwhelmed or shut down
- Repeated relationship patterns
- A sense of being responsible for others’ behaviour
Relational trauma often shapes how steady and secure we feel within ourselves. Its impact can continue long after the original experiences.
Relational truama therapy offers a space to slow down and make sense of what has happened and how it continues to affect you.
You do not need to have everything worked out before you begin.
How Kelly Works
Kelly's approach is relational and trauma-informed therapy, grounded in attachment-focused therapy and an understanding of how the nervous system responds to safety and threat.
Whether rooted in childhood experiences, family dynamics, friendships, or adult relationships, over time, relational trauma can make everyday interactions feel charged or destabilising, and can shape how you experience yourself and others. When trust has been broken or when a connection has felt unsafe or inconsistent, it can affect your sense of identity, emotional steadiness, and capacity to feel secure in relationships.
In our work together, we begin by slowing things down.
Rather than trying to fix or rush change, we take time to understand your emotional experience, how it lives in your thoughts, your body, and your patterns of relating.
We may gently explore:
- Early attachment experiences and their impact
- Harmful or narcissistic family dynamics
- Abandonment and broken trust
- Repeated relationship patterns
- Shame, self-blame, or feeling responsible for others
- Emotional overwhelm or shutdown
- Difficulty trusting yourself or setting boundaries
This exploration is approached with curiosity and care, and always at a pace that feels manageable and respectful of where you are.
Alongside reflection, I may offer practical tools where helpful, particularly around emotional regulation, boundaries, and rebuilding self-trust. These are offered collaboratively and only where they feel supportive.
At the heart of my work is the therapeutic relationship itself. Where trust has been difficult, therapy can become a steady and reliable space, one in which new ways of relating to yourself and others can begin to develop over time.
My intention is not only to help you understand what has happened, but to support change that feels embodied, meaningful, and sustainable.