If you are looking for psychotherapy,
counselling in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, I can help.

If you're here, something matters enough that you're looking for help. That takes courage and you don't have to figure this out alone.

I'm an integrative psychotherapist in Berkhamsted, working with adults facing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship difficulties, life transitions and perinatal challenges. My approach combines talking therapy with creative processes when helpful, tailored to your individual needs.

Together we can explore what matters most to you in a safe, non-judgmental space.

What I can help with...

Anxiety
Feeling down, flat or depressed
Relationship issues
Life transitions
Identity problems
Low self-esteem
Loneliness
Work related stress
Mid-life changes
Loss and bereavement

Intimacy issues
Sexual problems
Fertility problems
Anger
Shame and guilt
Parental challenges
Abuse
Childhood trauma or neglect
Creative blocks
Addictions

How I can help

I offer a flexible approach to therapy. This means we can work in different ways depending on what feels right for you. You may prefer to focus on talking therapy, or others may want to use creative methods such as the arts, movement, music or writing. You are free to explore one or several of these options, or simply have a conversation. Together we can find the approach that best supports your needs.

Talking Therapy

While I offer a range of creative approaches, therapy does not have to involve the arts. We can simply sit and talk together about what is happening in your life or what arises in the room. Sometimes words are all that is needed and creating a safe, reflective space for conversation can be just as powerful as working through images or materials.

Sand

Sand play enables you to select

objects, figurines or small toys to represent aspects of self of other people in your life. Using a sand tray to arrange and situate objects can bring insight to one’s interpersonal relationships and difficulties and with

the capacity to move figures and objects, explore alternative or other ways of relating or being with

oneself or others.

Puppetry

Through selecting and working with

puppets you may explore aspects of self you wouldn’t feel confident to explore in everyday life. You may also bring different puppets together to represent different people in your life to explore and ‘experiment’ with seeing and understanding different

perspectives and ways of being. Puppetry can be extremely powerful in accessing and integrating parts

of self and exploring one’s full and multifaceted identity.

Music

Music plays a huge part in many people’s lives, where sounds, rhythms, beats, symphonies and lyrics provide ways of accessing, expressing or

regulating one’s emotions. Bringing important songs or compositions to therapy to explore their lyrical and

musical meanings, playing with instruments or composing music, can help you find non-linguistic ways

of exploring, understanding and regulating emotions.

Art & Craft

One doesn’t need any artistic

‘talent’ in a conventional sense to engage in visual or expressive art therapy. From doodling to expressive

painting, visual arts can provide a means for you to visualise what is internal and unconscious. The

significance and meaning of colour, mark-making, shape and form for an individual can tell you a lot about your thoughts and feelings, finding a mode of expression when words and language can be difficult or inadequate.

Clay

Clay is an earthy, grounding material

allowing you to visualise emotions, personal metaphors, or aspects of self in three-dimensions. Working intuitively with one’s hands can allow one to give shape and form to one’s intangible and unconscious thoughts or feelings, which can then be

explored and bring further insight. Working with one’s hands can also be a meditative and mindful activity,

bringing attention away from one’s mind and into the body.

Drama

Drama therapy provides a variety of methods to explore aspects of emotion, self and interpersonal

relationships, from the familiar ‘empty chair’ exercises, to experiments with ways of being, speaking and acting in the world. Drama can be used

to embody and express emotions, thoughts or ways of being in the safe space of the therapy room, and

as a way of ‘rehearsing’ for everyday life.

Creative writing, metaphor & dreams

Whether working with your own metaphors and images in dialogue, or through writing poetry, lyrics, prose and story, creative writing can enrich and make tangible emotions, thoughts and feelings that are vague, ambiguous or intangible. Journalling is a useful tool for many people, as a way of externalising internal thoughts and feelings. If it's suitable it can be interesting to keep a dream journal, using unconscious imagery to elaborate meanings and bring further insight to one’s inner world.

Bodywork & movement

Therapy considers the emphasis on mind-body connection, understanding

thoughts and feelings as embodied and not just products of the mind alone. Through work with

movement, posture, body-mapping, embodied mindfulness, breathwork and other techniques body-based therapy can equip clients with tools get in touch with their emotions, self-regulate and explore their identity and being in the world as a physical

body as well as a mind in a trauma informed way.

Meet the Psychotherapist
Debi Magonet

I am an integrative psychotherapist and art psychotherapist based in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. My approach combines talking therapy with creative processes, drawing on psychodynamic, humanistic and integrative principles.

Learn More

Next Steps

Choosing to begin therapy is an important step and it matters that you feel safe, welcomed and truly listened to. While this website can give you a sense of me and how I work, the best way to know if it feels right is to connect in person.

I offer a friendly, no-obligation phone call where we can talk about what’s on your mind, what you’re hoping for and how we might work together. If it doesn’t feel like the right fit, I’ll be glad to help you find another therapist who may be more suited to you.

My practice is in Berkhamsted, within easy reach of Hemel Hempstead, Tring, Chesham, Amersham and Watford. There’s on-site parking and good transport links. If you’d like to explore the next step, just fill in the contact form below.

Contact me

Wordless Trauma

Trauma and overwhelming emotion are stored in the brain and body as wordless sensory experiences. Images, bodily sensations and fragments without narrative. These experiences bypass language centres. Talking about them isn't enough to process them. Art therapy works directly with the sensory and emotional brain regions where trauma is held.

As trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk's research shows, creative approaches activate the neural pathways necessary for genuine trauma integration - making art therapy essential for reaching what's held beyond words.