Jo Robertson, Anxiety and Trauma Specialist
I help people – who might look fine on the surface but are drowning underneath – to understand why they are struggling, untangle themselves from exhausting patterns and the past, so they can improve their relationships, feel stronger and experience more joy.
What I know from the Inside
Growing up, I was a highly sensitive child and, due to difficult circumstances, I often played the role of peacekeeper and emotional caretaker with my family and friends. At school I was prone to daydreaming and wasn’t naturally academic, but I developed a strong work ethic that helped me achieve.
At first glance, these things sound like positive personality traits, but what I know now is that they were adaptations. And the adaptations that serve so well during childhood can sometimes become traps in adulthood.
So when you tell me you can’t stop managing everyone else’s emotions. That you struggle to say no. That your achievements never really land. That at times you explode in anger even though you pride yourself on being an easy-going, low-maintenance kind of person. That you’re exhausted by a life that looks, from the outside, completely fine –
I don’t just understand that professionally. I understand it personally.
In midlife, when there are suddenly more people depending on you than ever before, these patterns can cause real problems. Especially because the standard advice about ‘setting boundaries’, ‘practice self-care’ or ‘make sure to rest’ is never going to cut it when your whole nervous system is oriented towards avoiding failure or making sure the people around you are regulated and okay. It treats the symptom and not the source.
Under these circumstances, you can quickly find yourself spiralling with anxiety, frustration, guilt, and exhaustion. Worse still, when you’re struggling, it’s impossible to see the bigger picture and find a way out.
‘For the first time I was able to link things together to help me really understand what I was experiencing and how I could start to make the changes I needed to…{it’s} ultimately improved my work, my relationships and my life.’
Robert, Cheshire
My Approach
Therapy isn’t about changing who you are – the adaptations we make in our early lives can become our greatest strengths. However, we do need to bring things into balance, so your sense of safety isn’t completely dependent on supressing your emotions, achieving success or appeasing and pleasing others. You’ll finally be able to tune into your own needs so you can discover what brings you joy and makes you feel alive.
So much of our experience as human beings is shaped by things we have little or no control over. For example, our genetic makeup, the environment we grew up in, and how we’ve been treated by friends and loved ones.
On top of this, our brains are designed to prioritise survival over happiness. This means we tend to focus on the negative and anything that feels threatening to us.
Clearly, much of what goes on in our own minds isn’t our fault – but it is our problem. Choosing to come to therapy means turning towards the things that feel difficult. It involves learning about how your mind works, so you can understand why you react the way you do, and how beliefs developed in the past may be causing you distress in the present.
The process may not be easy, but if you’re motivated, therapy presents a wonderful opportunity for change. I can help you gain clarity about the patterns making you feel stuck and give you the skills you need to manage difficult emotions and a tricky brain.
Together, we can make sense of the challenges you’re experiencing and find a new way forward that feels hopeful and exciting. Most importantly, you’ll feel my support every step of the way.
‘I was apprehensive about participating in therapy after trying counselling previously… {Joanne} explained everything so well. Therapy has changed my thought processes and I feel it has made me more confident, have more self-respect and ultimately made me much happier.’
Phil, Cheshire
It’s Time to Put Yourself First
My therapy room is located in a beautiful townhouse near Tatton Park in Knutsford, Cheshire. With more than 18 years of experience in the field of mental health, I regularly support clients experiencing specific difficulties such as trauma, social anxiety, OCD, panic attacks, and depression. I also see people who are struggling with low confidence, excessive worry, burnout, and the sense that he same painful patterns keep repeating.
I am a fully accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapist (CBT) and have undertaken specialist training in Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), Schema Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) which means I have the toolkit to help you with the problems that are happening NOW and what happened THEN. We don’t just manage symptoms; we change the patterns at their source.
