You can be successful, capable, and outwardly managing life well while feeling very different on the inside. You may find yourself overthinking conversations, questioning your decisions, needing reassurance from others, or wondering why relationships seem to affect you so deeply. Perhaps you are exhausted from trying to meet expectations, struggling with anxiety or low mood, or have reached a point where the life you have built no longer feels quite like your own.
Siv works with people who want to understand themselves at a deeper level. Many of her clients are thoughtful, responsible, and highly functioning, but privately struggle with self-doubt, perfectionism, difficult relationships, or a persistent feeling of not being good enough. Some have spent much of their lives adapting to other people’s expectations and have become unsure where those expectations end, and their own identity begins.
Therapy with Siv is not simply about reducing symptoms. It is an opportunity to understand the experiences, relationships and patterns that have shaped you, make sense of why certain difficulties keep returning, and begin developing a way of living that feels more authentic and connected to who you really are.
Siv is particularly interested in identity, belonging and the ways our relationships influence how we understand ourselves.
Some clients come to therapy after years of being told they are “too sensitive”, that they are overreacting or that they should simply be able to cope. Others grew up in relationships where their feelings were minimised, or they were made to feel responsible for difficulties around them. Over time, experiences like these can make it difficult to trust your own judgement. You may automatically put other people’s needs first, seek external validation, or assume you are the problem when relationships become difficult.
For others, there isn’t one obvious experience to point to. Instead, there is a recurring sense of being stuck. The same relationship dynamics keep appearing, anxiety never quite goes away, or achievements that were supposed to make you feel good about yourself don’t seem to change how you feel inside.
Siv helps clients become curious about these patterns rather than judging themselves for having them. Together, you might explore how earlier experiences are influencing current relationships, why particular situations evoke such powerful responses, and whether ways of coping that were once necessary are still serving you now.
This is not about endlessly looking backwards. Understanding where something comes from can create greater freedom in how you respond to it today.
Before becoming a psychotherapist, Siv spent several years working in design, branding and advertising in London and Norway and also ran her own business. This gives her a particular understanding of the pressures that can accompany demanding professional environments.
She works with people from law, finance, technology, media, the arts and creative industries, from young professionals finding their place to established professionals questioning what they want from the next stage of their lives.
You may be accustomed to being competent and in control. Other people might rely on you, and asking for help may feel unfamiliar. Yet underneath that competence there can be anxiety, burnout, perfectionism, loneliness, relationship difficulties or the uncomfortable sense that you are living according to what you should want rather than what actually matters to you.
Sometimes the question that brings someone to therapy isn’t simply “How do I cope better?” It is “Is this actually how I want to live?”
Siv provides space for both questions. Therapy can help you manage what is difficult now while also exploring identity, values, relationships, career choices, and what a more sustainable and personally meaningful life might look like.
Siv describes her approach as relational, pluralistically informed and evidence-based. In practice, this means she does not believe that one type of therapy should be applied to everybody in the same way.
Her work is informed by person-centred, psychodynamic, existential and cognitive behavioural approaches. Depending on what you need, sessions may involve exploring earlier relationships and experiences, looking closely at what is happening between you and other people now, understanding patterns in thoughts and emotions, or developing practical ways of managing a current difficulty.
What remains consistent is the importance Siv places on the therapeutic relationship itself.
She recognises that many people arrive in therapy after spending years feeling misunderstood, blamed or somehow different. She therefore takes time to understand your particular experience rather than assuming that a diagnosis, symptom or difficulty tells her everything she needs to know about you.
You do not need to arrive knowing what to say, and there is no expectation that you disclose difficult experiences before you are ready. Siv works collaboratively and allows trust to develop naturally. As the relationship develops, there can also be room for thoughtful challenge when that is likely to help you see something differently.
Her aim is for therapy to become somewhere you can think openly, perhaps in ways you have not felt able to elsewhere, and gradually understand yourself with greater clarity and compassion.
Alongside her work around identity, relationships and professional life, Siv has substantial experience across NHS and community mental health settings. She has worked with anxiety, depression, ADHD, autism, trauma and PTSD, grief, substance misuse and eating disorders.
Her experience within an NHS Adult Eating Disorders Service included CBT for eating disorders, and her work within substance misuse services has contributed to her trauma-informed practice.
Siv also works with adults who have recently received an ADHD or autism diagnosis, as well as those who have lived with a diagnosis for years but have never really had an opportunity to explore what it means for them.
For some people, receiving a diagnosis changes the story they have told themselves about their life. Experiences previously interpreted as failure, oversensitivity, disorganisation or simply “not fitting in” can begin to look different. Therapy can provide space to reconsider those experiences without reducing your identity to a diagnostic label.
This reflects Siv’s broader philosophy as a Counselling Psychology doctoral candidate. Diagnosis can be useful, but she is interested in the whole person: your history, relationships, culture, environment, strengths, values and the meaning you make of your experiences.
Siv’s route into psychotherapy began with curiosity about people.
While working in design, branding and advertising, she became increasingly fascinated by consumer behaviour, what motivates us, why we make particular choices and how we are influenced by the people and environments around us. Over time, those questions became less about consumers and more about human experience itself.
She returned to education, completing a BSc (Hons) in Psychology, an MSc in Psychology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychological Counselling. She is now completing her Doctorate in Counselling Psychology at the University of Roehampton.
That combination of creative, commercial and psychological experience continues to influence the way she thinks. She understands professional environments from having worked within them, while her psychological training enables her to explore what may be happening beneath the surface.
Her doctoral research also reflects her interest in what makes therapy genuinely useful. She is researching how change happens in talking therapy, including moments when clients experience significant shifts in distress or understanding and what may contribute to meaningful and lasting psychological change.
Siv is a registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and an NCPS Registrant.
She is completing a Counselling Psychology PsychD at the University of Roehampton (2022–2027) and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychological Counselling from Regent’s University London, an MSc in Psychology from the University of Westminster and a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Derby.
Her additional experience and training includes CBT for Eating Disorders within an NHS Adult Eating Disorders Service, trauma-informed practice within substance misuse and eating-disorder services, Psychological First Aid, mindfulness training and multidisciplinary work across NHS and community mental health settings.
Siv works with clients from a wide range of backgrounds and offers an LGBTQ+ affirming and non-judgemental therapeutic space.
I’ve had therapy before. Is there any point in trying again?
Many of Siv’s clients have previously had therapy and return because something new has happened or because they now want to understand themselves at a deeper level. Previous therapy can also be useful in identifying what worked for you, what didn’t, and what you need from a therapeutic relationship this time.
What happens in the first session?
The first meeting is partly an assessment, but Siv aims for it to feel like a conversation rather than a checklist. She will want to understand what has brought you to therapy, what is happening in your life now, relevant aspects of your history and relationships, and what you hope might change. It is equally an opportunity for you to get a sense of Siv and whether you feel comfortable working with her.
What if I don’t know what is wrong or where to start?
You don’t need to. Some people arrive with a very specific problem; others simply know that something doesn’t feel right. Confusion, uncertainty, or feeling stuck can themselves be the starting point. You and Siv can gradually make sense of what emerges rather than requiring you to have the answers beforehand.
How long does therapy last?
Siv primarily offers weekly, open-ended therapy. Some clients work with her for several months around a particular issue, while others choose longer-term therapy to explore relationships, identity and deeper patterns. The work is reviewed together so that therapy remains purposeful and relevant to what you need.
Siv offers face-to-face psychotherapy and counselling at the Cherry Tree Therapy Centre in Henley-on-Thames, as well as online therapy.
Face-to-face sessions are available on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with greater daytime and evening flexibility online. Standard sessions are 50 minutes, with 90-minute sessions also available.
Sessions are from £90, with a limited number of online concessionary sessions at £75.
Siv offers therapy in English and Norwegian and also understands Danish and Swedish.
If something in Siv’s profile resonates with you, you’re welcome to get in touch below. You don’t need to know exactly what you want from therapy before making contact. We can answer any questions and help you decide whether Siv might be the right person for you to work with.