Maria Barletta
Integrative Counsellor 
contact@minervatherapy.co.uk

Manage your anxiety
Heal your relationships

I am your therapist if you are experiencing one or more of the following:

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• ​Anxiety and its associated conditions

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• Relationship problems 

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• Toxic patterns in relationships (what I call "pervasive patterns", that repeat over and over and that you feel helpless to change)

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• Unhealthy recurring patterns in relationships (with family, friendships, colleagues, or romantic partners)

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• Difficulty in forming and maintaining healthy, life-enhancing relationships (you struggle with relating to others, suffer from social anxieties, tend to form toxic relational bonds)

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• Relationships where you “disappear,” indiscriminately putting the needs of others before your own.

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• You have low self-esteem or self-worth, worry too much about what others think of you, and tend to people-please.

 

• Perhaps, you have experienced bullying, discrimination, harassment, victimisation or have been the victim of a hate crime and need to process the experience and the trauma that resulted. 

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In romantic relationships, you may be having one or more of the following experiences:

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• You feel that you cannot find a partner because you are simply "unlucky in love" or that “love is not in the cards” for you.

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• You feel "chronically" single or alone, in spite of your desire or efforts to attract a partner.

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• You have a “pattern” that shows up in romantic relationships (i.e.., unrequited love scenarios, toxic relationships, relationships where boundaries are not respected, not being able to create or maintain healthy relationships, falling for the “same kind of partner” even though the person and context may be different, falling for narcissistic individuals, etc.)

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• You choose love objects based on “magical thinking”, new-age type of beliefs that result in “love bites” scenarios, obsessions, and/or getting involved with abusive partners.

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• You are recovering from unhealthy relationship dynamics (i.e. narcissistic abuse, domestic abuse, coercive relationships)

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• You often experience challenging relationships, where there is a lot of “drama,” “highs and lows”, “push and pull”, break-ups, etc.

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• You fall for people who seem charming and loving, who do a lot of love-bombing and give you lots of attention but then end up abusing you. 

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• You fall for people who do not reciprocate or cool off when you become involved.

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• You have left an abusive relationship. You are now looking to build your self-esteem and are committed to creating healthy relationships in your life and need a therapist that can help you rebuild your self-esteem and keep you accountable while you build new relationships.

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Perhaps, you are a loner, or have the experience of feeling lonely:

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• You feel alone, lead a solitary life, feel that you are “destined” to be alone, and suffer from low self-esteem, lack of self-worth, low mood, or depression as a result.

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• You feel like an “outsider”, like you do not belong anywhere, even when you actively put yourself “out there,” trying to fit in.

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• Perhaps, you are living in a foreign culture, away from your family of origin. You feel estranged and disconnected.

 

• Or, you struggle daily with finding a sense of fulfilment and belonging. 

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Relational difficulties may manifest as stress, anxiety, panic attacks, low mood, depression, low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, self-worth, weak or blurred boundaries, and more. 

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How can counselling help you?

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It can help you to:

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• Find clarity to access the internal and external resources that will catalyse your healing and transformation.

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• Make distinctions between what is your “stuff” to work through and what is other people’s stuff which you do not need to own. This understanding will lead to more choice, and therefore, more freedom to create a new story for you.

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• Identify your strengths and work on your resilience, acceptance and ability to provide yourself with the psychological, emotional and spiritual resources you need to overcome your present circumstances.

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In addition, if you are spiritually-minded, or you believe that you are on a spiritual path or journey, we can work holistically, in a way that takes into account your spirituality.

 

In my sessions, there is place to bring the whole of you. By exploring the things that are meaningful to you, we can start to find a way to help you engage with life-enhancing and soul-nurturing beliefs and values.

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In therapy, we will begin by exploring your story. You will decide what you want to focus on, where you feel you can make changes, and develop yourself, and together, within the safe space of our therapeutic relationship, we will explore how we can help you to realise your goals.

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Whether your challenges are with yourself, others or your environment, I offer you a safe, confidential, non-judgemental space to explore, dissect, relate and resolve your present difficulties.