Meet Your Therapist
Founder of Bright4life & Experienced Psychotherapist, Kent
Hi I’m Michelle!
I’ve always been passionate about working as a therapist in a collaborative way because it encourages self-discovery, creating space for exploration, transparency and freedom from judgments.
Working holistically allows you to express yourselves creatively and freely, helping to seek balance in understanding your own cultural identities as well as finding existential meaning to your own life. Building your self-awareness can have such positive shifts for your mind, body and soul and be empowering and transformational and are nuggets of joy for me to experience personally!
You can also read more about my own journey to becoming a counsellor, check out my testimonials and perhaps feel inspired to make a positive change for yourselves too?
When our mind is at peace, our body and soul come to meet it.
Michelle x
A message from Michelle the founder
Welcome to Bright4life, we’re happy to have you here, wanting to take the first important step of your healing and growth journey. Please take a few moments to watch this video where you can understand more about my service and what is on offer.
Then when you’re ready, book a free 25 minute consultation with Michelle where we can assess your current situation and find a bespoke service that suits your lifestyle and needs.
My story of how I became a counsellor
My journey to becoming a counsellor started back in 2011, whilst running my own business as an antique furniture up-cycler and home educating my two young children. Alongside this, my first year of intensive training peeled back my own unresolved past trauma. You may ask “yeah, but is it worth all the time, money and effort”? Yes! Healing the self brings empowerment, self-awareness and an authenticity that allows for serenity and calmness. For me and so many of my clients, it has been truly life enhancing.
Having healed my own trauma, it was natural therefore, that my focus as a therapist would drive me down a holistic integrated healing route (which combines lots of relevant interventions suited to each client). It is important because not everyone can benefit from just talking therapy, so creative and somatic healing aids the shifting of trauma from the body and moves it towards all-round better health and wellbeing!
I come from a mixed British/European heritage, and this fusion of cultures alongside my extensive travel experience and conversion to Islam back in 2006 as a western British woman, has helped me unequivocally to be able to work sensitively with an eclectic mix of cultures from all backgrounds and beliefs. I immensely enjoy understanding client’s cultures and unique experiences, and it provides me with so much humility and personal growth. My doors are always wide open to everybody because difference and diversity is the essence of all life.
My experience includes a number of years working for Sateda, a UK based domestic abuse charity in Kent and a DA counsellor, freelancing for Sakoon, an Islamic counselling service, and running my own private practice alongside this. My training involved four years of intensive study to reach a level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Integrative Counselling and continued professional development training specialising in Trauma-Informed therapy and somatic healing. I also work with the youth and couples too. I am a fully registered member of the BACP, the largest professional body for counsellors in the UK.
My other passions also complement my work as a holistic therapist. I am a keen gardener and run an allotment for the last fifteen years. I am passionate about nature and the outdoors. I have a keen interest in natural healing remedies and living an organic lifestyle. I often share and integrate this knowledge into my sessions to aid healing in the most natural way possible for those clients who want to go down this route.