Heart Insight
Getting to know me
I am Suzia Bolman a counsellor and psychotherapist with a background in clinical psychology, I support adults in making sense of their experiences at their own pace.
Living in different countries and navigating different cultures has shaped how I understand life's complexities and personal dilemmas.
Both personally and professionally, I am guided by two core values:
Compassion: Understanding difficult emotions with empathy and kindness
Equanimity: Recognising that life is inherently unpredictable, while developing greater freedom in how we respond.
My approach
A Person-Centred Foundation
My work is grounded in humanistic values, respecting each person's autonomy and capacity for self-determination.
I meet you where you are, with an open mind, compassion and curiosity, while remaining attentive to what unfolds in our work together.
Rather than following a predetermined agenda, we work collaboratively, allowing space for what matters to you, including experiences or feelings that may be difficult to understand or express.
An Integrative Understanding
Alongside this foundation, I draw from psychodynamic and cognitive perspectives, adapting our work to your individual needs, preferences and goals.
I continue to deepen my clinical understanding through ongoing professional development, including recent advanced training in Dr Dan Siegel’s Attachment and Personality Patterns (CAPPS). This attachment-informed framework helps us gently explore deeply ingrained patterns of relating and responding that may become automatic during periods of stress or relational distress.
Encouraging awareness to these patterns can create opportunities for greater emotional regulation, relational security and personal agency.
Our work can also involve developing practical skills and exploring different ways of responding to difficult situations, particularly when emotional distress makes it harder to access inner resources.
Connecting Mind & Body
As a long-term mindfulness practitioner, I also bring a gentle awareness to bodily sensations in our sessions. This can involve noticing and exploring physical impressions, emotions and responses, helping us understand how mind and body influence one another.
Through this process, we can deepen psychological understanding and cultivate more harmonious, practical ways of responding to life's challenges.
The therapeutic process can offer the conditions to integrate different aspects of yourself, including those quiet places within that may have been waiting to be seen, understood and embraced with love. As this unfolds, you may begin to discover your own authenticity.
Professional background
My professional experience includes clinical and community counselling settings in Scotland and London, as well as independent online practice with clients in the UK and internationally, where ethically appropriate. I have worked with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, supporting a wide range of emotional and psychological difficulties through both short-term focused counselling and longer-term psychotherapy.
My experience also includes working with neurodivergent clients, including autistic people and those with ADHD.
Over the years, I have supported people through a range of sensitive and complex life experiences in different professional settings
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Rape Crisis: Specialist trauma informed counselling and support for survivors of sexual violence.
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Cruse Bereavement: Specialist bereavement training and counselling support for people experiencing grief, bereavement and loss.
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Mind: Providing focused counselling within an NHS-commissioned Step 3 IAPT Talking Therapies service, supporting people experiencing depression, loss and adjustment difficulties.
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Hospital settings (Lisbon): Providing brief psychological support for people adjusting to chronic illness.
Academic qualifications:
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Five-year degree in Applied Psychology – Clinical
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Diploma in Person-Centred Counselling
Not every difficulty has a clear answer, and not every dilemma can be resolved. Sometimes, when we cannot change our circumstances, change becomes possible in how we relate to them. We may learn to live with uncertainty, loss or conflicting feelings without losing our capacity for joy and kindness — even when life has not unfolded as we hoped.