Mya - Integrative Counsellor & Clinical Hypnotherapist in Hackney

At a Glance

Registration: Registered Member MBACP
Degree: First-Class BSc (Hons) in Counselling
Services: Individual counselling · Solution-Focused Clinical Hypnotherapy · LGBTQIA+ affirming counselling · Neurodiversity-informed counselling · Men’s mental health · CBT
Session formats: Face-to-face in Dalston E8 · online video · telephone
Primary location: Dalston, Hackney, East London
Availability: Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays — daytime and evening slots until 8 pm
Free 15-minute consultation: a no-obligation conversation to see whether working together feels right

About Mya

There can be a particular kind of tiredness that comes from holding it all together. Looking outwardly capable while privately struggling — with anxiety, burnout, a sense that life no longer quite fits, or a feeling that the version of you you’re presenting to the world isn’t really you. If any of that feels familiar, Mya offers a calm, considered space to set it down and look at it.

Mya is an Integrative Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist based in Dalston in Hackney, East London, also working online with clients across the UK. Her approach is collaborative and grounded — therapy that feels human and practical, rather than distant or overly clinical.

How Mya Works

Mya describes her practice as truly integrative, blending what she calls the “deep work” of looking at the past with a clear focus on what you want your life to look like going forward. Her work centres on identity and authenticity — how we lose touch with ourselves, and how counselling can support a more honest relationship with who we are.

Sessions are collaborative. You bring what is most present for you, and Mya brings a calm, non-judgemental presence and a flexible toolkit of approaches. Some weeks the work might feel exploratory and reflective; other weeks it may be more practical and solution-focused. Mya is comfortable holding both, and will tailor the pace to what feels right for you.

She is particularly known for working with people who have felt misunderstood or unseen in previous clinical settings — including LGBTQIA+ clients, neurodivergent clients, and men who have historically found it difficult to access counselling. With Mya, you don’t have to educate, justify, or explain yourself before the real work can begin.

Mya’s Background

Mya completed her First-Class BSc (Hons) in Counselling at the University of East London. She is a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP).

Before training as a counsellor, Mya spent over a decade in the hairdressing and barbering world — work that, in her hands, became unexpectedly therapeutic. She built a loyal clientele who came as much for the conversation as for the haircut, and that experience shaped her interest in how everyday interactions can hold space for difficult things. Her final-year dissertation focused on how to make counselling more accessible for men, and on the cultural barriers that often prevent men from seeking support.

Alongside her work with Hope Therapy & Counselling Services, Mya is currently completing the advanced stage of her training in Solution-Focused Clinical Hypnotherapy and works part-time as a counsellor for an LGBTQIA+ charity in London.

Therapeutic Approaches Mya Draws On

Mya works integratively, which means she draws on several recognised approaches and shapes sessions around what is most useful for the person in front of her. The approaches below are the ones she works with most often.

Integrative counselling

Integrative counselling brings together ideas from several established therapy approaches rather than working from a single school. It allows the therapy to flex around what you actually need, rather than asking you to fit the approach. This is the framework that underpins Mya’s work overall.

Existential and psychodynamic

These two approaches sit alongside each other in Mya’s work. Psychodynamic ideas explore how early patterns — in family, relationships, and identity — continue to shape how you feel and behave now. Existential ideas look at the bigger questions of freedom, responsibility and meaning. Together they can be useful if you find yourself stuck in patterns you don’t fully understand, or wrestling with questions of purpose or identity.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)

SFBT is a future-oriented approach that asks where you want to get to rather than focusing on what has gone wrong. It draws on your existing strengths and looks at small, concrete steps that move things forward. It suits clients who want their counselling to feel practical, not endless.

Solution-Focused Clinical Hypnotherapy

Solution-Focused Clinical Hypnotherapy combines the future-orientation of SFBT with clinical hypnosis. In hypnosis you remain fully aware and in control — it is closer to a focused, relaxed state than to anything dramatic. The aim is to calm the nervous system and help new ways of thinking and responding take root. Mya is currently completing the advanced stage of her clinical hypnotherapy training and works under supervision throughout.

Jungian ideas and dream work

Mya sometimes draws on Jungian ideas, including the use of dreams or imagery, to look at what sits beneath the surface of a presenting problem. This can be helpful if you have a sense that something deeper is going on but find it hard to put words to it.

Humanistic and person-centred

Underpinning all of Mya’s work is a humanistic, person-centred sensibility — the belief that you are the expert on your own life, and that the therapeutic relationship itself is one of the most important parts of the work.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) elements

Where it is useful, Mya draws on cognitive behavioural therapy techniques to look at the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviours. This can be particularly useful for anxiety, low mood, and patterns of avoidance or perfectionism that have become entrenched.

Areas Mya Works With

Mya works with a range of presenting issues and is especially experienced in the areas described below. The full list of areas covered appears at the bottom of this page.

LGBTQIA+ counselling

Mya offers LGBTQIA+ counselling in Dalston and online across the UK for clients who want a space that is genuinely affirming, where their identity is not the thing being explored unless they want it to be. She supports clients navigating sexual identity, gender identity, identity-based experiences in family or work, and the layered impact of discrimination. Her training includes work with Gendered Intelligence, and she has a particular focus within this on trans and non-binary mental health.

Identity, authenticity and life transitions

Many people come to counselling at a point when life no longer feels aligned — a shift in work, a change in a relationship, or simply a growing sense that the way you have been living is not the way you want to keep living. Mya offers a reflective space to look at what is changing and what you want to move towards, available in Dalston and through online counselling.

Anxiety and panic

If anxiety has been making everyday life feel harder than it should — racing thoughts, anticipatory dread, social anxiety, or full panic — counselling can offer a space to understand what is driving it and to find different ways of responding. Mya works with anxiety counselling in Dalston and online, and may draw on hypnotherapy techniques where it would help.

Men’s mental health

Drawing on her dissertation research and her years working alongside men in barbering, Mya has a particular focus on making counselling feel accessible to men who may never have considered it before. Whether you are dealing with work stress, relationship difficulties, grief, loneliness, or a sense of being stuck, the work is practical, direct, and free of judgement.

Neurodiversity-informed counselling — ADHD, autism and burnout

Mya offers neurodivergent-informed counselling in Dalston and online for people who are ADHD, autistic, or otherwise neurodivergent. The starting point is that neurodivergence is not the problem to be fixed — the work focuses on what you are actually finding difficult, whether that is burnout, perfectionism, sensory overwhelm, or making sense of a recent diagnosis or self-identification.

Trauma

Mya offers trauma-aware counselling for clients carrying the impact of difficult or harmful past experiences, including identity-based trauma and abuse. The work is paced carefully — there is no pressure to go faster than feels manageable. (Please note that Mya does not work with active suicidality or active self-harm; if this is what you are experiencing, the team can help you find more suitable support.)

Depression, low mood and burnout

Whether what you are carrying feels like classic low mood, the slow grind of burnout, or something harder to name, Mya offers a space to look at it together — in Dalston or through online counselling — and to understand what has been holding it in place.

Stress, perfectionism and overwhelm

For clients who look outwardly capable while privately running on empty, Mya offers a space to step out of the performance. The work often looks at perfectionism, people-pleasing, and the patterns that keep things on the surface looking fine.

OCD, phobias and habits

Mya works with obsessive thinking, compulsive patterns, specific phobias, and unhelpful habits — sometimes drawing on hypnotherapy techniques alongside talking therapy, where this would be useful.

Self-esteem and confidence

If long-standing patterns of self-criticism, comparison or low self-worth are getting in the way of how you want to live, counselling can offer a space to look at where those patterns came from and how they might begin to soften.

Sessions with Mya

Mya offers sessions face-to-face from her practice room in Dalston E8 in Hackney, online by secure video, and by telephone. Sessions are 50 minutes, typically held weekly. Both short-term and longer-term work are available, depending on what would suit you best. Mya is part of a team of more than 90 qualified therapists at Hope Therapy & Counselling Services, where careful matching means clients are paired with a therapist who genuinely fits, rather than simply assigned.

A first session is usually a longer initial conversation to get a feel for what has brought you to counselling and what you would like the work to focus on. There is no pressure to arrive with everything worked out — that is part of what the sessions are for.

Confidentiality

Sessions are confidential. There are limited circumstances in which this may need to change — for example, if there is a serious risk of harm. Mya will explain these clearly before any work begins, and they are also covered in Hope Therapy’s standard terms.

Where Mya Works — Dalston and Across East and Inner London

Mya works face-to-face from Dalston in Hackney, East London, and online with clients across the UK. Her practice room is well placed for clients travelling from Shoreditch, Hackney Central, Stoke Newington, Islington, Bethnal Green, Hoxton, Clapton, Stratford, Walthamstow, and Bow, all of which sit within a comfortable journey of the Dalston practice. If you are based further afield, online counselling is available anywhere in the UK.

Location	Journey time
Hackney Central	5 mins
Shoreditch	10 mins
Stoke Newington	10 mins
Hoxton	10 mins
Clapton	10 mins
Islington	15 mins
Bethnal Green	15 mins
Stratford	20 mins
Walthamstow	20 mins
Bow	20 mins

Mya is a particularly strong fit for clients based in Hackney, Shoreditch and Islington who value being able to combine face-to-face sessions in Dalston with the flexibility of online counselling when life gets busy. Online sessions are available to anyone across the UK.

Availability

Mya is currently accepting new clients and has availability on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. She offers a mix of daytime appointments and later slots — the latest session of the day is at 8 pm.

Book a Free 15-Minute Consultation to discuss working with Mya

Starting counselling can feel like a significant step, especially if you have not done so before — or if past experiences of clinical settings have not gone well. A free 15-minute consultation is the simplest way to get a feel for whether working with Mya feels right.

It is a free, no-obligation conversation — no commitment, no pressure. You can book a slot here: calendly.com/hopetherapy/15-minute-consultation.

If you would prefer to speak to someone before booking, Hope Therapy’s phone line is answered 24 hours a day.

More Info — Mya

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) Counselling, First Class — University of East London, 2025
CPCAB Level 3 Counselling Studies — Central Plus Training Academy, 2022
CPCAB Level 2 Counselling Skills — Central Plus Training Academy, 2021
Solution-Focused Clinical Hypnotherapy — in advanced training (completing certification)
Trans-affirmative practice training — Gendered Intelligence

Professional registration

Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP)

Supervision and CPD

Mya works under regular clinical supervision and engages in ongoing continuing professional development across her core areas of practice, including LGBTQIA+ and trans-affirmative work, neurodiversity-informed practice, and Solution-Focused Clinical Hypnotherapy.