About your psychologist
I’m Dr Hannah Ryan (BA, MSc, DClinPsy), a UK-based, registered clinical psychologist.
I have a particular interest in intergenerational trauma (how trauma can get passed down through generations, through nobody’s fault, especially when families experience social adversity or injustice), in parent-child dynamics and in how the relationships we are surrounded by can act as the soil for our mental health, for better or worse.
I have worked in a range of different roles drawing on systemic, compassion focused, acceptance based, narrative, mentalizing, motivational and other approaches in the NHS and charity sector. These have often straddled ‘adult’ and ‘child’ mental health, with a focus on the emotional experience of parenting children, allowing me to work at the intersection of parent-child relationships and complex family attachments, which is exactly where I tend to do my best work.
Outside of work I feel happiest and most grounded when I am spending time in nature, with my dog, listening to podcasts (often all at the same time) or having long and passionate conversations with friends.
What is my approach?
My style is down-to-Earth, open, validating, friendly and creative. I hope you will leave our sessions feeling listened to, understood and like I am genuinely rooting for you, as well as for your child (if you are a parent). I may not always tell you what you want to hear, but that will hopefully feel okay too because you will know that I am not coming from a place of judgment.
Psychologists are privileged to be trained in a broad range of evidence based therapies (and we are required to continuously top up our training). I use a flexible and integrative approach, weaving in useful ideas and tools from a variety of different evidence-based psychological therapies.
I would love to come alongside you to help you grow into a more hopeful, confident, happier version of you. It is the best feeling for me to feel like my input has in some small way helped a someone to feel empowered, hopeful and connected, and that I have helped nudge them onto a path towards thriving.
What Can I Offer?
In 1:1 therapy, I give people the space to explore their difficult experiences; however, psychology is more structured and goal-directed than counselling or psychotherapy (which can be confusing). I also work with each person’s unique goals to decide which psychological models are best suited to them. I draw from a range of experiential exercises and share diagrams, psychological education, thought experiments and other ideas to help unblock barriers, access hope and motivation and increase the likelihood that the person can start moving towards their values and goals.
In parent coaching sessions, I support parents who are struggling with parenting. For parents of teens, I have particular experience in supporting parents of children who are presenting with challenging behaviour, mental health problems or school refusal. For parents of younger children, parents might be struggling with tantrums, ‘after school restraint collapse’ or sibling rivalry. The main evidence-based therapies I currently draw on for parents are Emotion-Focused Coaching, Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) and Mentalization Based Therapy (MBT).
In couples therapy or co-parenting sessions, I help couples or parents remember what unites them, understand each other’s perspectives, work through resentment and build on their strengths to find healthy ways to communicate about their differences.
In parent-child sessions, family therapy or parent-child sessions for adult children, I help parents and their children find common ground, understand each other’s perspectives in a new way and build on their strengths to find healthy ways to communicate about their differences, find playful ways to bond and reconnect, express their love in ways it can be heard and repair meaningfully from past pain.
In perinatal sessions, I support expectant parents, new parents or adults struggling with fertility to manage their mental health in the context of parenthood or desired parenthood. I normalise their struggles, explore their emotions, validate their fears and help them to put their shame into context.
In health psychology sessions it’s often necessary to start with radical validation to compensate for the experiences of doubt people may have had, especially with poorly understood or invisible conditions such as long Covid, chronic fatigue syndrome or ME or any other conditions which are not visible and are not well known. I also work sensitively to support the person to process feelings of loss and grief for the life they thought they were going to live and to feel the anger they might be suppressing. I then integrate evidence-based tools to help them get unstuck and move forward at a manageable pace so that they can start to build a life that may look different but is nonetheless rich, meaningful, joyful and no less worth living.
While I usually keep my personal life private, last year, I disclosed that I live with a chronic health condition in order to offer voluntary services to the support group Life on the Level (LOTL) from a place of openness and authenticity. At the end of 2023, LOTL were kind and generous enough to present me with an award for “Outstanding Contribution to the Support Group and Members from an Expert Clinician”. They kindly wrote:
“Hannah’s presentation resonated with so many members, and especially Hannah’s own journey to overcome the issues and barriers associated with living with a chronic balance condition. We received a record number of emails from members about the presentation. In the words of one member, “Hannah was able to convey how to adapt our lives in order to accommodate a balance disorder. This is such a vital skill which enables us to continue to see ourselves as functioning people rather than simply defining ourselves by our illness. Hannah was highly inspirational”.
I do not disclose much about my health in sessions; however, many people with long term health conditions or disabilities have had traumatising experiences with people in positions of expertise and power who may have invalidated them, doubted them, forgotten about them, delayed their treatment because they didn’t take them seriously enough or made them feel that it is “all in their head”. I feel passionately about the subtle and not-so-subtle systemic abuses inherent in the expert caring professions because I have experienced them at times too. I share my experiences here in a limited way to signal that this is a safe space and that if we work together, I will strive to validate your experiences deeply, honour your expertise in your own condition and body and build a relationship built on collaboration, trust and equality.
