About me
Who you'll be talking to...
Choosing a therapist is a strangely personal thing. You’re not really picking a set of letters after someone’s name, you’re picking a person you think you could trust with something really personal. So it feels only fair to let you get to know me.
I’m Laura Heslop, a relational psychotherapist and counsellor based in Beverley. The relationship we build is at the heart of how I work, and I think who I am as a person matters too. I’m happiest out on a blustery walk in the Wolds or curled up at home with a brew, and I want therapy to feel much the same way: human, warm and like a place where you can be yourself. So, here’s a little more about me…
My own path
into therapy
The first time I sat in a therapy room, I found out what it feels like to be truly listened to, without judgement. It changed everything for me. Therapy gave me the tools to understand myself more deeply and reconnect with who I really am. That experience never left me, and it planted the seed that one day I might offer the same space to someone else.
Becoming a psychotherapist
After that experience, I knew I wanted to train as a therapist myself. Today I’m a qualified psychotherapist and counsellor, and I hold a Level 7 Diploma in Psychotherapy, the equivalent of a Master’s degree.
The way I work is relational, which simply means the relationship between us matters as much as any technique. For me, that starts the moment we say hello, not once the “real” session begins. I draw on person-centred therapy, transactional analysis and creative tools, and I shape each session around what actually helps you. If talking has never come easily, we can explore things visually too, using postcards, buttons or simple timelines, which often reach deeper than words alone.
You can read more about this on my How I Can Help page.
Life outside the
therapy room
When I’m not working, I’m usually outdoors. I love to hike, ideally somewhere in the Yorkshire Wolds where I can find a quiet route and not see another soul. It’s my safe place, where I feel the most ‘me’. Most weekends you’ll also find me out walking with my dog Bailey, a very bouncy Sprocker spaniel.
The other side of me is a total homebody. When autumn rolls in, I’m the happiest person alive: give me a log burner, a candle or two, the sound of rain on the window, and I’m sorted. I finish most days with a cup of tea and a book, usually something that makes me think, from therapy reads like Counselling for Toads and Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway to real-life memoirs like The Tattooist of Auschwitz. And I’m a proper Ted Lasso devotee, which probably tells you everything you need to know about me: I love anything warm, kind and hopeful about people.
Why should this matter to you?
The belief that people are worth truly listening to is exactly what I bring into the room with you. Therapy with me isn’t stiff or clinical. It’s two humans, one of whom happens to be trained to help, making sense of things together.