About
A warm welcome to Heart and Soul Therapy. My name is Ayesha Powell (she/her). I love books, spiritual wisdom from all traditions, music, art, the natural world, including all fellow sentient beings. I am in awe of the human spirit in the face of adversity, and the miraculous, vast, intricate, systems on the planet and within ourselves that always seek balance and harmony. I have been blessed with three daughters, now grown up and living independently. I live in beautiful East Sussex with my husband, two elderly house rabbits, and visiting neighbourhood cats. I am currently trying my hand at wool felting with variable success.
I am a qualified Islamic Counsellor and psychotherapist, registered with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), fully insured and DBS checked. I have over seven years experience working with adult clients presenting with anxiety, depression, narcissistic abuse, historical child sexual abuse, inter-generational and inter-personal trauma, neurodiversity in a neurotypical so, and other common life problems. Of course, counselling is not only about dealing with mental health challenges. Some clients just need a listening ear or help with working through difficult life decisions and creative blocks.
In my work with clients from diverse genders, ethnic backgrounds, faiths and no faith, I use an Islamic Counselling theoretical approach that takes into consideration all aspects of our shared humanity and universality.Islamic Counselling is a bio-psycho-socio-political-spiritual counselling model that sees the individual as living both in this material and worldly consciousness, and one embodying an inseparable connection with the vast and ineffable pure consciousness that can be called God, the Divine or Supreme Awareness.
In this sense, the approach I take is embodied, in that it accounts for our physical body and its environment, and the impacts these can have on its well-being or 'dis-ease'. My approach is also culturally and politically aware, in that it places the individual firmly within their religious, generational, and cultural context, so they do not feel they have to explain anything, or bring only a part of themselves to therapy. And, last but not least, my approach is one of love, acceptance, presence, awareness, deep respect, compassion and safety, which allows clients a confidential and non-judgemental space to explore and unpack patterns that have led to challenges within their lives, and have made them struggle or feel stuck.
While there are a myriad tools, techniques, strategies and theories that can be used to support clients, my main intention is to build an honest, collaborative, and trustworthy therapeutic relationship, which helps clients identify patterns that have led to challenges in their lives and how this different and deeper understanding can help them manifest balance and well-being in their present and future lived experience...
I am a qualified Islamic Counsellor and psychotherapist, registered with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), fully insured and DBS checked. I have over seven years experience working with adult clients presenting with anxiety, depression, narcissistic abuse, historical child sexual abuse, inter-generational and inter-personal trauma, neurodiversity in a neurotypical so, and other common life problems. Of course, counselling is not only about dealing with mental health challenges. Some clients just need a listening ear or help with working through difficult life decisions and creative blocks.
In my work with clients from diverse genders, ethnic backgrounds, faiths and no faith, I use an Islamic Counselling theoretical approach that takes into consideration all aspects of our shared humanity and universality.Islamic Counselling is a bio-psycho-socio-political-spiritual counselling model that sees the individual as living both in this material and worldly consciousness, and one embodying an inseparable connection with the vast and ineffable pure consciousness that can be called God, the Divine or Supreme Awareness.
In this sense, the approach I take is embodied, in that it accounts for our physical body and its environment, and the impacts these can have on its well-being or 'dis-ease'. My approach is also culturally and politically aware, in that it places the individual firmly within their religious, generational, and cultural context, so they do not feel they have to explain anything, or bring only a part of themselves to therapy. And, last but not least, my approach is one of love, acceptance, presence, awareness, deep respect, compassion and safety, which allows clients a confidential and non-judgemental space to explore and unpack patterns that have led to challenges within their lives, and have made them struggle or feel stuck.
While there are a myriad tools, techniques, strategies and theories that can be used to support clients, my main intention is to build an honest, collaborative, and trustworthy therapeutic relationship, which helps clients identify patterns that have led to challenges in their lives and how this different and deeper understanding can help them manifest balance and well-being in their present and future lived experience...