Kay Holdsworth

Kay Holdsworth is a fully qualified counsellor, psychotherapist and coach based in the United Kingdom who works predominantly with women seeking positive change. She has 5 years' experience supporting people to manage stress, anxiety, low mood and a lack of motivation, and focuses on equipping clients with practical tools and strategies to look after their own mental health and wellbeing.

Kay helps women move from feeling stuck and hopeless to a place where they can trust themselves and find greater inner peace and contentment. Many of the people she sees want to make changes but are unsure how to begin; she supports them in identifying the steps that matter and in reducing feelings of overwhelm.

Her work draws on a range of therapeutic approaches, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, a Solution Focused approach, Writing Therapy, guided relaxations and visualisations, and mindfulness. If useful for a client, she will include practical exercises such as breathing techniques or guided relaxations during sessions, and she enjoys introducing creative ways of working that use imagination and creativity to support insight and change.

Kay asks clients to be willing to engage with the work, noting that progress often happens between sessions. She regularly sets practical tasks, experiments and exercises for clients to try between meetings and often encourages journaling where it feels helpful. Openness about what is and is not working in therapy is encouraged so the work can be adapted to each person’s needs.

She qualified in 2017 with a Postgraduate Certificate in Counselling and Psychotherapy on an integrative and relational course. Further training includes Solution Focused Training in September 2021 with ACPT and a Creative Counselling Qualification in 2023 with Creative Counselling.

Kay currently works three days a week as a Student Counsellor at a Leeds university. Prior to that she was a Wellbeing Practitioner at the university for over four years, gaining extensive experience supporting anxiety, depression and motivational difficulties. She has delivered more than forty community wellbeing courses, including a seven-week Head Space course, mindfulness, introduction to counselling, and sessions in meditation and relaxation at the psychiatric hospital in Leeds. From 2018 to 2020 she facilitated a mental health drop-in group called Peaceful Minds for 18 months.

Appointments are offered on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings.