Rebecca Lazaro

Rebecca Lazaro is a qualified therapeutic counsellor who works using a Person-Centred approach. She sees each person as an individual shaped by their unique experiences, and her role is to help clients make sense of their thoughts, feelings, behaviours and life events while supporting their authentic self.

Sessions with Rebecca offer the opportunity to speak with an unbiased professional trained to listen without prejudice, providing a safe, confidential space where clients can express themselves and process difficult emotions. Clients bring worries and issues from the past, present or future and direct the content and pace of the work, while Rebecca listens for feelings, notices beliefs and themes, and gently challenges to illuminate areas that may be difficult to face alone.

The therapeutic relationship she offers is based on trust and equality - two people working together on the same level rather than a power imbalance. She works alongside clients with empathy and acceptance to help them build confidence in finding their own way forward. Rebecca also explains that Person-Centred work is often a longer-term process and recommends a minimum of eight sessions for the process to be effective in creating lasting change. Clients seeking a directive, solution-focused style of therapy may prefer to look for a CBT practitioner instead.

Depending on the issues presented, Rebecca may bring in information and ideas from other therapeutic approaches to help identify attachment patterns, reflect on adverse childhood experiences, process unresolved trauma that can be held in the body, recognise present-day triggers linked to past events, and offer insights into how the nervous system can regulate and dysregulate emotions. These perspectives aim to increase self-awareness of unconscious patterns so clients can make conscious choices for their future.

She has three years of experience providing therapy and a twenty year background supporting adults and young people with a range of mental health needs in clinical and residential settings. Her work history includes supporting people with depression, anxiety, PTSD and complex trauma, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, self-harm and eating disorders. Rebecca has also worked in drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres and her most recent role was as an addiction recovery counsellor.

Rebecca is mixed race and a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Her formal training includes a BA (Hons) degree in Psychology and a Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling, together with certificates in Emotion-Focused Therapy for Couples, Trauma-Informed Practice, Family and Relationship Therapy, Addiction and Co-dependence, Emotions and Emotional Disorders, Counselling Studies, Counselling Skills, Online & Telephone Counselling, Unconscious Bias, Safeguarding Adults and UK GDPR. She is a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP) and adheres to their professional standards.