When understanding has not been enough
Carefully paced, thoughtful support when insight alone has not brought change
Sessions are available in person in Shinfield, Reading, Berkshire, and online.
A gentle starting point
You do not need to have clear words for what is wrong for therapy to begin.
Some people arrive with a sense that something has felt difficult for a long time, without being fully sure why.
You may be here because something feels persistently difficult: anxiety that does not settle, overwhelm, shutdown, disconnection, exhaustion, or relationship difficulties that keep repeating even when part of you understands them.
For some people, what feels most real is not a therapy category, but what they are living with — or the impact it is having on daily life.
You may already have spent a long time trying to make sense of things. And still find that something in you reacts before you can choose differently.
You might recognise some of these experiences:
part of you understands what is happening, but your responses still do not shift
you find yourself pulled into anxiety, shutdown, or hypervigilance
the same relationship patterns keep repeating, even when you try hard to do things differently
Sometimes these difficulties are linked to trauma, chronic stress, or attachment wounds.
They may show up more quietly as chronic tension, people-pleasing, emotional shutdown, dissociation, hyper-independence, or a body that still expects to protect itself.
These responses are not signs of weakness. They are often ways the mind and body learned to cope, adapt, or stay safe.
Therapy can offer a space to understand these responses with care, without forcing change too quickly. Over time, that can create more room to think, feel, choose, and relate differently.
“For the first time, therapy felt steady enough for me to stay with what was hard without getting overwhelmed or shutting down.”
— Former client (anonymised)
Paolo Imbalzano
Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor
I offer specialist relational, trauma-informed psychotherapy for adults experiencing anxiety, overwhelm, shutdown, dissociation, and relationship difficulty.
My work is grounded in relationship and informed by trauma, attachment, and the nervous system. I integrate talking therapy with body-aware approaches, shaped around your particular history, needs, and capacity.
Where helpful, I may include ILF neurofeedback in person.
I work in Shinfield, Reading, Berkshire, and online.
UKCP Registered Psychotherapist · BACP Registered Member · CTA-P
If some of this feels familiar
If what you have read resonates, you are very welcome to book a free 20-minute consultation.
We can talk about what feels difficult, what you hope might feel different, and whether this way of working could support you.
There is no pressure to continue.
How I work
Therapy shaped around safety, capacity, and deeper change
If you are considering therapy, you may be carrying something that feels hard to name, or finding that life has become harder to manage than it once was.
Whatever brings you here, the work is shaped around your history, your patterns, and your pace.
This is not only about insight. It is also about what happens emotionally, physically, and relationally.
The therapeutic relationship is central to how I work. It is one of the places where change begins to happen: a space where patterns can be noticed safely, understood, and gradually experienced differently.
The work is formulation-led, shaped around your particular history, needs, and capacity. Often, the first task is not to push for change, but to help life feel more manageable in the present: building stability, strengthening regulation, and creating enough safety for deeper work to become possible.
In trauma therapy, stabilisation is often part of the work itself.
Deeper work often becomes possible gradually, as more steadiness and capacity develop.
Over time, this can support deeper and more lasting change — more capacity, more agency, and a growing sense that mind and body no longer have to work quite so hard to stay safe.
If you would like to explore further
Getting started ›
A fuller introduction to my services, and guidance on where it may make most sense to begin.
Individual psychotherapy ›
For anxiety, low mood, self-criticism, dissociation, relationship difficulties, and other patterns that feel hard to shift.
Couple therapy ›
For conflict, distance, repeated misunderstandings, trust, connection, and painful relational patterns.
ILF neurofeedback ›
In-person support for regulation, sleep, overwhelm, reactivity, and nervous-system stability.
Clinical supervision ›
For therapists and practitioners looking for reflective, trauma-informed supervision.
If this feels like a good place to begin
If this way of working feels relevant, you are very welcome to get in touch.
You do not need to be sure before making contact.
You can simply begin with a conversation.