A practice which provides responsive, evidence based, psychological therapies for adults, teens and families with mental health difficulties.
The Holding Hope vision is to offer high quality, easily accessible therapies for people struggling with everyday life stressors through to complex psychological distress.
All therapy sessions are being offered remotely, by our Clinical Psychologists, Dr Ashlyn Firkins and Dr Kate Nurser.
I am a fully qualified Clinical Psychologist offering brief and open-ended counselling and therapy. I work with a range of difficulties, including anxiety, stress, low mood, phobias, trauma, adjustment to physical health conditions, employment issues, relationship troubles and low self-esteem.
From me, you should always expect a warm, compassionate and non-judgemental therapeutic space, where difficulties can be explored and meaningful change facilitated. Having spent nearly 10 years working as an NHS Psychologist, it became increasingly important for me to work with clients at their pace and on areas of life that mattered most to them. This need for a more person centered approach, led me to found Holding Hope Therapies.
I work with self-funding and insurance funded clients. You don't need to be referred by a GP, just get in touch.
Our practice psychologist, Dr Firkins, is highly trained, with a Masters and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. She has gained substantial clinical experience working within the National Health Service and substantial research experience at the University of Cambridge and most recently as an Associate Research Fellow at the University of the West of England.
Dr Firkins is trained in well-researched, evidence-based interventions, which are advocated by NICE in the treatment of many mental health difficulties. This should offer peace of mind to those looking to find a clinician with the right knowledge base to help.
Sadly, it is not uncommon for those struggling with their mental health to describe previously receiving care that was not fit for purpose. This may include treatments which were too short or too light touch to get to the root of the problem. Dr Firkins is trained in thorough, long term models and offers treatments that reflects her depth of training.
Dr Firkins has lots of experience providing therapy virtually.
Moving sessions online means that more appointment times can be offered, session prices are reduced, the burden of travel eliminated and it ensures that more people can access our services regardless of where they live.
Holding Hope Therapies recognises that your time is precious and does not want you to suffer for a moment longer then needed. With this in mind, Dr Firkins aims to respond to all enquiries within 48hours.
I have no words that will truly capture how grateful I am to Ashlyn. Her patience, kindness and brilliant knowledge helped me through some really difficult times. Her sessions were useful and tailored to suit me which showed how much she listens to her clients and takes care to adapt to meet them where they are.
Ashlyn shared some really useful tools/resources for me to refer back to…. I also learnt to be more compassionate towards myself. Ashlyn made me feel seen, heard and validated in our sessions together - that alone helped me so much.
Ashlyn has by far given the best experience you could ask for. She is kind and considerate with our needs being priority. I really love how she has a plan for the session but can change it on the fly to suit what is needed at the time.
The experience had a profoundly positive effect on my overall wellbeing, through seemingly subtle changes in thought processes and actions.
I have gained so much more confidence within me. I don’t really care what people think about me anymore.
