We are a Highly Experienced Team of Clinical Psychologists
We have worked together for nearly 20 years specialising in tailored psychological care for adult women.
With advanced post-doctoral training and a wealth of clinical experience, we offer a level of expertise that enables us to address the multifaceted challenges many women face today.
We offer a level of care that ensures you feel heard and understood at every stage of the process.
Unlike larger virtual practices, we work closely together to ensure you receive high quality care.
From your initial enquiry to ongoing therapy or consultation, you will always receive a highly personalised experience interacting with one of us – no administrators, no automated systems.
Dr Antonella Brunetti
More about Antonella’s Background
Antonella qualified as a clinical psychologist in 2004 after a three-year doctorate.
Her first job involved developing a clinical role for psychologists in Crisis Resolution/ Home-Treatment Teams.
Here she shared psychological thinking and approaches within a multi-disciplinary team to improve the understanding and approach to people in acute states of distress and to help them stay safe.
This role involved thinking and using psychological skills to respond to rapidly changing needs.
At times, it also required Antonella to challenge unhelpful approaches and attributions from staff towards people who were at their most vulnerable.
Antonella was involved in presenting the development of this role amongst other NHS Trusts nationally and disseminated this experience amongst other psychologists through publication.
Antonella also worked in offering psychological therapies to people with complex and enduring mental health needs in Portsmouth City and was part of the Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) Team for seven years. Latterly, Antonella led an autism diagnostic assessment service for adults as part of a national strategy.
Towards 2012, Antonella became frustrated with not being able to offer the level of high quality interventions or the time people needed in order to benefit from psychological therapies. She left the NHS to work in private practice where she has enjoyed being able to offer evidence-based treatments and the time and flexible approach people need in order to benefit from them.
Antonella has a wealth of experience in understanding and supporting neurodivergent clients and is particularly interested in the intersection between neurodivergence and transitional life stages which can prove especially challenging.
Antonella delights in supporting people in understanding their profile of individual strengths and areas of difference so they can turn towards the challenges of life and cultivate a way of living that feels sustainable, authentic and fulfilling.
She is an ISST Advanced Accredited Schema Therapist and uses this approach to provide consultation and support to neurodivergent and neurotypical women of all ages who may be looking for support (in addition to harnessing their own strengths) in managing the challenges of a tricky time in their lives.
She has considerable experience in consulting with and supervising staff teams both in health care and educational/ organisational settings and in disseminating psychological thinking and approaches to support the well-being of staff.
She is an ISST Accredited Supervisor and is enthusiastic in supporting and developing other psychologists and health professionals in their clinical work.
Antonella is warm, thorough and clear-thinking in her approach (and, she likes to think, humorous). She lives in Hampshire with her husband, older teen children and animal companions.
She is especially grateful for the relationships she has cultivated with a select sisterhood of women throughout her life and knows just how this can make the difference particularly at times when life just keeps throwing the shit your way!
Dr Rachel Seymour
More about Rachel's Background
After her undergraduate psychology degree, Rachel has worked as an assistant psychologist with people with learning disabilities, in a Specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (SpCAMHS) and as a research assistant. She completed a Masters degree in Research Methods and following this was awarded an Economic and Social Research Council scholarship in 1998 to complete her PhD “Understanding the daily lives of older people being cared for at home: An integrated approach”.
Passionate about wanting to use psychological knowledge and understandings in the real world to support people in distress to improve their mental health and wellbeing, Rachel graduated from her three-year clinical psychology doctorate in 2007. On qualifying, she continued to work in the NHS in Portsmouth City specialising in offering therapies to adults of working age, living with complex and enduring mental health needs.
Rachel offered specialist psychological assessment and evidence-based individual therapies; trained in and was a member of the Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) team; and developed and facilitated Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) groups. She was an active member in a variety of supervision and consultation groups in the Psychological Therapies Service and was part of a multi-disciplinary community recovery team offering advice and psychological consultation to non-psychologist colleagues on clients’ psychological care.
Rachel is equipped with a broad spectrum of clinical expertise from working with individuals with frequently experienced mental health difficulties and complex and enduring mental health needs. She has a specialist interest in understanding and using effective psychological interventions with people coping with the wide ranging and debilitating effects often emerging from childhood adversity and trauma. She particularly enjoys supporting individuals to discover their own positive qualities, values and distinctive characteristics.
Rachel integrates her psychological knowledge, training and expertise in her private practice to offer high quality, evidence-based, and uniquely individualised therapy which is not always accessible in other settings.
She has been enthusiastic about broadening and deepening her skills and practice in Schema Therapy and Chair Work amongst other approaches. She is particularly interested in the creativity, flexibility and transformational power that these approaches offer clients in the context of a safe, attuned therapeutic relationship.
Rachel observes how women’s highly specific biological, psychological and social needs (amongst others) have not always been well considered, integrated or served. Together with her colleague, she wants their work to be explicitly receptive to and responsive to women’s needs.
Colleagues describe Rachel as welcoming, warm, knowledgeable and highly attuned to the nuances and needs of her clients. She is skilled at cultivating safe, compassionate relationships through her curiosity and interest in people and considers it a privilege to work with people in their time of need.
In her home life, Rachel is a wife, mum to active teenagers (and aloof cats), a daughter, sister, aunt and friend and understands the many and varied demands that women face. Like many other women, Rachel juggles all these roles with connecting with family and friends, finding time to exercise and relax while navigating the ‘curveballs’ of life… as a result her house and garden project is going much more slowly than initially planned!!
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