Individual Therapy

If you've landed here, something inside you is asking for support:
a gentler way forward, a steadier hand, a place to finally breathe.

You don't have to carry it all on your own anymore.

Contact Me

Held, heard, and deeply seen.

A space for you

I offer individual therapy in Nelson/Whakatū and online across Aotearoa — creating a safe, grounded, deeply compassionate space where you can lay down what's heavy and begin to make sense of what's been shaping your life.

Many people come to me when they're feeling overwhelmed, anxious, burnt out, or quietly struggling beneath the surface.

I also specialise in supporting individuals navigating disordered eating and body image concerns — those exhausting inner battles that often go unseen, unheard, and misunderstood.

Recovery is possible, and it is not something you're meant to do in isolation. You deserve support that is attuned, consistent, and genuinely compassionate.

How we’ll work together

Whatever brings you here, you will be met with warmth, presence, and a therapist who truly listens — not just to your words, but to your nervous system, your body, your pace, and the stories underneath your stories.

In our sessions, you'll have space to gently explore:

  • What you've been holding down

  • The ones that keep repeating

  • Your connection with food, body, and self

  • The strategies that once kept you safe

  • The weight of trying to "hold it all together"

  • Living with more softness, freedom, and self-trust

  • Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

    Cognitive Behaviour Therapy can be used for a range of mental and emotional health issues. CBT explores thought patterns and their effect on your moods, providing a range of tools and strategies to manage unhelpful thoughts and behaviour that are impacting on your life and the achievement of your goals.

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

    Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is all about accepting what you can’t control and committing to action to improve your life. The goal is to foster a rich life, and to accept the pain that inevitably comes with that.

    ACT helps you focus on your values and what is meaningful to you and supports you to use this to change your life for the better. Mindfulness skills are an important part of ACT, giving you a toolkit to handle unpleasant thoughts, sensations and images, rather than trying to avoid them

  • Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

    This modality works with opposites, exploring both acceptance and change strategies. You are accepted as you are, but acknowledgement is made that change is necessary to help you move forward in pursuit of your goals. DBT explores mindfulness and distress tolerance, as well as emotional regulation and interpersonal skills such as assertiveness and boundary setting. 

  • Solution Focused Therapy

    Solution Focused Therapy is future focused and goal oriented. As the name indicates, SFT focuses on solutions rather than problems. SFT supports you to develop and achieve the solutions you want, and motivates and sustains positive behaviour change.

The Way I Hold This Space

My work is grounded in a trauma-informed, deeply human, evidence-based approach. I draw on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Solution Focused Therapy (SFT), mindfulness, somatic practices, and my understanding of how the nervous system shapes our relationship with food, sensations, and embodiment.

Therapy with me isn't about fixing you. You are not broken.

It's about uncovering the strength, wisdom, and resilience already within you, and supporting you to rebuild trust with your body, nourish yourself more easefully, and move toward the life you long for.

Make it stand out.

  • “It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business.”

    Laurie Payton

  • “It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business.”

    Jamie Kokot

  • “It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business.”

    Lindsey Beumer

  • “It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business.”

    Keith Finley

client feedback

Therapy Feedback

I feel so fortunate to have had you support me over the years and I always just felt a million times lighter and happier and stronger following each [clinical supervision] session with you.

Hannah

Hayley is a warm and dynamic therapist who is motivated by a deep commitment to helping others connect with their strengths and resilience in order to grow and to heal. Hayley blends her experience as a mental health practitioner and a yoga teacher to work with people holistically, with rigour and intention. When with Hayley you have a strong sense of the depth of her commitment to you, her love and her strength. She won’t let you continue to do things that don’t serve you without letting you know about it, and will encourage forth loving and wise parts of you that you never knew existed. She’s one of the best and most fiercely compassionate personal cheerleaders I know.

Dr Emma Spiel