Helping Highly Sensitive People Thrive

I'm Marie, a psychotherapist specialising in working with highly sensitive people who are exhausted from trying to keep up with a world that wasn't designed for them.

We are living in an age of unprecedented stress, within social and economic systems that are often profoundly misaligned with the needs of the human nervous system. Much of what we call “normal life” today - chronic pressure, disconnection, speed, insecurity - would be recognised by the body as abnormal, even dangerous.

Some people appear to cope reasonably well within these conditions. But that does not mean the conditions are healthy. It simply means that some nervous systems are better armoured, more numbed or more adapted to survival under strain. Others, often the more sensitive, emphatic, attuned among us, feel the impact much sooner and much more deeply.

If you're reading this, you've probably spent years pushing yourself to function at a pace your nervous system simply can't sustain. You've ignored your body's signals, forced yourself through overwhelming environments and told yourself you just need to try harder.

The result is often chronic stress, burnout and sometimes even physical symptoms like pain, migraines, digestive issues or relentless fatigue, caused by your nervous system running on overdrive for far too long. Like a canary in the coal mine, your distress is not a personal failing but an early warning. Your anxiety, exhaustion, depression or physical illness are communications from your body and psyche that something is wrong.

If this resonates with you, welcome. You’re in the right place.

My own journey

I understand this experience intimately, not just as a therapist but as someone who lived it. For years I believed there was something fundamentally wrong with me. I didn’t realise that as a highly sensitive person, living in the world was often too much for my nervous system. After years of navigating parenthood and a stressful job in a mental heath service, my stress levels were through the roof and and my body started saying no through physical symptoms that no specialist could cure. I kept thinking if I could just work harder, be more organised, have better routines, I'd be able to function like everyone else. But this only made things worse.

What finally changed everything was when I discovered that the issue wasn't me needing to try harder. It was that I needed to understand and work with my highly sensitive nervous system, not against it. When I learned to actually listen to my body, regulate my nervous system and address the trauma and stress I'd been carrying, my symptoms resolved. My energy stabalised and my body re-calibrated itself back to health. I found a way to live that actually felt sustainable. And enjoyable!

This is what I want for all HSPs and this what my work now focuses on. Read on to find out more about therapy with me.