Ilona Smith , BACP

Ilona Smith is a BACP counsellor who helps people manage stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and grief. She also supports those dealing with intimacy-related problems and feelings of emptiness or isolation. Ilona writes plainly and meets people where they are when they first reach out.

She uses a range of practical approaches drawn from client-centred work and cognitive behavioural ideas. Sessions focus on clear goals, small steps and building everyday coping skills. Mindfulness and solution-focused techniques are used to ground difficult feelings and find tangible changes.

Ilona has 16 years of experience as a therapist and brings empathy and patience to the conversations. She adapts the pace and tone to each person, tailoring talks and exercises to what feels useful. This means sessions can include guided reflection, practical tasks between meetings, and short behavioural experiments.

People come for help with abandonment, attachment difficulties, communication or commitment worries. She also supports those working through trauma, domestic violence, dissociation or the long shadow of guilt and shame. Ilona aims to make complex problems more manageable through steady, everyday steps.

Her style is collaborative and straightforward. She will outline options, try different techniques, and check what helps most. The work is aimed at improving daily functioning, easing distress, and helping people find a clearer sense of purpose and connection.

Therapeutic approaches and online support

Ilona uses client-centred work to create a calm, respectful space where the person sets the pace. This approach focuses on listening, reflecting what matters and building a trusting working relationship that helps people feel heard and understood.

She also draws on cognitive behavioural therapy, which looks at the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviour. CBT helps with anxiety, low mood and problems such as avoidance by breaking issues into workable steps and practising small changes between sessions.

Choosing the right mix of approaches is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss goals and try different tools together, checking what helps and adjusting the plan. This means the work can shift over time to match changing needs and preferences.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text messaging. Video is useful when visual connection helps the conversation, phone calls work well when bandwidth is limited, live chat can suit shorter check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between appointments. These options give flexibility to fit sessions around work, childcare or travel, and make regular contact possible even when meeting in person is difficult.