Ivana Sharp , BACP

Ivana Sharp is a counsellor with ten years' experience based in the United Kingdom. She focuses on women’s issues alongside stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, grief, depression and coping with life changes. Ivana aims to create a calm, respectful space where someone can talk through what feels difficult and start to find practical ways forward.

Her approach is flexible and responsive. She blends humanistic listening with psychodynamic reflection, elements of cognitive behavioural work, mindfulness and body-based awareness. This mix lets her adapt to each person's needs rather than following one fixed method.

Sessions are collaborative. Ivana treats therapy as a shared project where the client’s own knowledge of their life is central. She explains what she is doing and invites questions so people feel involved in the process rather than directed.

She places particular emphasis on the relationship in therapy and on staying with a person’s lived experience. Mindfulness practice is part of her work and is used as a way to reconnect with calm, bodily sensation and clearer thinking. Ivana also pays attention to neurodiversity and the link between body and mind.

Ivana has worked in both long-term and short-term settings, including bereavement support and counselling within a mental health charity. Her background includes an Advanced Diploma in Humanistic Integrative Counselling and earlier work in teaching and with children who have special educational needs.

How Ivana’s approaches work online

Ivana uses a small set of evidence-based techniques adapted to each person. Mindfulness practice is offered as simple, guided exercises to help reduce stress and bring attention back to the body and breath. This can support anxiety, grief and ongoing low mood by calming nervous system responses.

She also draws on cognitive behavioural ideas to help identify unhelpful thought patterns and try small behavioural experiments. These practical steps aim to change how daily routines and reactions maintain worry or low mood. In addition, psychodynamic-informed reflection is used to notice recurring relationship patterns and meaning behind feelings, which can be useful for trauma, attachment and abandonment issues.

Finding the best mix of approaches is a shared task. The therapist will work with the client to decide what feels most useful, adapting methods as goals change. This collaborative process helps people try new ways of coping while keeping what already works for them.

Online formats offer practical flexibility. Video calls allow full face-to-face conversation and gesture. Phone sessions can fit into busy schedules or require less bandwidth. Live chat and text messaging are useful for brief check-ins, written reflection and when typing feels easier than speaking. These options make it simpler to maintain regular contact and build momentum in therapy.