My warmth, empathy, kindness and genuine interest in your experience...
I like to be congruent (my insides matching my outsides) with you, authentic, have integrity and really be your greatest advocate and champion, even when you struggle to choose yourself.
As a woman diagnosed later (35) with ADHD, and who has experienced great difficulty with my reproductive health, I know what it’s like to be silenced and my voice to be kept small, to be gaslit by healthcare professionals and to not trust my inner experience.
What makes me different?
My trauma informed approach.
I have always had a critical lens in the work I do, always wondering whether we are doing a disservice by over pathologizing (diagnosing) different mental health conditions, when actually most people are experiencing ‘sane reactions to an insane world’.
I work in a systemic way – which essentially means I’m looking at the environment you are in (making sure you are not surrounded by arseholes!). We definitely do cognitive behavioural therapy together, but I’m not just looking at your thoughts and how they can be shifted from the prison in your mind. Sometimes there’s a prison in your body too. This is where yoga and breathwork come in, this makes me quite different from other CBT Therapists or Clinical Psychologists. I branch between western Psychology and eastern body based (somatic) techniques.
I have extensive clinical experience and have lived a previous life where I worked in the fitness industry from the age of 17, working as a Group Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer, who burnt out physically from excessive exercise and dieting. I have lived experience of ADHD, constant anxiety, overwhelm, binge eating and addiction, keeping me disconnected from my thoughts and my body. I’m in a much better place now with my own health having used cognitive and body based healing work on myself.
I try to make sure I am inclusive and accessible as possible – from working in university disability services, I’m keenly aware of discrimination in line with the Equality Act (2010) and adjustments that may support you live your best life, whatever you may be experiencing.
I am culturally responsive, LGBTQ+ affirming and a social justice-oriented therapist.
My journey to becoming a CBT Therapist
I have worked on and off in the NHS since 2005 and worked in NHS mental health services since 2010, first as an Administrator, then training as a Mental Health Nurse in 2013. I worked in busy adult acute services, child and adolescent services and forensic services.
I know what the full spectrum of mental health difficulties are and having supported people from a bit of life difficulty, right up to severe psychosis and severe life threatening eating disorders. I can hold the space for you and allow you be heard.
I also worked as a University Mental Health and Disability Advisor for 4 years supporting students successfully to complete their studies, whatever complexities they were experiencing with their mental health. It was in this working space I realised I had ADHD and got diagnosed. I trained to become a BABCP accredited CBT Therapist in 2021 and have been practising since June 2022. I am regularly supervised by more senior clinicians and regularly have to reflect on my practice and skills.
How to book your CBT therapy session
Fill in my contact form (under contact)
You can also follow me on social media:
Instagram: @iambeckygracetherapy
Facebook: Becky Grace Therapy
LinkedIn: Becky Grace Irwing
Tiktok: @iambeckygracetherapy
About the author:
I am a CBT therapist based in Norwich, Norfolk. I help women heal their relationship with food and their bodies.
Having experienced the devastation of binge eating disorder, painkiller and exercise addiction since childhood, I have fully recovered through a combination of traditional Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and alternative somatic (body) based techniques
Now I help others to do the same.
My personal experiences clinically allow me to see the full perspective of emotional and psychological distress.
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