Elaine’s approach and specialisms

Elaine is a relational therapist whose work brings together counselling and body psychotherapy. The therapeutic relationship is central to her approach, with therapy developing at a pace that allows the client to feel understood rather than requiring them to adapt to a predetermined therapeutic model.

Her work with neurodivergent clients is informed by the double empathy problem: an understanding that difficulties between autistic and non-autistic people can arise through differences in communication and experience rather than from a deficit within the autistic person.

Her training in Body Psychotherapy also allows her to work with physical and nervous-system responses alongside thoughts and emotions. This can be particularly relevant where experiences are difficult to verbalise or where a client experiences alexithymia or differences in interoception.

Elaine offers both shorter and longer-term work, although many of the difficulties she specialises in benefit from time to develop a secure therapeutic relationship and understand patterns that have developed over many years.

Autism and Neurodivergence

Elaine has specialised in autism-cognisant counselling since 2008. Her clinical practice, academic research and wider professional work have been strongly focused on improving psychological support for autistic and neurodivergent people.

Her MA research developed and evaluated a counselling model specifically for autistic clients. Rather than expecting an autistic person to fit a conventional model of therapy, Elaine considers how therapy itself needs to respond to differences in communication, emotional processing, sensory experience and relationships.

She works with autistic adults at different stages of understanding their neurodivergence. This includes people diagnosed earlier in life, adults identified later, and those who are beginning to consider whether they may be autistic.

Elaine also works with anxiety, autistic burnout, shutdown and the impact of masking. Therapy can explore the emotional consequences of navigating environments or relationships in which a person's needs and ways of communicating have repeatedly been misunderstood.

Her work can also include workplace difficulties, occupational stress and the emotional impact of trying to function within working environments that do not adequately recognise neurodivergent needs.

Neurodivergent Couples and Relationships

Elaine works with couples and intimate relationships where autism or other forms of neurodivergence are part of the relationship.

Her approach is informed by the double empathy problem. Rather than locating communication difficulties within the neurodivergent partner, she considers how two people may experience, interpret and communicate the same situation very differently.

Therapy provides a place to understand these differences more clearly. Elaine helps partners explore patterns of misunderstanding, emotional disconnection and conflict while recognising the needs and experiences of both people.

Her extensive experience with autism allows her to distinguish between difficulties that may be connected to differences in communication or processing and wider relational dynamics that also need attention.

Attachment, Estrangement and Family Relationships

Elaine has a particular interest in attachment, enmeshment and estrangement within neurodivergent families. Her work combines an understanding of neurodevelopment with attention to the relationships and family systems surrounding the individual.

She works with adults affected by difficult or fractured family relationships, including estrangement and situations where contact has become limited or has stopped altogether. She also works with ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief, including losses that may be profound but are difficult for other people to recognise or understand.

Elaine has undertaken additional training in Reintegration Therapy with specialists in the United States. This extends her work with estranged and fractured families and provides a structured framework for considering the rebuilding of relationships where this is safe and wanted.

Trauma and Body Psychotherapy

Elaine trained in Body Psychotherapy at the Cambridge Body Psychotherapy Centre and achieved full accreditation in 2025. This training allows her to work with the ways difficult and traumatic experiences can be held and expressed through the body as well as through thoughts, memories and emotions.

Her approach is somatic and polyvagal-informed. Therapy can include attention to nervous-system responses and bodily experience, particularly where a client finds it difficult to identify, describe or communicate what they are feeling.

This can be especially relevant for neurodivergent clients who experience alexithymia or differences in interoception, as conventional talking therapy can place considerable emphasis on recognising and verbally describing emotions.

Elaine's relational approach means that body-based work takes place within an established therapeutic relationship and at a pace that feels manageable for the individual.

Autistic Burnout, Anxiety and Shutdown

Elaine works with autistic and ADHD clients experiencing anxiety, chronic overwhelm, burnout and shutdown.

Her specialist knowledge of neurodivergence allows these experiences to be explored within the context of the person's nervous system, environment and individual neurotype. This can include understanding the impact of prolonged masking, sensory demands, relationships, work and the cumulative pressure of repeatedly having to adapt to environments that may not fit the person's needs.

Body Psychotherapy can also provide a way of noticing and understanding physical responses to stress and overwhelm. Therapy can help clients recognise their own patterns and needs more clearly and explore changes that make everyday life more sustainable.