About Michelle

I am a registered psychotherapist (BACP), clinical supervisor, educator and creator of the SawSak® framework.

My work focuses on how stress, trauma, life adversity, and nervous system responses shape how we think, feel, relate and cope.

Over the years, I’ve worked with clients across more than 30 countries—supporting people with anxiety, burnout, trauma, relationship strain, emotional overwhelm, ADHD, neurodivergence, and major life transitions.

I work with a diverse range of individuals and communities, including professionals under pressure, LGBTQ+ clients, neurodivergent clients, and those navigating complex relational or identity based experiences.

Alongside private therapeutic work, my background spans corporate, educational, and international professional environments, giving me a broader understanding of the pressures people carry—not only internally, but within the systems they live and work in.

My academic background includes master’s degrees in business and organisational psychology, alongside psychotherapy and neuroscience-informed training, including postgraduate study in psychology and neuroscience for mental health at Kings College London.

What working together feels like

My role is not to offer quick solutions or analyse you from a distance. It is to work alongside you—helping you understand what’s happening beneath the surface, and supporting steadier, more compassionate ways forward.

An Integrative, nervous-system informed approach

I don’t work from a single model.

My approach integrates:

  • Polyvagal-informed work

  • ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)

  • Somatic Awareness

  • Mindfulness-based practice

This means we work not only with thoughts, but with how your nervous system responds—so change becomes something you can feel, practise, and sustain.

What clients often begin to notice

  • Greater clarity around emotional patterns

  • less overwhelm in situations that once felt difficult

  • More space between trigger and response

  • Greater self-compassion and steadiness

  • Deeper connection in relationships

This work is grounded in research evidence, but deeply human in practice—focused on helping you create the conditions for steadiness, reflective capacity, and meaningful change.

Michelle Courtney, trauma informed psychotherapist sitting on a gray chair in a therapy room with green plants and a forest scenery in the background, wearing a black lace top and a dark turtleneck under it.
How we work together

Where this work has taken shape

An psychotherapy session with the therapist and an older male client. He is discussing anxiety, grief and depression after retirement from his executive professional career. He is calmly viewing the garden through the open door as they interact

Private practice - trauma informed, one-to-one work. Working with clients across the UK, Ireland Europe, and internationally.

Michelle Courtney presents expressive and creative therapy in a group setting. She is sitting cross-legged playing a Hand pan for a small group of women in a meditation room, with plants and with a large screen that reads 'From Stuck to Steady'

Integrating group work with creativity, mindfulness, and embodied practice.

Trauma informed psychotherapy Northwest England, anxiety and stress support provided in a presentation to a group of people, at a workshop with a slide titled 'From Stuck to Steady visible on a screen behind Michelle Courtney.

30+ years of experience in international professional environments. Business consultancy and wellbeing programme design.

Explore working together
Online psychotherapy session via video call, supporting anxiety, stress, trauma and emotional well-being in a calm professional setting with a number of clients on the screen practising therapy and mindfulness.

Online sessions helping people manage stress, understand emotions and respond to relationship challenges effectively. ‍ ‍Supporting individuals and professionals in real-life, real-time situations.