About Michelle

My interest in how people become stuck and how they move towards steadiness has been shaped by decades working across psychotherapy & neuroscience for mental health, business and education.

Throughout my career, I have been interested in the relationship between stress, adversity, nervous system responses and our capacity to respond to life’s challenges. Whether working with individual clients, students, professionals, or organisations, I have repeatedly seen how our experiences shape the way we think, feel, relate and respond to the world around us.

This curiosity, combined with more than three decades of professional experience, led to the development of the SawSak® framework and the From Stuck to Steady™ programme. Both bringing together insights from psychotherapy, neuroscience, attachment and polyvagal theory, mindfulness and somatic approaches, grounded in the realities of everyday human experience.

Today, I work with clients across the UK, Ireland and internationally in over 30 countries, supporting people experiencing anxiety, trauma, burnout, neurodivergence, relationship challenges and major life transitions.

Alongside private therapeutic practice, my background spans corporate, educational and international settings, giving me a broader understanding of the pressures people carry not only internallly, but with the systems, workplaces and relationships that shape their lives.

Professional Background and qualifications

  • Registered Integrative Psychotherapist (BACP)

  • Clinical Supervisor

  • MBA (Distinction)

  • MSc by Research Organisational Behaviour

  • Postgraduate Diploma in Neuroscience and Psychology for Mental Health, Kings College London

  • Diploma in Counselling & Psychotherapy

  • Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE)

  • The Polyvagal Certificate. Safety, Connection & the Human Experience Polyvagal Institute

  • ACT matrix certification trainer

  • Creator of the SawSak® framework

  • Creator of the From Stuck to Steady™ Programme

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.