About Persephone
Persephone, the goddess who blooms in the darkness, the goddess of transformation and renewal, the goddess who finds light in the darkest corners.
My name is Persephone. Genuinely my given birth name courtesy of my hippy parents.
Sometimes people think that I have created this persona of mythical magical being, but really I am just a normal down to earth person with an outlandish name.
For you to come to me and feel safe to be your true vulnerable self perhaps it will help to know a little about me?
Born 1977 you can do the maths! I lived the first half of my life in London, moving to Cornwall in my mid twenties. I am a mother to 2 children, married and spend more time than I like being a taxi service for my children and trying to remember where I have left my phone. So the pretty average life of a parent with teenagers.
I swear a lot, in and out of sessions, because who you get in session is me, through and through. I have grumpy days, tired days and will moan about the weather with the best of you. I am human, have very human emotions and experiences and offer you my space, my time, my heart for you to be very human too.
My path to working with trauma is a long one, and true of a lot of trauma workers is fuelled by my own experiences of darkness. This does not qualify me or anyone else to work with trauma, my years of training and experience does, yet I do believe that being touched by and experiencing some of the most painful and damaging life experiences opens up a level of understanding, gentleness and compassion necessary to be able to do this work.
I am a qualified person centred counsellor, I work in private practice as well as for CLEAR working exclusively with people who have experienced sexual and relational trauma.
This finds me working predominantly with women, although not exclusively. It also covers an alarming array of scenarios from birth trauma, post natal depression, relationship breakdowns with parents, siblings and children, rape and sexual abuse. Relational and sexual trauma shows up in so many areas of life, it is complex and so deeply harmful as we as humans rely on relationships to be able to survive, so any trauma in this area is deeply disturbing and often hidden away.
Perhaps my own time spent in the darkness makes it a familiar place to sit with others in their darkest hours, and without doubt by sitting with my own darkness that I know there is light.
The dark shadows have taught me that even in the depths of despair there is always a glimmer of hope.
And it is hope that brings you here. I am not the expert of your experience, you are. I offer compassion, empathy and understanding for your lived experience. To be understood, to be valued, to be accepted right where you are today is a beautiful starting point for self exploration, without any need to fix anything, because you are not broken, you are complete in your imperfection, you are both dark and light, let us work together and find the balance, let us enquire, be curious, explore those dark corners so they are less scary.
Too much mental health information, analysing, labelling and opinion can leave you feeling broken, further away from your true self, to work with me is to bring you closer to your self. Move away from all the external noise and look inwards, learn to listen to your own voice, learn to feel all of the feelings, learn to let go of the conditioning, the expectations and lean into your own story, your own truth, and then fly free my goddess.
“Persephone has helped me to understand why I do the things I do, make changes where necessary and find compassion for myself enabling me to feel happier than I have in years”
— Nicola