Grace Uitterdijk

I work Monday to Friday 9am-5pm however there is some flexibility around this and I can do early morning appointments or potentially evening appointments if requested.

I am a fully qualified and registered Integrative Psychotherapist working as part of Insula Wellbeing Services and my aim with every client is to go beyond simply surviving and move towards a life you can truly embrace and enjoy. Sometimes this involves practical strategies and tools and other times it involves exploring and expressing your emotions, processing life changes or dealing with trauma. 

I want you to feel seen and heard and have a space to be explore yourself fully and feel whole again. 

Why pick me?

Maybe you have been to other therapists before and it has not really helped or it felt like they have offered a listening ear but did not actually help you to move you forward. Or maybe you have never been to counselling and you get the impression it is all about sitting and talking about how you feel without any real change. That is not what therapy with me is about. I want to collaborate with you and look at your life holistically to address the challenges head on and build resilience and help you enact change to get 'unstuck' and experience how colourful life can be again. You will be offered tools and strategies to make real change and break unhelpful patterns or cycles. I adapt my approach with every client to suit you as every client is different.

Who is Insula Wellbeing?

Insula Wellbeing is a team of therapists who deliver both individual counselling sessions and wellbeing clinics to workplaces with short term interventions as well as more long term work. The counselling is always tailored to you. Insula Wellbeing Hub is based in Bangor in a comfortable and welcoming environment and we also offer online counselling support for those who can't travel that far. I am delighted to be a part of the team here. 

All my work is integrative which means I adapt my approach to suit with what you need and what you feel comfortable with. 

I have years of experience working on a wide variety of issues including: addiction, anxiety, abuse, ADHD, autism, anger management, body image and eating disorders, depression, grief,  health issues, LGBTQ counselling, neurodiversity, relationship counselling or sex related issues, self harm, self esteem, personality disorders, sexual identity, spirituality and stress, trauma and PTSD.

I hold a Diploma in Counselling and initially studied Music in University. If applicable to the process or if it is something you are interested in further, I often incorporate creative therapies into the counselling such as creative writing, poetry, art or music. I have also completed specific CPD training in areas such as somatic and sensorimotor therapy which uses body movement to help heal trauma and DBT therapy to help manage your emotions. 

No matter what you are facing, I want to help you start to understand yourself, process emotions and learn to express them, help you untangle from unhelpful beliefs or patterns that are holding you back and help you process trauma and move forward and become the version of you that you have always wanted to be. 

Seeking counselling can be hard and it is important to find the right counsellor for you so I offer a free 15 minute chat for you to ask any questions you have about the counselling process or about how we would work together and get a feel for if I would be the right fit for you. 

The first session  involves an assessment which is just some questions to get a feel for why you are seeking therapy and what your background is. It is also an opportunity to collaborate on a plan going forward and discuss what direction the therapy could take. 

The therapy is tailored to you and can be short term/long term or open ended depending on your budget and how much time you feel you need.