Isla Donaldson, NCPS

Isla Donaldson is a United Kingdom based therapist who helps people reconnect with their immediate experience as a source of balance, meaning and connection. She works collaboratively, offering presence, understanding and thoughtful challenge while attending to what matters most to each person. Her practice focuses on restoring self-awareness, self-acceptance and an embodied sense of safety that can support clearer decision making, greater resilience and renewed hope.

Her work is grounded in a person-centered, relational approach that trusts each individual’s capacity for growth and uses the therapeutic relationship to guide pace and direction. Isla also integrates somatic and trauma-informed methods, using in-the-moment sensations and feelings as primary ways to expand awareness, process emotion and memory, and support nervous system regulation.

Over the last five years she has worked with both adults and young people on a wide range of concerns, including low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, grief and loss. She has particular experience supporting people who have experienced trauma or abuse and those coping with suicidal ideation or self-harming behaviours.

She holds the credential NCPS, a qualification in counselling and psychotherapy, and earned a first-class BA in Humanistic Counselling Practice. Isla has undertaken additional training in fields such as somatics and embodiment, integrative somatic trauma therapy, Polyvagal Theory, systemic trauma, Internal Family Systems, attachment theory, sex and sexuality, boundaries and consent, safeguarding, applied suicide intervention and online therapy. Her schedule is fairly flexible, and she will try to accommodate session times outside the usual availability. Reaching out can take courage, and Isla welcomes initial contact to discuss what has brought someone to therapy and what they would like to be different.

Somatic and Relational Approaches for Online Care

Isla integrates client-centered and somatic approaches into her online practice. Client-Centered Therapy focuses on building a trusting, nonjudgmental relationship and following the client’s lead - it is helpful for issues around self-esteem, relationship difficulties and finding personal meaning. Somatic Therapy pays attention to bodily sensations and how the body holds emotional experience; it can support emotion regulation, processing of trauma-related memories and grounding in the present moment.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic process, and Isla works collaboratively with each person to identify what fits best for their needs, goals and preferences. She adapts methods over time, using client feedback and the relational experience to guide whether somatic, relational or trauma-focused techniques are most useful.

Online therapy offers practical flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging. These options make it easier to access consistent support around busy schedules or from different locations, and they allow the therapist and client to focus on goals and strategies that suit the client’s life and comfort. Licensed professionals can use these formats to deliver evidence-informed care and to tailor interventions to the person’s pace and circumstances.