Yvonne Ayo

I have some flexibility with time but my preferred days are Tuesdays and Thursdays with some possibilities on Wednesday afternoons.

I am an experienced systemic psychotherapist who works with families, couples and individuals. In my work I consider the family contexts, relationships within/between family members and ways in which communication patterns are shaped. Belief and value systems of individuals also form an important part of my approach. I pay particular attention to the social GGRRAACCEESS, an acronym which stands for gender, geography, race, abilities, religion, class, culture, education, employment, sexual orientation, spirituality. This acronym can be increased to include other factors eg. accent and is a useful model to address the range of complexities that individuals bring to therapy. It also supports my interest in the different ways that some of these factors may intersect with each other and the ways in which individuals experience and manage intersectionality.  My specialist interest is in people of mixed heritage and my research into ethnicities in mixed heritage stepfamilies explores the lived experiences of people of different cultures who navigate the range of complexities in their families and in wider society.

I work using systemic ideas of curiosity and neutrality which is particularly important in family and couple work. When working with individuals I always consider their family backgrounds and explore ways in which they have developed their identities. The impact of gender, race, religion, abilities, culture, class, education, employment, sexual orientation and spirituality, forms an important part of my approach. The narrative approach using ideas of ways in which we develop and tell our stories will be considered alongside untold stories or untellable stories and the ideas of how parts of our identities are invisible/unvoiced and explore the meanings of these ideas to develop stories which are more visible/voiced. I am interested to understand how the past affects the present and the extent to which individuals can envisage their future lives.

I offer an initial consultation for half an hour free of charge. This enables me to outline my approach. This session enables me to negotiate the frequency of the sessions. My collaborative approach includes a review the work after three or four sessions to ensure that the client is able to be open about the progress of the work. I usually suggest that sessions are held once a fortnight as I consider it important that clients have time in between sessions to process the therapeutic work.