About me
Integrated trauma and digital wellbeing counsellor, coach, consultant, trainer.
Welcome!
I am Syl, and integrated trauma and digital wellbeing counsellor, coach, consultant.
I am an integrative counsellor, coach and consultant based in Bristol, specialising in trauma recovery, healthy digital life and overall wellbeing. People come to see me after painful experiences, during difficult times, or for ongoing support with their mental health.
I work with stress, anxiety, depression, loss of meaning, relationship difficulties and questions of identity, self‑esteem and self‑worth, and have particular expertise in sexual, domestic and other identity‑based abuse.
I also have a strong interest in digital wellbeing, including digital fatigue, online harassment, geek‑related stress and concerns about addiction, and I am experienced in working as a geek and VR counsellor and coach.
I offer sessions online, in nature, in VR and in person in Bristol's city centre at the Practice Rooms.
My bio
Integrated trauma and digital wellbeing counsellor, coach and consultant.
I am a qualified integrated counsellor and coach experienced in supporting people and organisations around complex mental health and digital wellbeing challenges. To offer excellent digital wellbeing support through both traditional and innovative approaches, I have invested more time in core therapeutic and coaching training. Usually, core training takes about 3 years; I have trained for 6. Additionally, I have worked for many leading mental health charities during my core training. The integrated approach to counselling and coaching allows me to utilise my prior experience in teaching, digital marketing, citizen journalism and tutoring, as well as implement new technologies into my therapeutic and coaching work. I continue complementing the core training with additional CPD studies, currently completing my Master's research on geek therapies at NSPC London.
2016: CORE ACADEMIC TRAINING
My core academic training included German, Hungarian, and American studies: language and communication studies (including early social media communication and creativity), psycho-linguistics, developmental psychology, and cultural and business studies.
2007-2024 : DIGITAL MARKETING
I worked for the first UK social media agency, 1000heads, in its early days, supporting international campaigns and acting as a company ethicist. Later, I moved on to set up NFPVoice, an agency supporting the not-for-profit sector. I completed digital marketing studies at the Oxford College of Marketing and continued working there as a tutor specialising in social media marketing. I am now offering digital marketing services and training via VoxelHub.
2016 - 2022: COUNSELLING & COACHING
I have completed six years of core counselling training (UWE Bristol, Iron Mill College Exeter, L4) and coaching qualification with the Institute of Leadership in London (L5). During my studies, I volunteered for the leading UK mental health charities: Relate, Cruse Bereavement Care, Mind, OTR Bristol, Changes Bristol and Kinergy. I stayed at Kinergy as a paid one-to-one and group counsellor. I am studying at the Masters in Existential Psychotherapy course with the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling in London.
2021 - 2025: VR & GEEK THERAPIES
I have completed ProReal.world VR Counselling and Coaching Certificate and trained as a Certified Geek Therapist. I offer relevant CPD training at the Iron Mill College in Exeter. I have published a geek therapy essay on the psychology of the Witcher in 2024.
Sylwia has a breadth of skills and experience. She's an exellent social media strategist and marketeer - one of the best that I've met. She also makes digital technology simple. She's a passionate advocate for and supporter of women in technology. She's an outstanding mentor, teacher and coach.
Linda Baines
My Practice
As an integrated practitioner, I am trained in many approaches to offer a way of working that empowers you and suits your needs.
Integrated support means I bring many psychological approaches (traditional and more progressive, too), all centred around your wellbeing, safety, choices and empowerment. Your comfort, psychological safety, and preferences are my priorities.
I can help you find the right therapeutic approach. In our sessions, we can explore and make meaning from your experience of the world through a safe, trusted, non-judgmental conversation. We can create a calm, trusted space for your healing. We can identify the roots of your challenges and find ways to move forward. We can reflect on oppression and misuse of power in our lives and identify safe and sustainable ways to resist it. Together, we can identify opportunities for healing – some can be practical, and others may require deeper psychological exploration. Finally, we can also explore liberation towards a healthier, happier life. Additionally, I am passionate about good digital wellbeing and trauma recovery. I offer NET therapy for PTSD. I am a certified Virtual Reality counsellor and the founder of a digital wellbeing startup, Voxel Hub. I am a certified Geek Therapist.
I combine my experience in teaching, business, charity work, digital activism, and youth projects to offer an affirming view of good mental health in the digital age. I support people struggling with negative tech bias, technophobia, digital fatigue, online abuse, geek discrimination, and addictive online behaviours.
I work with leaders, professionals, parents and mental health practitioners wishing to embrace digital age opportunities safely.
I worked for leading local and national counselling charities in one-to-one and group settings online, via telephone, in person and in Nature. I deliver CPD courses for Iron Mill College of Counselling in Exeter. I’m a member and follow the ethical guidelines of the BACP (counselling), Institute of Leadership and Management and EMMC Global (coaching).
Like all ethical practitioners, I am in ongoing personal (liberation) therapy and have an experienced (somatic) supervisor.
I am trained as an integrated counsellor, which means I can combine a wide range of therapeutic approaches in a cohesive way that is aligned with liberation psychology principles. Here are the core therapeutic approaches from my training and work experience:
1. Psychodynamic therapy
2. Person-centered therapy
3. Positive psychology
4. Systemic therapies
5. Liberation psychologies
6. Attachment-informed therapy
7. Transactional analysis
8. Gestalt therapy
9. Existential psychotherapy
10. Geek therapy
11. Virtual Reality therapy
12. Nature therapies
13. Addiction therapy
14. Trauma-informed therapy
15. Sexual abuse therapy
16. Jungian therapy
17. Sand tray therapy
18. Narrative therapy
19. Somatic/Polyvagal theory-informed therapy
20. The Antidiscrimination Focus (TADF.UK)
21. LGBTQIA+ therapy
22. Youth therapy
23. Feminist therapy
24. Group therapy
25. ASIS suicide support
26. NET (Narrative Exposure Therapy) for PTSD
27. IFS (Internal Family Systems)
28. PTMF (Power Threat Meaning Framework)
My Integration
Integration principles
My integrative approach is relational, directional and feedback-informed. It places the client's agency at the core of the process, carefully combining the four leading theories: humanist, systemic, psychodynamic (& existentialism), positive psychology and liberation psychologies and adjusting the balance of those theories to the client's preferences and goals.
My approach is integrated, not eclectic. Instead of a toolkit of random practices, I carefully integrate interventions around core liberation psychology principles. I start with the client's agency. I believe that the client is the hero of their journey, and my role is to assist them. To join the client's journey safely and confidently, I have developed a theoretical compass respecting the client's needs and my core values.
The following four directions are the backbone of my approach, which can be enriched and developed further. I don't pick and mix theories and tools randomly with this compass. I have clarity on the integration - the sense of gravity - which I hope to offer to my clients.
West and East
I come from a humanistic upbringing and a continental, systemic education. Starting my U.K. training with Cruse in 2017 and arriving at systems (VR and eco-therapy) in 2022 helped me define the West and East of my approach. I strongly believe that those two approaches are not mutually exclusive. In fact, in life we often function and perform our identities in syncopation or healthy tension between those two approaches. I want to move softly and fluidly between individualism and systemic thinking in my work to support diverse clients and their unique experiences. In the reality of global pandemic, while we are facing the ecological crisis and distress, we need to work collectively while also respecting our individual needa and the diversity of our kind.
South and North
I trained as a teacher in psychoanalytical psychology during my German Teacher Degree studies in Poland and Hungarian Linguistics Studies at ELTE University in Budapest. Parallelly, I also studied American Studies and trained as a coach using insights from positive psychology. I find early childhood experiences and subconscious processes crucial for our work. I have strong, contintental and UK roots in psychoanalysis, while I am fully aware of its oppressive legacy, too. I want to stress that I practice psychoanalysis in an anti-oppressive way. I work with past, but also present and future. If we aim to support healing, we need to respect our roots and the shadow while also allowing space for present and future thriving and well-being. That's how positive psychology fits into my integration. I appreciate the value of hopefulness, optimism and future-focused thinking. Currently, I am studying existential psychotherapy.
Liberation Psychologies
Liberation psychologies are creative and innovative psychological approaches that aim to address individual and systemic forms of harm by exploring their sources in context.
Liberation practitioners assist their clients in recovery from trauma towards healing but also thriving. To stress the importance of collective care and remember the freedom to question even the role of the practitioner in possible collusion with the oppressive parties, liberation practitioners refer to “psychologies” – a multitude of methods of work that operate within but also outside of the mental health profession (such as creative arts and community projects). You can learn more about this approach from my Therapy for Social Change talk here.
The liberation psychology movement was developed and first documented in Latin America by Spanish-Salvadoran psychologist Ignacio Martín-Baró. Today, the core principles and values of that movement are present in many leading, progressive therapeutic approaches. The core principles of liberation psychologies include:
- Social context - mental health issues are often caused by social structures.
- Critical consciousness - people should be aware of the social forces that affect their lives.
- Empowerment - people should be able to challenge oppressive systems and take collective action.
- Solidarity and community healing - healing is a collective process that involves building community connections.
- De-ideologised reality - people should change their relationship with inner oppressors and critics.
- Critical realism - people should be aware of the interconnectedness of culture, psyche, self, and community.
- Methodological eclecticism - liberation psychology draws on many different areas of thought, inviting an open mind and empowerment of the client on their healing journey.
- Transformative action - liberation psychology aims to bring about change at the personal, interpersonal, and social levels.
Liberation psychologies are less well-known to the UK clients, so here is an explanation of how clients can benefit from this support in five concrete ways:
Making sense of distress in context
By linking personal pain to wider social and structural factors, clients are less likely to blame themselves or feel “broken”, which can reduce shame and isolation.
Seeing problems in context often helps people recognise that their reactions are understandable responses to difficult conditions, which can be a relief and a first step towards change.
Builds confidence and agency, not just insight
Critical consciousness and empowerment principles encourage clients to understand how external forces shape their lives and to experiment with new responses, rather than feeling stuck or powerless.
This kind of awareness has been linked with reduced internalised oppression and emotional distress, and with stronger community connectedness, which supports longer‑term wellbeing.
Values community and collective care
By emphasising relational and community healing, liberation approaches invite clients to find support beyond the therapy room and to connect with others who share similar experiences.
Group, community and creative projects can provide a sense of belonging and shared purpose, which many clients find stabilising and deeply validating.
Treating clients as whole, complex people
Methodological eclecticism and critical realism mean therapists can draw on multiple methods and honour clients’ cultural backgrounds, identities and lived realities, rather than forcing them into a narrow model.
This holistic stance can feel more respectful and accurate for clients whose experiences cross lines of culture, class, gender, race, migration, digital awareness or other identity factors.
Supports both healing and meaningful change
Transformative action principles help clients work on internal wounds (like harsh inner critics or internalised stigma) while also considering changes in relationships, work, or community life.
For many people, taking some kind of aligned action—even small, everyday steps—can deepen their sense of purpose, resilience and hope, complementing symptom relief with a clearer sense of direction.
``You are worthy of safety, rest, care, compassion, love, respect, and opportunities to fulfill your purpose.``
Dr Thema Bryant
“Language is never neutral.”
Paulo Freire
``Psychological knowledge should put itself at the service of society. Where the wellness of the few does not depend of the suffering of the rest. Where the achievements of some do not require the neglect of others. Where the interests of the few don't demand the dehumanisation of all.``
Ignacio Martín-Baró
``Resist the tendency to build a life that feels painfully similar to the life you had to escape.``
Dr Thema Bryant
“It is necessary that the weakness of the powerless is transformed into a force capable of announcing justice. For this to happen, a total denouncement of fatalism is necessary. We are transformative beings and not beings for accommodation.”
Paulo Freire
Public Speaking & Publications
Public events and academic work
Continuous professional development and giving back to the community are very important to me. Here are some of my recent corporate, public and academic events and publications.
- 2025.10.29. – Torchbox Spark Talk on Digital and Workplace Wellbeing & Burnout
- 2024.11.25. – Geek Therapeutics – The Psychology of the Witcher: Never Lost, Always Found – a collection of academic essays – purchase here
- 2024.02.02. – Iron Mill College – Digital Self-Care CPD training
- 2023.11.24. – Iron Mill College – Introduction to Virtual Reality Therapies CPD Training
- 2023.09.15. – TASC Network – Introduction to Liberation Psychologies for Social Justice talk
- 2023.10.23. – OnlineEvents – Introduction to Virtual Reality Therapies: Virtual Reality Experience CPD Workshop- purchase here
- 2023.10.11. – Oxford Geek Night Keynote: Introduction to the Geek Therapies
- 2023.09.25. – OnlineEvents – Introduction to Virtual Reality Therapies CPD workshop – purchase here
- 2023.03.13. – TASC Network blog – Opportunities and Challenges of Cyberpsychology for Social Change article
- 2023.06.23. – Iron Mill College – Working with Displaced Peoples
- 2022.11.24-25. – Iron Mill College – Working with Displaced Peoples
- Previous publications and art exhibitions can be found here
““With words at your disposal, you can see more clearly”
Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Don't let the fear build a castle inside of you, because if you do, you will never get out of it”
Maria Alyokhina
“In the thick of winter’s ice and snow soon enough you will know how to prize shelter and how to let go to kindle the warmth inside and find strength and peace by the fireside”
Emmy van Deurzen
Professional Memberships:
