Isla Donaldson
Calm, body-aware therapy for trauma and life stress
About Isla
Isla Donaldson is a counsellor who helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, relationship difficulties, and low self-esteem. She is approachable and calm, and aims to create a steady space where people can talk honestly about what’s affecting them now. Her style is collaborative and gentle.
Sessions focus on what matters most to the client and move at a pace that feels right for them. Isla balances listening with thoughtful challenge, helping people notice feelings in the body and in their day-to-day lives.
Background and approach
Isla uses client-centred, existential and somatic approaches alongside trauma-focused work. That means she attends to personal values and life meaning, notices bodily sensations as part of healing, and pays attention to how past harm affects present functioning. The mix helps with emotional regulation, self-understanding and making clearer choices.
She has five years' clinical experience in the United Kingdom and holds NCPS. Isla has worked with adults and young people on issues such as grief and loss, suicidal ideation and self-harming behaviours, and has concentrated experience supporting people who have experienced sexual assault and other trauma. Isla keeps learning through further training in somatics, polyvagal theory, attachment and trauma methods.
She offers video, phone, live chat and text-based sessions, and works with clients who prefer different ways of talking and checking in. To begin, people complete a short matching questionnaire and schedule a session.
What Isla works with
How Isla works
Listed by Isla among the ways they work.
Listed by Isla among the ways they work.
Listed by Isla among the ways they work.
Listed by Isla among the ways they work.
Sessions & fees
How her approaches work online
Isla combines client-centred and somatic ideas with trauma-focused techniques to guide online work. Client-centred work concentrates on the person’s experience and values, helping them name what matters and make clearer choices in life. Somatic work pays attention to bodily sensations and uses awareness of the body to help regulate emotion and process strong feelings. Trauma-focused therapy looks at how past harm continues to affect thoughts, feelings and behaviours and uses paced, targeted methods to lessen those impacts.Finding the right approach is part of the process and will be decided together. Isla will discuss goals, preferences and what feels manageable, then try methods that suit the client’s needs. The work is collaborative and adjusted as progress and comfort evolve.
Online sessions offer practical flexibility. Video calls let people see gestures and facial cues, phone sessions are useful when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed, and live chat or text messaging can suit those who prefer to write or want brief, frequent contact. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, family and other commitments while still using the same therapeutic approaches.
| Session length | Typically 50 minutes |
|---|---|
| Client ages | Adults, 18 and over |
| Fees | Subscription via BetterHelp, cancel anytime |
| Insurance | Not billed directly |
Questions people ask
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Areas of focus
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Communication problems
- Depression
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counselling
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 5 years
- Registered with
- NCPS
- Languages
- English
