Hi, I'm Anna Yardley
I am an integrative counsellor, hypnotherapist, and astrologer based in the landscapes of East Devon.
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My practice is dedicated to supporting people navigating anxiety, major life transitions, identity shifts, grief, and that quieter, deeper disorientation of no longer knowing quite who you are or where you are going.
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I believe that a crisis or a season of feeling completely lost is a profound threshold—a necessary untangling of the scripts you have inherited so you can finally inhabit a life that is genuinely your own.
How I got here
Just before I turned thirty, I found myself drifting. I was going through the motions, repeating patterns I didn’t understand, and completely disconnected from any real sense of direction or purpose. I was living entirely from the neck up—thinking, analysing, and managing my life, while remaining largely absent from my own body.
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Then, something happened that I couldn’t think my way through. My body intervened, clearly and insistently, and I was forced to stop. What followed was a difficult, disorienting, and incredibly slow chapter. But it eventually became one of the most clarifying experiences of my life—not because it handed me neat answers, but because it forced me to pay attention to what was actually there. It taught me to listen to what my body was saying rather than constantly overriding it. Over a decade later, that exact quality of deep attention and presence is still what I trust most, and it forms the foundation of everything I offer.
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My path toward this work moved through spaces that deeply shaped how I sit with people today. Early on, I facilitated group therapeutic spaces supporting individuals with learning difficulties—an experience that taught me that raw human presence will always matter more than any technique.
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After completing my university psychology degree in Poland, I consulted for a Multiple Sclerosis association, supporting individuals and families navigating the profound identity shifts that come with serious illness. I also worked on a bereavement helpline, sitting with people in the earliest, heaviest stages of grief. Upon moving to the UK, I completed my therapeutic training while volunteering within the mental health charity Mind and local hospice care.
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I have sat with people at some of the hardest, most vulnerable edges of life across different cultures and countries. Those experiences stay with me. They taught me how to hold a steady, unhurried space in the face of deep pain or confusion.
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I began my private practice in 2017. Ever since, I have been dedicated to walking alongside people through anxiety, identity shifts, major transitions, grief, and those quieter, unnamed crises that are simply waiting to be met.
I approached Anna with a creative block. During the process I realised that art had been my way of seeking my family's approval — an unconscious burden that caused me stress every time I tried to paint. At first this realisation shocked me, but then everything started falling into place.
Soon after few session I felt a surge of creative energy and spontaneously started painting again — this time without pressure, purely for enjoyment. I also decided to sign up for singing lessons. - Ivy
How I work
I don’t believe that simply understanding yourself is enough to change your life. The moment a long-standing pattern suddenly makes sense, that clarity brings a genuine wave of relief—but it is often only the beginning. I have met people who have understood their own psychology for years, yet nothing moves. This happens because insight delivered to a dysregulated nervous system cannot land where it needs to; the body hasn't caught up with what the mind now knows. Real change happens at a slower, more embodied layer. The nervous system learns through direct experience, not through comprehension.
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Because of this, my practice is truly integrative. Whether we are exploring your lived experience through counselling, stepping into the subconscious through hypnotherapy, working outdoors with ecotherapy, or looking at the larger maps of psychological astrology, we are always working with your whole system. In our sessions, we weave together somatic tracking to calm the nervous system, parts work to engage conflicting aspects of your personality, and symbolic or depth frameworks to reach what everyday language misses.
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Therapy is, at its heart, a collaborative space. What we discover together matters much more than any rigid formula or theory. We simply work with what is actually happening in your life and your body right now, moving at a pace that feels safe for you. My aim isn't to give you quick fixes, but to help you look a little deeper at the root of what is feeling heavy, especially if the usual coping strategies haven't given you the relief you need.
Working outdoors
Being out in nature brings something to therapy that a quiet room simply cannot match. The open horizon, the shifting weather, and the terrain underfoot are not just a backdrop; they are active participants in what we do, helping us connect our personal experiences to the wider world around us.
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The natural world is entirely non-judgmental and indifferent to our everyday pressures, which can be incredibly freeing when you are carrying a heavy mental load. Nature has a gentle way of opening up perspectives that words alone sometimes struggle to reach.
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I offer these outdoor sessions across the landscapes of East Devon, walking at whatever pace feels right for your body that day. We work collaboratively with the environment, adapting together to the rhythm of the day and whatever weather arrives. This way of working is less about traditional "walk and talk" and more about giving your nervous system the space to unburden itself and settle into a more natural, grounded rhythm.
The person behind the practice
I am Polish, living in East Devon—which means I carry two distinct landscapes inside me, though I feel deeply at home here. The coastline, the chalk and red sandstone, and the way the light changes over the Axe estuary—this is where I think best and breathe most easily.
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I tend to read widely and slowly, drawn to those who think carefully about what it means to be human—philosophers, naturalists, depth psychologists, and writers who approach the inner life without reducing it to a problem to be solved. I believe in long walks, unhurried conversation, and the value of simply sitting with things before trying to change them.
I work in both English and Polish.
Credentials
MSc Psychology
Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapeutic Counselling
Certificate in Hypnotherapy
Diploma in Astrology, Mayo School
Certificate in Human Design 1&2 with Karen Curry-Parker
Member of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society
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Trained in IFS (Internal Family Systems), somatic approaches, and polyvagal theory with the Institute of Embodied Psychotherapy among other CPD courses
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Working in mental health since 2014 · Private practice since 2017