Elena Abad Navarro

About Elena

I am a Systemic and Family Psychotherapist and EMDR therapist, working with individuals, couples and families. I have a particular interest in relationships, trauma, attachment, identity and belonging, and in understanding how our experiences are shaped by our relationships, families, histories, cultures and wider social worlds.

People come to me for many different reasons. You may be experiencing anxiety, low mood, overwhelm or disconnection; struggling in a relationship; finding yourself caught in recurring patterns; or going through a period of change, loss, separation or uncertainty. I work with couples and families experiencing conflict, distance or difficulties in communication, as well as relationships between parents and children or adult children, including experiences of estrangement.

I have particular experience in working with trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex and relational trauma, attachment trauma, moral injury and intergenerational trauma. My experience also includes eating disorders, neurodiversity, grief, shame, chronic distress and burnout. Where appropriate, I integrate EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) within systemic and relational psychotherapy.

As a systemic psychotherapist, I don't understand difficulties as existing simply “within” a person. I am interested in what happens within and between us, and in how our relationships, family histories, culture, identity, social position and wider contexts can shape our experiences. Patterns that create difficulties today may once have helped us to connect, belong, survive or protect ourselves. Exploring them with curiosity and compassion can create possibilities for relating differently to ourselves and to others.

My approach is relational, trauma-informed and body-oriented. Depending on what is useful for you, our work may include conversation and reflection, exploring attachment and relational patterns, family histories and genograms, EMDR, imagery and creativity, or attention to bodily experience and embodiment. I don't believe that one way of working suits everybody; therapy is something we create together and can adapt as we discover what is — and isn't — useful for you.

I have worked across health and therapeutic settings for over 20 years, including the NHS, private practice and the voluntary sector. I hold an MSc in Systemic and Family Psychotherapy and the European Certificate of Psychotherapy (ECP), and I am registered with the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). My professional background also includes nursing, person-centred counselling, coaching, craniosacral therapy and other forms of bodywork. I am trained in EMDR with adults and with children and adolescents.

I work in English and Spanish and currently offer online psychotherapy with individuals, couples and families, both shorter- and longer-term. Longer sessions and more intensive therapeutic work, including individually arranged face-to-face intensives, may also be available.

My therapeutic background also includes working with animals and in nature, which continues to inform my interest in embodiment, connection and our relationships with the natural world.

Alongside psychotherapy, I facilitate workshops, training, reflective practice and group processes for professionals, teams and organisations.

If you are wondering whether working together might be helpful, you are welcome to get in touch so that we can have an initial conversation.

Session setting options

• Online

What I can help with

• Families
• Couples
• Families with teenagers
• Couples therapy
• Anxiety
• Serious mental health issues
• Eating difficulties and disorders
• Older adults
• Trauma and abuse
• Bereavement
• Depression
• Adult families
• Families with young children
• Groups
• Individual
• Living with neurodiversity
• Suicide
• Living with chronic health conditions