Donna Watts, BACP

Donna Watts is a counsellor with 14 years of experience based in the United Kingdom. She helps people dealing with stress, anxiety, addictions, relationship difficulties, trauma and abuse, and low self-esteem. Donna creates a calm, nonjudgemental space where clients can speak honestly and be listened to without rush.

Her work often focuses on the emotional impact of abandonment, adoption and foster care histories, attachment difficulties, and relationship patterns such as codependency and commitment worries. She also supports people facing chronic illness, cancer, caregiver strain, body image concerns, and communication problems. This broad experience informs practical conversations about coping and next steps.

Donna draws on several therapy styles to match the person's needs. Client-centred sessions focus on what matters to the client right now and encourage self-directed insight. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, helps people spot and test unhelpful thoughts and build different ways of coping.

She also uses attachment-based ideas to look at how early relationships affect later ones, and solution-focused work to identify small, achievable changes. Psychodynamic thinking can be used when exploring deeper emotional patterns from the past. Donna adapts these approaches to the person in front of her rather than following a fixed formula.

People usually start by describing the issue they want to change. From there Donna helps set goals and agrees on practical steps to try between sessions. The focus is on clear, manageable progress rather than jargon or lengthy theory.

Approaches you might use in online sessions

Donna uses Client-Centred Therapy to keep the focus on what the client wants to change. This approach involves listening closely and reflecting back what someone says so they can make sense of their feelings and decide next steps. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and try different responses to reduce anxiety or manage urges linked to addiction.

Finding the right approach is part of working together. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences and practical needs, and agree which methods to try. That might mean combining short, action-focused work with deeper exploration depending on the issue.

If you are considering online work, check which session formats Donna currently offers before booking. Confirming the available formats will make it easier to plan how therapy fits into your routine. Online appointments can make it simpler to attend around work or care commitments, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and avoid travel time, which helps therapy become part of everyday life rather than another task.