Karen Gaughan, Couple, Family and Systemic Psychotherapist

About me

I am a fully qualified Systemic Family Psychotherapist specialising in work with couples and families, with over 30 years’ experience working with adults, children, young people and families across NHS, social care and therapeutic settings. I hold an MSc in Systemic Family Therapy from King’s College London and have completed further training as a Family Therapy Supervisor at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation.

I work primarily with couples and families who are experiencing difficulties in their relationships. You may feel caught in the same pattern of arguments, increasingly distant or disconnected, struggling with trust or intimacy, or finding that attempts to resolve things somehow leave you feeling even further apart. Rather than focusing only on the content of disagreements, I help couples slow down and understand the patterns that have developed between them. Together, we explore what happens in difficult moments, the emotions and needs that can be harder to express, and how earlier relationships and experiences may influence the ways we respond to those closest to us. Developing this understanding can create opportunities to repair hurts, reconnect and build greater security within the relationship.

With families, I take a similarly relational approach. Rather than locating the problem within one person, we explore what may be happening between family members and within the wider context of family life. I work with families experiencing conflict, disconnection, parent-child difficulties and periods of significant stress, loss or change.

My core approach is Systemic Family Therapy, integrated with attachment-based and emotion-focused approaches. I am a couple and family therapist meaning I am trained to work with more than one person. Alongside systemic approaches, I particularly draw on Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy and Internal Family Systems, including Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO). Mindfulness and an understanding of trauma also inform my work, particularly in helping people recognise and regulate strong emotional responses.

I also work individually with adults who want to understand recurring relationship patterns, explore the impact of past experiences or make changes in areas of life where they feel stuck.

I offer a warm, thoughtful and non-judgemental space. Therapy is collaborative and tailored to you; my aim is to help you understand not only what is happening, but what sits beneath it, so that meaningful and lasting change can become possible.

I offer face-to-face and online sessions and a free 15-minute initial telephone consultation to discuss what brings you to therapy and whether working together feels like a good fit.

Qualifications

-Msc in Family Therapy Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN)

-Certificate in Systemic family therapy supervision, consultation and training Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation

-PG Cert Institute of Family Therapy

-MA in Social Work Liverpool University

-Emotion Focused Couples Therapy Essentials and Core Sills British Emotion Focused Therapy

Centre

- Emotion Focused Family Therapy Essentials British Emotion Focused Therapy

Centre

- Internal Family Systems Level 1 IFS UK

- Internal Family Systems Level 2 ( Intimacy of the Inside Out- for couples) IFS UK

- Certificate in Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training, Mindfulness Now British Psychological Society (BPS) approved

Qualifications

MSc

Modalities

• Systemic
• Emotion-Focused
• Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Registered with

• UKCP
• AFSP
• SW England

Services

• Psychotherapy
• Couples therapy
• Family Therapy