A bit about me

Hannah - Practitioner Psychologist & Director of Be Curious Psychology

Why did you create Be-Curious Psychology?

A biggy! I’ve seen so many people struggle with unhelpful narratives about themselves that keep them stuck or interfere with the life they want to lead. Often, these narratives come with a harsh, shame-inducing inner dialogue.

A wonderful way to disarm these narratives and inner dialogues is to get curious about them. This doesn’t mean getting lost in over-analysis or being critical. Instead, it’s about adopting a non-judgmental curiosity—gently acknowledging our internal experience and exploring it without judgement or attachment to a specific outcome. Through non-judgmental attention and questioning, we can cultivate a gentler path to self-acceptance, compassion, and harmony.

“Be Curious” perfectly captures this mindset. It’s about approaching ourselves and those around us with openness, a desire to learn, and a sense of playfulness and kindness. By shifting our focus away from chasing outcomes, we can instead learn to simply “be.”

What kind of work have you done?

I’ve worked across many industries - from business, sport, mental health and exercise settings - providing 1-1 support to individuals, as well as workshops and group-based training and support. This, combined with my years of training to become a psychologist, have influenced the way I work - I don’t take a one-size fits all approach, as I don’t believe that one approach can work for everyone. Instead, I’m more interested in finding ways that will most effectively support you, not only with your goals, but in how you’d like to be supported.

It has also shown just how much we have the capacity to change and grow, despite what some old sayings might have us believe. I believe we have more influence over our experiences than we may initially realise, and I love working with clients to facilitate meaningful change and discover new possibilities to improve their lives.

Clients describe me as warm, attentive, and skilled, with a focus on forming meaningful connections.

How do you work with your clients?

I keep my core values at the heart of what I do: compassion, collaboration and curiosity. Compassion means creating a place where clients can express themselves freely, feel understood, and be met with empathy and patience. Collaboration means working alongside my clients, ensuring that they’re actively involved in shaping the work they do. And Curiosity means approaching clients experiences with an open and non-judgmental mind, and supporting their attitude of curiosity too. It’s really important to me to create a space that feels both non-judgmental and constructive.

Beyond this, my work is grounded in evidence-based approaches and techniques that address the challenges that clients come to see me for, for example challenges like perfectionism, imposter syndrome, burnout, and anxiety. I also love supporting people who are simply looking to grow, whether personally or professionally.

Can you share some areas you typically explore with clients?

Depending on what clients might come to see me for, and how they’d like our sessions to be, will determine more precisely what sessions might involve.

In general, we might be talking through things to help clients make sense of things in a more structured, way which may involve understanding how their thoughts, feelings and behaviours interact to create their experience.

We may also work to understand the emotional driving force behind their experience, and look to develop self-compassion where appropriate.

Sessions often also help individuals to problem solve, plan and make decisions about their lives. Throughout, I aim to support clients to live in line with their values and move in the direction they want.

I’ve heard CBT is a common approach psychologists take, is that what you do?

A well known piece of research found that the working relationship between a practitioner and client is more important than the approach the practitioner takes (REF). So, for me the most important part is ensuring we have a good working relationship.

Beyond this, I use CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) with clients, as it is particularly helpful for increasing our awareness of our how our inner experience (thoughts, feelings) contributes to our behaviours and interactions with others.

However, given that, as I mentioned, I don’t believe there’s one approach for every person, I also use integrate other approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), as well as aspects of Motivational Interviewing and positive psychology.