What I work with.
I work with adults across a broad range of presentations, with a particular interest in trauma, relationships, identity and emotional wellbeing.
Mood disorders
Depression and other mood difficulties can affect every part of life, from energy and sleep to concentration, motivation and the ability to feel pleasure or hope. Many people describe a sense of heaviness or emptiness that is hard to explain to others. I work with major depressive disorder, persistent low mood and bipolar-related difficulties using evidence-based approaches such as CBT and Schema Therapy, with careful attention to the life circumstances and experiences that may be contributing to how you feel.
Anxiety and panic
Anxiety is a normal human response, but when it becomes persistent, intense or disconnected from any real threat it can take over daily life. This includes generalised worry, panic attacks, social anxiety, phobias and health-related anxiety. Therapy helps you understand the cycle that keeps anxiety going, develop practical strategies for managing physical symptoms and anxious thoughts, and gradually reclaim the situations that anxiety has made feel impossible.
PTSD and complex trauma
Trauma can follow a single overwhelming event or many years of experiences in which safety, trust and care were absent or unpredictable. Its effects may include intrusive memories, nightmares, hypervigilance, emotional numbness, difficulties in relationships and a persistent sense of threat. I offer trauma-focused treatments including EMDR, Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure, delivered within a trauma-informed framework that places safety, choice and pacing at the centre of the work.
Relationship difficulties and abuse
Our earliest relationships shape how we understand ourselves and what we expect from others. When relationships have involved emotional, psychological or physical abuse, the effects can extend well beyond the relationship itself, influencing trust, boundaries, self-worth and the patterns we find ourselves repeating. Therapy offers a space to make sense of these experiences, recognise the patterns, and build relationships, including the relationship with yourself, that feel safer and more authentic.
Trauma responses are adaptive attempts to survive overwhelming experiences.
With appropriate, trauma-informed support, people can develop increased emotional regulation, meaning-making and resilience.
Recovery from narcissistic abuse
Narcissistic abuse is often subtle and cumulative, and many people who have experienced it spend a long time doubting their own perceptions. Common experiences include confusion, self-blame, chronic anxiety, difficulty trusting your own judgement and a loss of connection with who you were before the relationship. I have a particular interest in this area. Together we work to understand what happened, rebuild self-trust and a stable sense of self, and establish boundaries that protect your wellbeing going forward.
Emotion regulation difficulties
Some people experience emotions with an intensity that feels overwhelming and difficult to manage, leading to reactions they later regret, strained relationships or exhausting efforts to avoid feeling anything at all. These difficulties often have understandable origins in early experiences. Therapy focuses on building awareness of emotional patterns, developing skills to tolerate and respond to strong feelings, and addressing the underlying beliefs and experiences that keep the intensity high.
Anger management
Anger is a valid and often useful emotion, but when it feels out of proportion, arrives too quickly or leads to behaviour that damages relationships, work or self-respect, it can become a source of real distress. Anger frequently sits on top of other feelings such as hurt, fear or shame. Therapy helps you recognise the early signs, understand what the anger is protecting, and develop healthier ways to express needs and set limits without losing control.
Adjustment and life transitions
Change, even when welcome, places demands on us. Relocation, career shifts, separation, parenthood, illness, retirement or the loss of someone close can all disrupt the sense of who we are and where we belong. When adjustment becomes difficult, it can show up as stress, low mood, anxiety or a feeling of being stuck. Therapy provides support to process what has changed, draw on your existing strengths, and find your footing in the new chapter.
Immigrant-related stressors
Building a life in a new country involves losses and pressures that are not always visible to others: distance from family, the effort of functioning in a second language, changes in status and identity, and the ongoing work of belonging. Having made that journey myself from Brazil, I understand these experiences from the inside. Therapy is available in English or Portuguese, and the cultural context of your life is treated as central rather than incidental to the work.
LGBTQI+ challenges
I warmly welcome lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex and gender diverse people, and offer care that is affirming of your identity and relationships. Alongside the concerns that bring anyone to therapy, you may be navigating experiences of minority stress, discrimination, family rejection, questions of identity or the particular pressures of coming out or transitioning. My research has included the mental health of trans and gender diverse young people, and this informs a practice in which you do not need to explain or justify who you are.
How I work
My clinical practice is based on interventions from a range of therapeutic modalities, including Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Schema Therapy, Prolonged Exposure Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR).
Every approach is adapted to the person, their history and their pace, within a trauma-informed framework.
Ready to take the first step?
Send a short enquiry and Dr Davi will be in touch to arrange your free 15 minute intake call.
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