BACP Registered Integrative Counsellor, Manchester & online
About Grazyna
Welcome. I’m glad you’re here.
I became a counsellor because I know what it is to feel stuck — and I know what it is to find a way through. Before training, I spent more than twenty years working in acute healthcare and adult education — where I saw daily what happens when people carry too much for too long, and what becomes possible when they don’t have to do it alone. That experience is woven into how I work.
My approach
How I work
I use an integrative approach, drawing on three complementary frameworks depending on what each client needs at each point in the work. I don’t have a fixed formula – I follow what’s useful.
Person-Centred Therapy
Person-Centred Therapy sits at the heart of how I approach every session. It holds that people have an innate capacity to grow and change when the right conditions are in place — warmth, honesty, and genuine contact between two people. I take the therapeutic relationship seriously. It is not just a vehicle for delivering techniques; it is often the work itself.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
CBT provides a practical toolkit. It helps us understand how thoughts, feelings, and behaviour influence each other — and gives clients something concrete they can use between sessions. For people who like to understand what is happening and why, CBT offers structure without being rigid. Even fundamentals of CBT can alleviate anxiety, stress, and patterns of thinking that have become unhelpful.
Transactional Analysis
Transactional Analysis helps make sense of how patterns from the past show up in the present — in relationships, in how we talk to ourselves, in the roles we find ourselves playing. It is particularly useful when someone knows intellectually what they want to change but keeps finding themselves back in the same place regardless.
I ask a lot of questions – partly to understand you better, and partly because hearing yourself answer them out loud is often where the real work begins. If there is a tangle of things going on, I tend to look for the thread: even the smallest shift in one part of a person’s life has effects elsewhere. What is the smallest thing we can change today?
practicalities
What to expect
Sessions last 50 minutes. The number of sessions is negotiable and reviewed regularly – I don’t sign people up to open-ended commitments. Some people come for six to eight weeks with a clear goal; others work with me over a longer period. We review how the work is going as we go, and we’re honest with each other about whether it’s serving you.
I also offer Single Session Therapy – a focused, structured approach for people who want to address a specific issue without a longer commitment. You can read more about that here.
I offer sessions in English and in Polish.
BACKGROUND
My background and qualifications
I trained as a counsellor in the UK and hold a Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling (2023). I am a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), which means I work within a clear ethical framework and am committed to ongoing professional development.
Before counselling, my career was in healthcare and adult education. I bring that background into my work, particularly with clients navigating professional burnout, anxiety, workplace stress, and major life transitions. I have seen what sustained pressure does to people, and I have also seen what changes when someone is properly supported.
I engage in monthly clinical supervision, hold enhanced DBS, professional indemnity insurance, and am registered with the ICO. I have a particular interest in the experience of immigration and cross-cultural identity – having navigated that myself – and offer sessions in both English and Polish.
CPD
Continuing professional development
Primary Certificate in Single-Session Therapy, Professor Windy Dryden (December 2023, refreshed November 2025)
Trauma and dissociative processes, Theres Fickl / Counselling Initiative (2023)
Mindfulness for Stress, Manchester Mind (2024)
Janina Fisher trauma training, PESI UK (in progress)
CBT training series, Practical CBT: Problem Solving, Treating Depression, Treating Generalised Anxiety, ACT basics, Overview of Contemporary Cognitive Therapies
Advanced Motivational Interviewing, GMMH Manchester (2017)
Understanding Anxiety, Depression and CBT, University of Reading / FutureLearn (2020)
Integrating Care: Depression, Anxiety and Physical Illness, King’s College London / FutureLearn (2019)
Understanding Suicide and Suicide Prevention in the Global Context, University of Glasgow / FutureLearn (2021)
Therapy in Polish
Terapia po polsku
Sessions available online, UK-wide
I offer sessions in both English and Polish. For clients whose first language is Polish, or who feel that some things can only be said in the language they grew up with, this can make a real difference — not just to comfort, but to the depth of the work itself. As a Polish-speaking therapist in Manchester with lived experience of immigration, I understand the particular pressures that brings.
Ready to take the first step?
The free 20-minute consultation is a no-obligation conversation — a chance to ask questions and see whether working together feels right.
- Responds within 24 hours In-person or Online English or Polish