Psychotherapy - Trauma Recovery - Somatic Healing

PSYCHOTHERAPY &
SOMATIC PRACTICES
for WELLBEING and
POST-TRAUMATIC GROWTH
ABOUT ME
UKCP accredited, HCPC & NCPS registered
Integrative Arts Psychotherapist, MA.
Somatic Experiencing Therapist
Certified Bioenergetics Teacher
Hello, thank you for visiting my website.
My name is Lorena Balbinot, I am a warm-hearted and a little playful somatic and integrative arts psychotherapist working online, in London and in Oxfordshire.
My work and passion is helping survivors of trauma and people who feel stuck in their life find safety, meaning and aliveness again. Providing a safe, welcoming, and confidential space, I support clients in their journeys of healing and development, moving towards a more satisfying life and greater autonomy.
My professional formation includes a Master in Integrative Arts Psychotherapy, a Degree in Humanistic Counselling, and over 10 years (and ongoing) of body-centred therapeutic approaches for wellbeing and trauma healing, including: Somatic Experiencing (fully accredited SE Therapist), Deep Brain Reorienting (Level 2), Relational Trauma Therapy (Level 2), and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (Level 1).
I am a qualified Bioenergetics teacher and in addition to individual psychotherapy I offer sessions of trauma-informed somatic practice aimed at helping clients find greater freedom of expression and sense of safety in their body. I also run other groups in the community, find more information below.​
My work is informed by the following psychotherapeutic approaches: Humanistic, Psychodynamic, Attachment Theory, Object Relations, Gestalt, Transactional Analysis, Integrative Arts, Janina Fisher Structural Dissociation Model, Internal Family System, Family Constellations, Somatic Experiencing, Integral Somatic Psychology, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Relational Trauma Therapy, Embodied Relational Therapy, and Deep Bodywork.
I work in a trauma-informed way and I am committed to helping clients understand the role of the autonomic nervous system in their overall wellbeing, in line with the Polyvagal Theory by Steven Porges.
The way I practise is at its core relational and what I offer will always be tailored around each individual's unique needs and consequent to clients' agreement.
Taking a collaborative stance, I aim at empowering clients as much as possible. For this reason I share a lot of psychoeducation and resources to build knowledge and skills that can foster independence.
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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE​
Since 2015 I have been gaining experience in the field of adult mental health by practising in charitable organisations, in the NHS (both inpatient and outpatient), and in the private sector (trauma recovery residential treatment centre and outpatient service). My main area of expertise is Complex Trauma and I have experience of working with PTSD, CPTSD, anxiety, stress, burn-out, chronic fatigue, addiction, anger management, compulsive behaviours, depression, co-dependence, narcissistic abuse, sexuality, low self-esteem and shame, bereavement, complex grief, the LGBTQ+ community, racial trauma, attachment issues and disorders, dissociation and dissociative disorders, BPD, psychosis, self-harm and suicidality.
TRAININGS & ACCREDITATIONS
2025 Full Accreditation as a Somatic Experiencing Therapist (Level 3)
2025 DBR Level 2
2025 Relational Trauma Therapy Level 2
2025 TIST Level 1
2022 Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Level 1
2022 Safe & Sound Protocol by Steven Porges
2017-2021 MA in Integrative Arts Psychotherapy, IATE, London.
2016-2017 Advanced Diploma in the Therapeutic & Educational Application of the Arts. IATE, London.
2015-2016 Certificate in Deep Bodywork. Entellia Institute, London.
2014 Bioenergetic Teacher Accreditation. Centro Sarvas, Italy.
2012-2015 Diploma in Body-Centred Humanistic Counselling. Centro Sarvas, Italy.
2009-2012 Fine Arts Degree​
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I attained registration to UKCP in 2021 and was registered with UKCP up to 2026 (I left UKCP for personal choice).
Today I am a registered member of The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and The National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society (NCPS). In accordance with these professional bodies’ ethical principles, professional standards and policies, I am committed to providing a safe, ethical and effective practice. I hold a full Public Liability Insurance and DBS.
I am committed to ongoing professional development and I engage in regular CPD to keep my knowledge up to date.
To ensure my practice remains safe and ethical I attend regular clinical supervision.
CONFIDENTIALITY
All clients information will be treated with the strictest confidentiality according to the GDPR privacy rights and laws.

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Services

Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is generally used as a longer-term treatment that focuses on gaining insight into substantial physical, relational or emotional problems. Its focus is on the person's present difficulties and how these may be influenced by past events, including personal and intergenerational trauma, and other factors. Psychotherapy aims at addressing the root cause and core issues of current problems so that lasting change and personal growth may occur. Psychotherapy can achieve different things for different people: managing behaviours and feelings, reducing stress, improving self-esteem and awareness, healing trauma and emotional wounds, finding meaning in life.

Integrative Arts Psychotherapy
Integrative Arts Psychotherapy is a form of expressive psychotherapy that uses the creative process through art-making and the body to improve one's own physical, mental, and emotional well-being. ​Arts Psychotherapy is not concerned with aesthetic or diagnostic analysis of the image and it does not require any particular skill or talent. The goal of integrative Arts Psychotherapy is that of enabling change and growth on a personal level through the use of expressive media in a safe and facilitating environment.

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)

Somatic Experiencing
SE is a body-based therapeutic modality designed for the healing of trauma and chronic stress.
Developed by Dr. Peter Levine in the 1990s, through observation of wild animal behaviour and on the understanding of the Polyvagal Theory, SE believes that unlike animals, humans are often unable to complete the discharge of energy (fight or flight) during a threat. This leads to uncompleted survival energy and impulses remaining "stuck" in the nervous system and causing symptoms like PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
SE is a very gentle yet powerful bottom-up approach that taps into the body's innate capacity for healing. By safely releasing trauma and stress that are held in the body, a sense of safety and regulation after overwhelming experiences is restored, allowing for PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early childhood trauma to be transformed.
​​SE helps individuals overcome trauma, reignite their flow of life, and rediscover their resilience.
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Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is neuroscience-based, trauma-focused clinical approach that has been developed by Dr. Frank Corrigan. DBR is built on the theoretical foundation that trauma is registered and stored in the brainstem, specifically through the "orienting" system which reacts to threat, rather than just in the emotional brain (limbic system).
DBR targets the sequence of events that occurred in the brainstem at the time of the traumatic event and specifically focuses on the moment of shock. Underpinning this clinical approach, is a distinction between circuits for shock and circuits for affective and defensive responding.
DBR is a bottom-up, trauma memory processing modality, recommended for PTSD & CPTSD, shock trauma, but also for attachment injuries, relational trauma, and where attachment urges are conflicted because of adverse experiences.
Without using words DBR works by accessing the core of the traumatic experience (the moment of shock) through the tracking of the original physiological sequence in the brainstem, the part of the brain which is rapidly online in situations of danger or attachment disruption. By gently accompanying these stimulus-response sequences in the upper brainstem and helping the shock energy to be released, in DBR therapy the natural healing process of the body is reinstated and, optimally, resolution of the clinical consequences of the traumatic experiences is completed.
Processing the memory in this way, from the bottom up, can change how the memory is stored in the brain, and reduce PTSD symptoms, which in turn promotes a greater sense of safety and psychophysical sense of ease.

Bioenergetics
Bioenergetic Analysis, founded by Alexander Lowen in 1950s, is a form of psychotherapy that integrates verbal and body work. At its core is the belief that whatever is experienced in the mind is equally reflected in the body and vice versa.
Emotions are bodily experiences, therefore what we live emotionally gets impressed in our body. Emotions shape our body whether we express them or whether we repress them.
Bioenergetics teaches us to pay attention to the way we look, the way we breathe, the way we walk, our posture, our tensions, our way of being embodied. In so doing we are able to learn the language of the body, gaining access to a deeper source of wisdom and knowing, that of the body, where our truest self resides. Bioenergetics offers an integration of verbal conversation and specific body exercises that become an act of introspection allowing us to explore our emotions, our limits, but also our resources. The exercises unveil our personal knots and stiffness, physical but emotional too. They are never executed mechanically, because conversely they aim at a full and free expression of the person. Through the body release that the exercises bring, trapped emotions gradually emerge and with time they find the opportunity to be fully lived, expressed, and in the end integrated in one's own sense of identity. Once the body starts revealing its deepest knowledge and we learn how to listen to it, then we can truly experience the enjoyable feeling of transformation happening in our body and in our behaviour. This is the path towards inner freedom, joy and wholeness.​
Bioenergetics can be practised in a 1 to 1 setting or through classes of exercises.
In INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS the use of body exercises can be accompanied by verbal elaboration and exploration.
In BIOENERGETICS GROUP CLASSES exercises are the priority and sharing of personal process is neither expected nor required. The objectives of the classes are:​​
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To offer the chance to release stress and body tensions, feel more relaxed, alive, vigorous, and dynamic.
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To acquire new information about one's self and one's body and create greater connection with one own's body.
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To promote the ability to listen to one's own emotions and sensations and to encourage their expression.
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To develop one's sense of responsibility in accepting one's limits and in seeking wellbeing.
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To become more grounded, that is to become more steady in one's own existence and reality, without living in illusions, projections, or unrooted thoughts.
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Please contact me if you have any questions about the services I offer. I will be happy to offer clarifications.
Fees
Bioenergetics Group Class £20
1-1 Somatic Practice in person (55mins) £65
1-1 Somatic Practice on Zoom (55mins) £50
Psychotherapy, SE & DBR sessions in person (50mins) £95
Psychotherapy, SE & DBR sessions on Zoom (55mins) £90
GET IN TOUCH
If you have any questions or doubts do not hesitate to contact me. I offer a free 20-minute Zoom conversation to anyone who is interested in starting a treatment.​
I can be contacted by email or using the form in this section. Please specify the location/modality you are interested in. ​
I aim to respond to emails within 48 hours. If you don't hear from me, please check your spam folder. Thank you.
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Email: contact@lorenabalbinot.com
I look forward to meeting you.