How I Work

My foundation is Humanistic psychotherapy.

For me, this means beginning with the person rather than imposing a fixed method or assuming that one approach will suit everyone.

My first task is to listen. I want to understand you, your history, your relationships, what you are experiencing now, and the ways you have learned to navigate your life.

I work deeply with emotions and aim to provide a safe, attuned therapeutic relationship in which you can explore experiences that may have been difficult to understand, express or hold alone.

Depending on the person and what brings them to therapy, I may draw from Person-Centred Therapy, Emotion-Focused Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Existential Therapy and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).

Mindfulness-based approaches may also be integrated into my work where appropriate. I am particularly interested in helping people develop greater awareness of their emotional and embodied experience, rather than living continuously in reaction to it.

Clinical hypnotherapy is another part of my practice. It may be offered as a distinct therapeutic intervention or, where appropriate and agreed, used alongside the wider therapeutic work.

Although I have trained in different approaches, I do not believe therapy should become a collection of techniques applied to a person. The therapeutic relationship, the individual sitting in front of me and what they need remain central to how I work.

The Innate Entitlement Framework™

Alongside my clinical practice, I am the Founder and Developer of the Innate Entitlement Framework™ (IEF™).

The Framework has emerged through the meeting of lived experience, sustained therapeutic practice, observation, study and continued conceptual investigation.

At its centre is an exploration of human existence, relationship and participation, beginning from a different understanding of entitlement: not entitlement as superiority, demand or privilege, but as something inherent rather than conferred.

The Framework is continuing to undergo systematic conceptual development and audit. For that reason, I distinguish between the evolving theoretical architecture of the IEF™ and the established therapeutic approaches that inform my clinical practice.

For readers who would like to explore the Framework and its current development in greater depth, you can visit:

Learn more about the Innate Entitlement Framework™ Read More Here…

My Story

My professional work is also informed by my own experience of change, uncertainty and building a life far from where I began.

At 23, I left São Paulo and moved to London alone.

I did not speak English. I arrived with approximately £800 that I had put together myself and a six-month English course already paid for.

I had made a decision to step into something I did not yet know how to navigate.

Twenty days after arriving, circumstances meant that I had to stand on my own feet much sooner than I had expected. I had very little English and increasingly little money, but I was determined to find work and continue studying.

I carried a small vocabulary book with me and learned a sentence that I could use when approaching employers:

“I am an English student looking for work to pay for school, to eat, and to have a place to sleep.”

I kept asking.

With around £20 remaining, I found my first job.

What followed was not a simple or linear journey. I learned the language, adapted to a different country and culture, studied, went to university and eventually qualified as a psychotherapist.

In 2014, I established Esperansa Counselling & Psychotherapy Services.

Looking back, one of the things that stands out to me is that I did not experience that period simply as something I had to survive. Even when I could not know what would happen next, I carried a strong sense of relationship with life and a willingness to participate in what came next.

That experience continues to influence the therapist I am today.

It is one of the reasons I am interested not only in what has happened to a person, but also in what remains available within them: their capacity for awareness, relationship, choice, meaning, change and participation in their own life.

Working With Me

Today, I work with people experiencing a wide range of emotional and relational difficulties.

People do not always arrive in therapy knowing exactly what is wrong or what they need. Sometimes they simply know that something has become difficult: they feel anxious, overwhelmed, disconnected, stuck in repeating patterns, uncertain in relationships, critical of themselves, or no longer quite like themselves.

You do not need to arrive with the right psychological language.

We can begin with what is happening for you.

I offer individual counselling and psychotherapy, couples counselling, clinical hypnotherapy and clinical supervision. Sessions are available face-to-face from my consulting room at Cherry Tree House in Swansea and online. Telephone sessions can also be arranged where appropriate.

I understand that contacting a therapist for the first time can feel daunting, particularly if you have never experienced counselling before.

For this reason, I offer a free 20-minute introductory meeting, either face-to-face or online. It gives us an opportunity to meet, for you to ask questions, and for us to consider whether we feel comfortable working together.

If you would like to arrange an introductory meeting or ask a question before deciding, you are welcome to get in touch.

You’re welcome to read what my clients have shared about their journeys with me on my Testimonials page

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my bio, I will be more than happy to be of services if you need! 

Janaina Vieira Mahe.