Psychotherapy with Tess Hunneybell
I work with adults at many different points in life — those carrying the impact of trauma, those living with ongoing stress or emotional overwhelm, and those simply sensing that something in them wants care, space, or attention.
Rather than focusing on labels or diagnoses, my work meets the whole person, supporting the nervous system to settle, soften, and find its own way back toward balance.
When insight isn’t enough
Many people arrive having already done a great deal of thinking, reading, and reflecting. They understand their story — and yet their body continues to respond as if something still needs care or attention.
This can show up as tension, emotional reactivity, exhaustion, or a sense of being unable to fully settle, even when life appears stable on the surface.
This isn’t because anything is wrong. It’s the nervous system responding in the way it learned to — shaped by earlier experiences, prolonged stress, or periods where there was too much to carry alone.
My work focuses on creating the conditions for the body to settle, integrate, and regain a sense of choice — gently, and at a pace the nervous system can tolerate, without force or overwhelm.
Ways of working
I offer individual psychotherapy for adults who want steady, attentive support over time — a place to explore, regulate, and make sense of their experience within a safe therapeutic relationship.
For some women, this work is especially well supported within a longer, immersive setting. My retreats offer a carefully held therapeutic environment where there is space to slow down, step out of daily demands, and allow deeper integration to take place with continuity and care.
You’re welcome to explore whichever path feels right — or to begin with a conversation and see what unfolds.
If you’d like, you’re welcome to arrange a quiet, no-obligation conversation.
Work featured in international publications
Healing Trauma Retreats
What This Retreat Is
This is a carefully held therapeutic retreat for women who are ready to spend time with long-standing patterns shaped by past experience — including trauma, loss, or periods of prolonged strain that have affected the mind and body.
The retreat is designed and led by British trauma psychotherapist Tess Hunneybell and takes place at San Flaviano, her monastery home in the Umbrian hills of Italy. The setting is quiet and contained, offering a steady rhythm that supports deep rest and integration.
The structure of the retreat has been shaped through many years of practice and through supporting more than 1,200 women within this format. The retreat is intentionally kept small, with a maximum of five guests, allowing the week to unfold with care, continuity, and individual attention. Learning deepens gradually, and change is supported to settle at a pace that feels sustainable and grounded.
Alongside individual therapeutic sessions, the days include shared learning, gentle movement, time outdoors, and the simple rhythm of daily life together. Time is also intentionally set aside for rest, including an afternoon at a nearby thermal spa, allowing the body to soften and recuperate without agenda.
A small, experienced professional team supports the retreat within a consistent clinical framework held throughout the week. Practical arrangements are taken care of, allowing participants to step out of effort and give their attention to the experience of being there.
Who This Retreat Is For
This retreat is open to women from around the world who are seeking deeper understanding of themselves, space to reflect on past experience, or a period of meaningful rest and reset within a supported setting.
Women attend at many different stages of life. Over the years, guests have ranged from young adulthood through to later life. What connects participants is not age, background, or circumstance, but a willingness to engage with the retreat structure and to take part in shared learning and reflection.
The retreat is suited to women who are able to share space with others, take responsibility for themselves, and respect both personal and shared boundaries. The group is small, and the setting is quiet and communal.
Within this framework, the retreat is held with care, discretion, and professional attention, allowing each participant to engage at her own pace and in her own way.
Ways I work
Alongside individual trauma therapy and immersive retreat work, I design and deliver workshops, professional teaching, and business-focused coaching across a range of organisational and educational contexts. This work brings trauma-informed practice, nervous system understanding, and psychological depth into settings where clarity, leadership, and ethical decision-making matter.
Discuss additional services
Group Sessions and Workshops
Women’s Workshops — Born Free
Reclaiming the Body. Rewriting the Mind.
Born Free is a trauma-informed women’s workshop series exploring how trauma, conditioning, and inherited patterns become held in the body and nervous system — and how they can begin to be released without force, shame, or re-traumatisation.
The work introduces participants to the principles of breaking generational and relational trauma patterns, understanding the body’s survival responses, and beginning the process of re-orienting the nervous system toward safety, agency, and choice. Rather than focusing on catharsis or narrative retelling, the emphasis is on embodied awareness, regulation, and the restoration of personal sovereignty.
These workshops are educational, experiential, and carefully paced, offering a clear entry point into body-based trauma understanding and the foundations of shame-free, self-directed living.
Business & Leadership Coaching — Authentic Success
My business coaching is grounded in an Authentic Success approach, supporting individuals to lead and make decisions from alignment rather than pressure or performance-driven identity. This work recognises how early responsibility, chronic stress, or survival patterns can shape success in ways that undermine clarity, boundaries, and wellbeing.
The focus is on restoring internal authority, ethical decision-making, and sustainable leadership — success that is coherent, grounded, and self-directed, rather than driven by survival or expectation.
This is psychologically informed coaching for people navigating complex roles or transitions, distinct from therapy and from performance coaching.