Emma Louise Sharkey, BACP

Emma Louise Sharkey helps people who are coping with stress, anxiety, relationship concerns, trauma and abuse, low self-esteem, depression and addiction. She also supports those facing grief, sleep and eating difficulties, parenting strain, anger, career changes, bipolar challenges, ADHD and other life transitions. Emma is based in the United Kingdom and works in English. She holds a BACP accreditation and has three years of professional experience.

Her approach is warm and straightforward. She treats people as experts in their own lives and looks for the strengths they already have. Sessions are practical and focused on small, manageable steps. Emma aims to make the first contact feel less daunting and to keep things simple as therapy begins.

Emma uses client-centred methods that focus on the person rather than labels. She also offers trauma-focused work and can use Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, often shortened to EMDR, when trauma memories are involved. Hypnotherapy is another option she may draw on to help with patterns that feel stuck.

In conversation she listens first and tailors tools to each person’s needs. That may mean exploring feelings, practising short exercises in session, or setting gentle tasks to try between sessions. The emphasis is on what helps the person move forward in daily life.

People can expect clear language and a calm pace. Emma supports clients through a wide range of concerns including adoption and foster care issues, caregiver stress, codependency, communication or commitment worries, dissociation, domestic violence, substance problems and coping after disasters. Her work aims to be practical, respectful and grounded in each person’s goals.

How EMDR, Client-Centred Therapy and Hypnotherapy work online

Client-centred therapy focuses on listening and understanding a person’s experience. The therapist helps people name their goals and supports them in finding their own solutions, often using simple exercises and reflective conversation. This approach can help with anxiety, relationship difficulties and general life stress.

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, or EMDR, is a trauma-focused method that gently works with painful memories to reduce their intensity. In online sessions EMDR involves guided attention and structured processing to help someone feel less overwhelmed by past events. It can be used for trauma, abuse and distressing memories.

Hypnotherapy uses guided relaxation and focused attention to help change unhelpful patterns, for example around sleep, eating or confidence. Online hypnotherapy sessions can include short exercises a person can practise between meetings to reinforce progress.

Choosing the best approach is a joint process. The therapist will talk through options and match methods to the person’s goals, preferences and the nature of the difficulty. That collaborative choice can be reviewed as therapy progresses.

Online formats offer practical benefits. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when seeing expressions matters. Phone sessions are useful when bandwidth is low or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text messaging suit quick check-ins, brief reflections or ongoing support between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, family and travel commitments, and to keep continuity when location changes.