Taproot Psychology is a practice of trauma psychologists in the UK that provide face-to-face and online trauma therapy.
We're passionate about making trauma therapy accessible to everyone. Because trauma can happen to anyone.
Trauma affects relationships, causes pain you may not understand, and creates physiological distress on your brain and body. In trauma therapy at Taproot Psychology, we address the way trauma has affected your body. Often trauma survivors are disconnected from their bodies, and we want to help you reconnect with yourself.
We have 4 practitioners in our practice:
Dr Kelly Savery
Chryssa Michailidou
Dr David Saddington
Tan Payá Ramírez
Work with us because...
Our approach to trauma recovery involves:
Intervention designed to help reconnect you to your mind, body and spirt
Taking the time to really get to know you and understand the root of your trauma experiences
Addressing how trauma affects your brain so that you can understand your experiences from a biological and neurological standpoint
Resources beyond our therapy sessions to help you further understand you traumatic experience(s)
Our trauma therapists help you find your roots so you can ground yourself and tap into your inner strength and resilience. We help you weather the storms so you bend but don't break. Our trauma psychologists are here for you as you heal from your past trauma and create an abundant future.
About Doctor Kelly Savery
Counselling Psychologist and Founder of Taproot Psychology
Dr Kelly Savery is a trauma psychologist in the UK. Originally from Bermuda, Dr Kelly migrated first to Canada and then to England, where she now resides and practices trauma therapy.
As someone who has picked up her life and started over in different continents several times, Dr Kelly knows what it feels like to be uprooted and lost. She's started over, built a community from scratch, and adapted to life in a different country twice.
As a result, Dr Kelly understands what it feels like to not have roots. As a trauma psychologist, she wants to help you connect to your strong taproot and feel grounded in your life.
Dr Kelly always knew she wanted to be a psychologist. She was the eleven-year-old who empathised with her friends and helped them cope with difficult situations. Dr Kelly has always been an empathetic listener and someone who connects deeply with others' emotions.
When she had to choose a specialism, Dr Kelly knew that becoming a trauma psychologist was what she wanted to do. She loves helping people find their roots and build a strong core so that they can grow into strong, resilient people. She works with those who've endured trauma of all kinds, but she specialises in working with individuals who have experienced sexual abuse.
Dr Kelly's experience with trauma herself is related to being a woman of colour. She understands what it feels like to be powerless to circumstances out of your control. As a trauma psychologist, Dr Kelly has seen many trauma survivors work through their past traumatic experiences in trauma therapy and knows firsthand how resilient survivors of trauma are. Her greatest joy as a trauma psychologist is witnessing change.
When Dr Kelly lost her father, she didn't understand the huge psychological impact this loss had on her. Because of this, she understands what it feels like to go through something difficult and not fully know the root of the problem. Once she processed this traumatic experience and made sense of what was causing her distress she was able to put a name to what she was experiencing. From that point on, everything changed for the better. She wants to help you do the same with your trauma.
Therapy for trauma can help survivors of all types of traumatic experiences identify, describe and name what happened to them. Once you name it, you can face it and work through it. Dr Kelly understands what that's like firsthand.
Dr Kelly wants to help you build a life worth living. As a trauma psychologist, her goal is to help you understand your experience and live with the pain without it dominating your life. In trauma therapy, you'll figure out what living a happy life means and work through the difficult points in your recovery.
Your traumatic experience doesn't have to run your life. Dr Kelly and the other trauma psychologists at Taproot Psychology are here to help you recover and find your life worth living.
Dr Kelly's Education & Training
Education:
Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology
MSc Counselling Psychology
Bachelor of Applied Science (Honours)
Specialised Training:
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) - Accredited Practitioner
Cognitive AT Practitioner Training (CAT)- Accredited Practitioner
Compassion Focused Therapy
DBT Foundation Training
Supervisor Training
Chryssa Michailidou - Trauma Informed Therapist
About Chryssa Michailidou
Chryssa is a trauma therapist in the UK. She is from a small village in Greece and migrated to the UK when she was 26 to do this work that she feels was called to do. She has always been interested in working with survivors of domestic violence because she used to see families when she was growing up experiencing domestic violence but not doing anything to stop it. The victim-blaming and inequality between men and women that she witnessed and growing up within the village made her want to do more.
Chryssa is also drawn to working with survivors of emotional abuse because it can go undetected since the scars aren't visible.
Growing up she was bullied because her parents weren't educated. She was called the "farmer's daughter," which was seen as a negative thing in her community. Chryssa has experienced the trauma of being shamed for her body and thought she'd never be able to achieve anything.
When she arrived in the UK she was criticised in college for her accent. Her English wasn't very good and the groups she worked with felt that they "had to make changes so that she'd understand". She didn't make any friends and felt left out, causing her to almost drop out of school. She was also told by clients that they wanted to speak to an "English-speaking therapist." Chryssa understands firsthand that culture, race, and individual differences are not always taken into consideration in therapy.
Chryssa is passionate about being a trauma therapist. She constantly asks herself "what can I do to help people reduce suffering?" She was drawn to Taproot Psychology because she believes in Dr Kelly's values and genuinely wants to help survivors of trauma. Chryssa wants to help people understand what happened to them, how traumatic experiences have affected them, and what attachments were formed in childhood.
Chryssa focuses on grounding her clients and helping them practise self-care so they can deal with guilt, build healthy relationships, decrease shame, increase self-esteem, and increase body awareness. She believes her main role as a trauma therapist is to establish a good therapeutic relationship with you. This only works if you feel safe and taken care of, which she strives to do in her work.
Chryssa's Education & Training
Education:
BSc in Human Psychology
MSc in Counselling Psychology
Postgraduate Diploma Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
Specialised Training:
Certificate in Supervision Skills for Evidence-based Psychological approaches for Adults
Compassion Focused Therapy
Compassion Focused Therapy for Dissociation
CBT in the Context of Long Term Distressing and Persistent Health Conditions
EMDR Therapy Basic Training Part 1 and 2
Dr David Saddington - Clinical Psychologist
About Dr David Saddington
David came to trauma therapy later in life, as a second career. He started out in project management and likes problem-solving, which is beneficial in his psychology work because he can help his clients work through issues and struggles. He changed careers to psychology because he is truly interested in people - their stories, their motivations, and what makes people tick.
Trauma work found David because he realized that trauma is the driving force of many mental health problems. He aims to make a sustainable change in people's lives by focusing on the right treatment areas each individual needs. David likes that psychology gives him the opportunity to develop a deep understanding of a person's difficulties. He believes strongly in the therapeutic relationship being the most important part of trauma therapy and likes to establish solid relationships in proper depth.
One of the most rewarding parts of trauma therapy for David is seeing real change occur. He considers himself a "sense-maker," meaning that he wants to help people understand the root cause of their distress and make sense of what they're going through. He helps people understand their stories and fit the pieces that don't seem to fit back together. David's main values as a therapist are honesty, courage, curiosity, independence, integrity, growth, and autonomy. His calm, empathetic nature helps his clients learn to trust him as they go through the difficult process of working through trauma.
David believes that one of the most profound things a therapist can do for a client is to enable them to feel seen and heard. He pulls from several different therapy modalities and believes that trauma is stored in the body, so an EMDR and somatic-based approach is how he approaches treatment. David provides a safe space for clients to explore the impact that trauma and suffering have had on them.
Dr David's Education and Training
Education:
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology - Lancaster University
MSc Psychology (Conversion) - University of St Andrews
Specialised Training:
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Cognitive Analytic Therapy foundation training
Supervisor training
About Tan Payá Ramírez - Trainee Counselling Psychologist
Tan Payá Ramírez (they/them) is a trainee counselling psychologist in their last year of studies at the University of Manchester. Originally from Chile, Latin America, Tan migrated to Scotland 8 years ago and then to England, where they now reside and practice.
In Chile, Tan is a qualified psychologist and psychotherapist, working in public and private settings and developing a private practice for 6 years before moving to the UK. They specialised in working with children, young people and their families. Using a psychodynamic and relational approach, Tan has always been interested in clients' inner world and relationships, working collaboratively to understand their difficulties and where they may come from, to support clients to feel heard and validated, and to make any changes they would like to see in their life. In their current training, Tan has further developed their practice of person-centred/humanistic and cognitive behavioural approaches, integrating them into a pluralistic framework to respond to the various needs of different clients. Tan also works as an artist, with a specialism in photography and is comfortable working creatively during sessions if a client would like to explore this.
Since moving to the UK, Tan has led in shaping equality, diversity and inclusion efforts at the University of Manchester as well as in 3rd sector organisations. With this area being very close to their heart, they have worked in community-centred projects such as writing mental health guides aimed at supporting and educating the LGBTQIA+ Black, Brown and People of Colour community through their work with the charity Black Beetle Health which aims to address health inequalities queer people of colour experience in the UK. These guides explore the experiences of Eating Distress and Hearing Voices through a lens that integrates medical and psychological knowledge with community activism and systemic issues such as racism and queerphobia in healthcare provision. You can read them here and here.
As a queer migrant of colour, Tan has experienced the difficulties of being minoritised and re-starting their life in a different culture. These difficult experiences have motivated Tan in their work to support their clients and educate other professionals on anti-oppressive practices.
During their doctoral studies, Tan has specialised in working with gender, sexuality and relationship diversity clients as well as racialised individuals, supporting them with elaborating traumatic experiences and integrating different parts of their identity in a way that feels authentic and true to themselves. Tan centres a liberationist approach in their practice, implementing a nuanced understanding of how systemic oppression related to areas such as race, gender, sexuality, class, disability, migration status and others interact with personal, interpersonal and transgenerational trauma. They also aim to hold space to recognise and celebrate the resources people from marginalised groups have developed and how they can help us in our journey of healing.
Taproot Psychology Is Here to Help
If you're ready to work with a qualified trauma psychologist in the UK, contact us to set up a free 30-minute consultation.
All sessions are completely confidential.
We look forward to working with you on your journey to healing and growth from trauma.