Yana Valcheva, BACP

Yana Valcheva is a fully qualified counsellor who blends creative expression with body-centered awareness to support adults and young people through difficult life moments. She works in a client-guided, compassionate way that invites people to explore their feelings, tap into inner resources, and learn new strategies for coping and growth. Yana draws on an arts background and a long personal journey of self-discovery to offer counselling that often uses creative techniques alongside talk-based work.

Her training includes a Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling and an MA in Fine Arts, and she is a member of the BACP - the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Alongside counselling training she has trained and worked internationally as a holistic therapist and meditation teacher since 2001 in Bulgaria, India, France, and the United Kingdom. Her study of body-based approaches includes dance, yoga, active meditation, bioenergetics, and multiple massage traditions, which she integrates sensitively into therapy when helpful.

Yana supports people with a wide range of concerns including anxiety, pregnancy and child loss, infertility, depression, bereavement, self-harm, and eating disorders, as well as relationship, trauma and abuse, parenting, addiction, intimacy and body-image issues. She also offers women-focused work around fertility, pregnancy and postnatal challenges, and provides abdominal and self-massage techniques as part of that support. Her approach aims to help clients feel more grounded, make clearer decisions, and build a kinder relationship with themselves.

Client-Centered and Body-Informed Online Support

Client-Centered Therapy focuses on creating a trusting, respectful therapeutic relationship where the client’s experience guides the pace and direction of the work. The therapist offers empathy, validation, and unconditional positive regard so clients can explore feelings and choices and build self-trust - this approach is well suited to relationship issues, low self-esteem, and coping with life changes.

Alongside client-centered work, Yana often integrates creative expression and gentle body-informed practices. Creative techniques - such as art-based exploration or movement prompts - can help surface emotions that are hard to put into words, while somatic-informed practices invite attention to bodily sensations to support grounding and regulation after trauma or during periods of high anxiety.

Finding the right mix of methods is part of the therapeutic process and is decided collaboratively. Yana works with each person to identify which approaches best match their needs, goals, and preferences, adjusting the work as therapy progresses.

Online therapy sessions are offered by registered professionals through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging, giving practical flexibility. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, family, or geographic constraints and allow continuity of care for clients who travel or live abroad.