Emma Doorish - the Transpersonal Psychotherapist

Emma Doorish - the Transpersonal Psychotherapist Creative psychotherapist & Founder at Emma Doorish Therapy. Workplace wellbeing facilitator and CPD Trainer. Psychotherapy, Hypnotherapy.

I have been learning and practising psychotherapy since finishing my Psychology degree in 2003. I have worked in Valencia, Barcelona, London and now I am back from where I began in my home town in Northern Ireland. I have so much passion for my profession and I am humbled and in awe of the many clients, I have had the opportunity to work with throughout the years. Every client who comes to see me

has their own unique story and place in the world and together we work through traumas, manage anxiety, grieve or let go of the past. I find that with my client we work naturally and work with what the client brings to the session in a very organic and creative fashion. I love how solution-focused practice encourages the clients to think of the outcome of therapy and to allow those best wishes to act as a guide throughout. Some clients only have a few sessions with me others stay and enjoy a monthly check-in as part of their self-care. Reiki
I had my first reiki treatment about 20 years ago in my hometown of Limavady in Northern Ireland. I connected immediately to it and after the session I felt peaceful, calm and boy did I sleep that night. It was a few years later when I started my own journey into reiki when I came across a mindfulness centre in Edinburgh. Reiki came in and out of my life quite sporadically for years, and yet it always found me. I imagine if you are reading this then you have stumbled upon reiki too. I always get asked what is reiki, and while I can give the technical answer, “Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing.”, I don’t feel I am ever really answering the question. It is not something to be explained in simple terms, it is more something to be experienced. Many people experience a feeling of calmness, peacefulness during and after a reiki session. Often a practitioner can ‘pick up’ on ailments or injury. It is a beautiful way to practice self-care and to take care of your wellbeing. Reiki can help with a wide array of emotional and physical symptoms and can have some quite profound results. It can also simply be a bit of me-time where you can relax and allow the energy to do what it needs to do.

"Just think positive" sounds helpful, but it;s not. A well-known study (Wood, Perunovic & Lee, 2009) found that people w...
17/08/2026

"Just think positive" sounds helpful, but it;s not.

A well-known study (Wood, Perunovic & Lee, 2009) found that people with low self-esteem who repeated affirmations like "I am a lovable person" felt worse afterwards, not better — the gap between the words and what they actually believed was too wide.

You can't talk your nervous system out of a threat response by force of will. It needs to feel safe first , through relationship, regulation and real evidence before a new belief can actually take hold.

It also can make a person feel very alone in their thoughts or have to mask that can be exhausted. It's ok to feel it. Safety allows the the real feelings to present. And when stuck feeling move or release there is room then for things like joy, positivity, optimism and fun.

My son likes to be wrapped up like a burrito and pressed gently from head to toe. It calms him. He seeking interoception...
14/08/2026

My son likes to be wrapped up like a burrito and pressed gently from head to toe. It calms him. He seeking interoception input.

There's a sense most people have never heard of, even though you're using it right now: interoception, the sense of what's happening inside your body.

Heartbeat, breath, hunger, tension, the feeling in your stomach before you've even worked out you're anxious.

Neuroscientist A.D. Craig described it in 2002 as the brain's real-time read of the body , just as real as sight or hearing, just pointed inward.

Some people notice these signals early. Others only catch them once it's a full reaction often because tuning them out was protective once. Learning to notice bodily sensation again, without rushing to explain it, is a big part of trauma-informed and somatic therapy.

Try it: pause for a second. What's one physical sensation you can notice right now?\

Ever notice how holding onto something small- a stone, a key, a coin- can settle you in a hard moment? TThere's a bit of...
12/08/2026

Ever notice how holding onto something small- a stone, a key, a coin- can settle you in a hard moment? T

There's a bit of theory behind that. Donald Winnicott called objects like this "transitional objects" back in 1953, originally describing how a child's blanket or toy holds a sense of safety when a parent isn't there.

The same idea still works for adults.

I also have a rock or crystal in my pocket. And have a few favourite fidget spinners.

Try it: carry something small in your pocket today. Notice what happens when you reach for it.

Ever feel like you either spiral or shut down under pressure — nothing in between? There's a model for that: the window ...
07/08/2026

Ever feel like you either spiral or shut down under pressure — nothing in between? There's a model for that: the window of tolerance (Dan Siegel). It's the zone where you can think clearly and stay connected. Above it, anxiety and reactivity. Below it, numbness and shutdown.

Both are your nervous system doing exactly what it's built to do under too much pressure.

That's often where therapy comes in. Being alongside someone calm helps your own nervous system settle ,that's co-regulation and it's often what slowly widens the window, session by session.

Persecutor and the victim are easy to spot. Rescuer is the one who hides in plain sight, because it looks like helping.S...
06/08/2026

Persecutor and the victim are easy to spot. Rescuer is the one who hides in plain sight, because it looks like helping.

Swipe through for the signs you might be slipping into it, in sessions or in life.
Workshop's back 21 August

https://www.emmadoorish.com/cpd-dramatriangle

There's just something about working with your hands .Clay work has been shown to lower cortisol and support emotional r...
05/08/2026

There's just something about working with your hands .

Clay work has been shown to lower cortisol and support emotional regulation — the constant sensory feedback through touch (haptic perception) seems to do something talking alone doesn't.

Try it: five minutes with clay, dough, even Blu-Tack. No end goal. Just notice what your hands want to do.

Ever notice one negative comment outweighs a handful of compliments? There's real psychology behind that. In 2001, resea...
03/08/2026

Ever notice one negative comment outweighs a handful of compliments? There's real psychology behind that. In 2001, researchers Roy Baumeister and colleagues found that bad experiences consistently have a stronger psychological pull than good ones , across relationships, memory, feedback, all of it.

It comes down to evolution: a brain built to notice threat first kept our ancestors alive. That wiring hasn't caught up with modern life, where one harsh comment can outweigh a week of kind ones.

If you remember the one criticism and forget the ten compliments, working on regulation allows you to filter this and put it in proper porportion. Accepting the 'positive' comments and viewing the 'negative' more critically from a place of is there something to learn here or is this even accurate.

Feeling spiralled out? Try this: name 5 things you can see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, 1 you can ...
31/07/2026

Feeling spiralled out? Try this: name 5 things you can see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, 1 you can taste.

Putting what you notice into words engages your thinking brain and calms the threat response underneath; a well-studied effect called affect labelling. Simple, and it works with how the brain is wired.

30/07/2026

Quick 60 seconds on the Drama Triangle — Persecutor, Rescuer, Victim — the pattern that shows up in therapy rooms, supervision, and honestly most relationships.

The workshop goes further: helping you notice it as it's happening, not just describe it afterwards. Back Friday 21 August —

https://www.emmadoorish.com/cpd-dramatriangle

Address

Aghanloo Industrial Estate
Limavady
BT490HE

Telephone

07922073781

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Emma Doorish - the Transpersonal Psychotherapist posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Emma Doorish - the Transpersonal Psychotherapist:

Shortcuts

Share

Category