About Martha
Martha Cheesman is a counsellor with a decade of focused practice. She helps people dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship and intimacy issues, addiction, grief, stress and identity concerns. Sessions are offered in English and Spanish and she accepts international clients.
Martha takes a somatic-aware approach that looks at how the body and emotions link together. She blends client-centred listening with practical tools from cognitive behavioural ideas and emotionally-focused work.
Background and approach
This means conversations about feelings are paired with simple, doable steps to try between sessions. Her background includes long experience in counselling and a British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy registration, shown as BACP. Martha has worked across different cultures and life stages and draws on that experience to adapt to each person she meets.
In sessions she aims to create a calm space where people can speak openly and feel heard. She pays attention to how the body responds in the moment as well as the stories clients bring. That can help with panic, chronic stress, sleeping or eating problems and trauma-related responses.
Martha also addresses practical life matters like work stress, parenting pressures, career direction and coping with major life changes. She is interested in attachment patterns and how past relationships affect current ones, and she offers coaching-style support when people want concrete change. Her work emphasises self-worth and purpose.
People leave with clearer understanding of their needs and small, manageable actions to try. The therapy journey is paced according to each person’s comfort and goals.
How her approach adapts to online therapy
Somatic-aware work pays attention to how the body and emotions connect. In practice this can mean noticing breathing, posture and bodily sensations during a session and using simple grounding exercises to help with panic, trauma responses or chronic stress.Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on how early relationships shape current patterns. It helps people see how they relate to others and learn new ways of connecting that feel safer and more honest.
Client-Centred Therapy offers a listening-focused stance where the counsellor follows the person’s lead. That approach helps people feel heard and build self-understanding before trying other tools or techniques.
Choosing the right approach is a joint process. Martha will work with each person to identify needs, goals and preferences and then adapt methods over time. The plan can change as progress is made and as different issues come up.
Online sessions offer practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues, phone sessions are useful when video is difficult, and live chat or text messaging can suit people who prefer writing or brief check-ins. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, family or travel and to access support from different locations.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of problems can I bring to sessions?
How would she approach my problem in therapy?
What is her professional background?
Where is she based and what credential does she hold?
Which languages are available in sessions?
What formats are available for sessions?
How are sessions paid for and what do they cost?
How do I start working with Martha?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Imago Relationship Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English, Spanish