Joanne Alexander, AASW

Joanne Alexander is a warm and compassionate therapist with 14 years of experience supporting children, young people and families through complex and challenging circumstances. She works across family therapy, child and adolescent mental health, and parenting skills development, taking a nurturing, trauma-informed approach that keeps the child’s voice, safety and wellbeing at the centre of care.

Joanne places strong emphasis on building genuine, trusting therapeutic relationships and works openly and collaboratively with families to recognise strengths and foster greater confidence, stability and connection. She draws on a range of clinical methods to support people experiencing stress, anxiety, depression, anger and family difficulties, and she also works with issues such as attachment concerns, blended family dynamics, caregiver stress, communication problems and eating or food-related difficulties.

Her wider practice includes support for mood and personality disorders, panic and social anxiety, post-traumatic stress and self-harm, as well as women’s and young adult issues and seasonal affective disorder. Joanne holds the AASW credential and brings a practical, person-focused style to therapy that supports families in building more resilient relationships and healthier day-to-day routines.

Outside her clinical work she is a mum to an 11-year-old neuro sparkle child, shares a busy household with a labradoodle named Finn and a ginger cat called Obe-wan, and enjoys reading, spending time in nature and learning cake decorating.

Therapeutic approaches and online support

Joanne commonly uses client-centred therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in her work. Client-centred therapy focuses on building a strong therapeutic relationship where the client’s perspective guides the pace and goals of therapy, helping people feel understood and supported as they work through family and parenting challenges. CBT looks at the connections between thoughts, feelings and behaviour and offers practical skills to manage anxiety, low mood and unhelpful patterns, which can be useful for panic, social anxiety and mood concerns.

She may also draw on elements of dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) when emotional regulation and distress tolerance are priorities. DBT provides structured skills for managing intense emotions, improving interpersonal effectiveness and reducing self-harm behaviours, and can be adapted for children, young people and families.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic process and Joanne works collaboratively with clients to identify which methods best match their needs, goals and preferences. As an appropriately qualified professional she tailors sessions to each family and individual.

Online therapy offers practical flexibility - appointments by video, phone, live chat or text-based messaging make it easier to fit sessions into busy lives, maintain continuity between meetings and access support from home or other convenient locations. These options can be helpful for parents juggling schedules, young people who prefer digital communication, and families seeking consistent, ongoing support.