Welcome.

I’m Heather McCartney, ISTDP psychotherapist, supervisor, and IEDTA accredited trainer.

I offer individual psychotherapy for effective and enduring results. ISTDP is backed by extensive research and is widely-recognised and taught internationally. I specialise in helping people get to the root of their difficulties as efficiently as possible using an experiential, emotion-focused and proven psychodynamic treatment named ISTDP.

Intensive

Discover the Power of Deep, Focused Psychotherapy

Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) is a powerful approach designed to help you move through long-standing emotional blocks—and do so as efficiently and effectively as possible. But what exactly makes it intensive?

It’s not about frequent sessions or being pushed too hard. It’s about creating a focused, emotionally engaged space that helps you get to the root of your difficulties and create lasting change.

Challenging, But Never Overwhelming

“Intensive” doesn’t mean overwhelming. The therapy is always tailored to your emotional readiness, with careful attention to safety, anxiety, and trust. We go at the pace that’s right for you.

Experiential

Emotionally Engaged, Moment to Moment

This therapy helps you become deeply aware of how you relate to yourself, your emotions, and others—in real time. I’ll support you in recognising how defences or patterns show up in the room and in your life, and help you move through them with clarity and care.

Feel More, Avoid Less

Avoiding painful or uncomfortable feelings is something we all do—but it can also keep us from healing. ISTDP helps you face and feel what’s been buried or blocked, in a safe and supportive environment. These emotional breakthroughs often lead to relief, clarity, and transformation.

Dynamic

The word “dynamic” refers to the therapy’s focus on the unconscious emotional forces that drive much of our internal life.

These emotional forces—such as unprocessed grief, anger, fear, or longing—often operate outside our awareness, but they show up in our relationships, moods, anxiety, and self-esteem. ISTDP is dynamic because it helps bring these hidden patterns into awareness, so they can finally be felt, understood, and resolved.

Ready to Begin?

If you have found other counselling and psychotherapy too passive or concerned only with symptom relief, and you want a therapy that gets to the heart of things, ISTDP may be the right fit.

Let’s work together to help you move forward—with clarity, courage, and lasting change.