Trauma Psychotherapist
Tess Hunneybell
Founder of Healing Trauma Retreats
About Trauma Psychotherapist Tess Hunneybell
I am trauma psychotherapist Tess Hunneybell — a British clinician with over twenty years of clinical practice — and a life that has taken me far beyond the consulting room.
I trained rigorously and take the clinical side of this work seriously. I also believe it does not need to feel like a punishment. Warmth, humour, and the ability to make complex things genuinely simple are not extras in my approach — they are part of what allows change to happen. The moment something is understood in the body as well as the mind, that is when it begins to shift.
I have spent my career doing this work in two very different settings.
At San Flaviano — my home, a restored 15th-century monastery in the Umbrian hills — I work with women who have travelled from across the world to spend a week turning towards what they have been carrying. The retreats are intentionally small, limited to five women, and I am present throughout the week. Not arriving for sessions and leaving, but living here, alongside the work — cooking, walking, talking, and holding the rhythm of the place.
In Senegal, I work from a simple house in a village with young boys — many of them forced to beg from childhood, separated from their families, and living without protection or stability. I founded Every Kid Counts – Senegal to support these children, both practically and therapeutically. The same principles apply in both places. Trauma is trauma. Human beings are human beings.
What working across these two worlds has taught me is that the most complex psychological processes can be made simple. That the work does not need to be heavy. And that you — your body, your responses, your survival strategies — are not wrong. They have been adaptive. Something was interrupted. With the right conditions, it can complete.
A life lived in many places
Before San Flaviano became my home and the centre of my work, my life moved across continents — often following instinct rather than plan — into places where something needed to be built, held, or understood.
In the Caribbean, I contributed to CALLS, an education centre offering marginalised adolescents a second chance at learning and stability. In Mexico, I became a foster mother to seven children — a demanding, joyful, and formative experience that shaped my understanding of attachment and resilience in ways no training could. In the United Kingdom, I worked with Ukrainian women and children displaced by war, supporting community initiatives that gave space to grief and the realities of forced migration. In Dominica, I designed and built the Manicou River eco-retreat — an award-winning treehouse project set within ten acres of tropical forest.
Across all of it, the same thread has remained: meaningful change begins where compassion, clear thinking, and practical action come together — and where life, even in difficult circumstances, is still allowed to be lived.
This is my home, San Flaviano — a restored 15th-century monastery in the Umbrian hills, and the place where I hold the retreats.
Whilst I obviously got very upset during my sessions, Tess comforted me with hugs and understanding and a special kindness which I now miss.”— Sue, U.K.
My Work Includes as a Trauma Psychotherapist
I work with women carrying things that are often hard to name — and harder still to bring into a room. The presenting difficulty might be one of these:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Overwhelm and emotional exhaustion
- Burnout
- A need to rest and reset
- Post-traumatic stress (PTSD)
- Complex post-traumatic stress (C-PTSD)
- Grief and loss — whether recent or carried for years
Beneath that, the underlying experiences are often something like:
- Sexual abuse
- Physical abuse
- Emotional and psychological abuse
- Narcissistic abuse
- Childhood neglect
- Mother wound
- Father wound
- Family estrangement
- Relational trauma
- Living in environments where adapting to survive became the only option
What brings women here is not always a diagnosis or a clear event. More often it is a feeling — persistent, difficult to shake:
- Stuck in patterns that don’t seem to shift, no matter what you try
- Difficulties in relationships, or in trusting them
- A sense that something remains unresolved — even when life, on paper, looks fine
- Feeling disconnected, numb, or not quite like yourself
- Holding it together on the outside while something underneath is struggling
- Knowing something needs attention, but not knowing how to reach it
If any of this is familiar, you are not alone in it. Something was interrupted. With the right conditions, it can complete.
Supporting children through the Every Kid Counts initiative in Senegal.
Qualifications & Training
- NCFE & OFQUAL Level 3 Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy
- Certified Trauma Professional & Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP)
- iGCBT™ Certified Master Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Practitioner
- Metacognitive Therapy Practitioner
- Informed Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy — Trauma Treatment Training
- Certified Narcissistic Abuse Treatment Clinician (NATC)
- Mindfulness Practitioner Diploma — Level I, II, III & Master
- Level 1 & 2 Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) Tapping
- TQUK Level 2 Certificate in Self-harm and Suicide Prevention
- International Certificate in Success Intelligence Coach Training
- International Certificate in Coaching Happiness — Robert Holden Ph.D
Work With Tess
As trauma psychotherapist Tess Hunneybell, I’m with you across the week — not arriving for sessions and leaving. With a maximum of five women, I have time for you.
No pressure. No obligation. Just a conversation to help you work out whether this is the right step at the right time
For information about Tess’s one-to-one clinical work outside the retreat setting, visit tesshunneybell.com