Shannon Ashton

Shannon Ashton (Associate)

Couple & Individual Psychodynamic Psychotherapist | Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist

MBACP | COSRT Registered

Background

Shannon specialises in couple, psychosexual and relational psychotherapy, creating a balanced space where people can come to begin to explore the complexities of their relational, sexual, and emotional wellbeing. Her way of working encourages a deepening of reflection in the room, enabling people to begin navigating their way through difficult feelings and entrenched dynamics with a sense of safety and possibility that they may not have felt able to contact before.

She works with couples and individuals to help them to discover and recognise the recurring patterns that lie beneath the difficulties they are experiencing in terms of their relational functioning, both emotional and physical. In therapy she will explore your triggers, patterns and the dynamics that might keep you stuck in repetitive arguments or feeling isolated, lost or lonely. Once you have gained a fresh perspective, it can once again feel possible to find your way back to a more creative and fulfilling connection.

Clinical Focus

Shannon’s work has developed from its foundations in psychodynamic practice to draw together the interconnected domains of the emotional, physical and relational. Areas of clinical expertise include:

Concerns with sexual pain, dysfunction, and desire
Concerns with sexual identity, intimacy, and self-worth
Couples experiencing conflict and communication problems
Affairs, separation, divorce and loss

She also address difficulties in how her clients talk about their sexual concerns, such as incompatible sexual preferences, physical changes after childbirth, menopause, illness or old age, and a history of sexual trauma.

Shannon has worked with clients from diverse cultural, religious, sexual, and gender identity backgrounds and orientations. She is particularly interested in the areas of intersectionality and difference, and how this may manifest in relational contexts.

Therapeutic Style

Shannon brings an open, curious mind to her work, merging clinical insight with creativity and adaptability. Drawing upon psychodynamic theory, she adopts an integrated approach, allowing her to meet clients where they are now. A compassionate and thoughtful manner encourages clients to confront painful relational material without feeling judged or shamed, aimed at making therapy accessible and relevant to diverse audiences.

She begins by exploring how you see sex and what it means to you, whilst reflecting on your past and how it can affect your present sexual self. A more holistic approach can then be taken, where you work together to understand what has happened and think about a curated programme of exercises to do at home to help get your sex life back on the track you would like.

Background & Training

Shannon became a therapist following a career in aviation, where she specialised in Cabin Safety & Risk Management. Her curiosity in psychological and emotional functioning developed from the analysis of human factors in safety critical events. Operating in environments where communication, trust, and emotional regulation were essential, left her with an enduring fascination in our behaviours. Why do we make the choices that we do? even more importantly, why do we choose to partner up with the people that we do?

Increasingly drawn to the emotional dynamics of human connection and decision making, her interest in relationships—what strengthens them, what breaks them down, whether they can be repaired—grew. Eventually, she made the decision to retrain as a couple, psychosexual and relationship therapist. She has a particular interest in understanding the influence our emotional and sexual experiences have upon the quality of our closest relationships, and the impact this can have upon our mental and physical health and overall sense of wellbeing.

She completed her clinical training at Tavistock Relationships in London because it is a renowned clinic with 75-years of relationship expertise and has continued to work there as a visiting clinician, assessor, and trainer.

BA (Hons) English & Sociology – St Marys University
Foundation Certificate Couple Counselling & Psychotherapy – Tavistock Relationships, London
Postgraduate Diploma Couple & Individual Psychotherapy– Tavistock Relationships, London
Postgraduate Diploma Psychosexual & Relationship Therapy– Tavistock Relationships, London

In addition to her clinical work, Shannon is a co-trainer on The Tavistock Relationships An Introduction To Therapy With Couples Course and has also taught Psychoanalytic Thought on The Couple and Individual Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy Course.