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Further Experiential Learning

Compassion Focused Therapy - Paul Gilbert

Polyvagal Theory - Deb Dana

Voice Dialogue - Hal and Sidra Stone

Holotropic Breathing - Deb and Holly Harman

Living Tantra - Jan Day

Archetypal Astrology - Renn Butler

About Rosa

I am a Relational Psychotherapist, Clinical Supervisor, Astrologer and Group Facilitator. At the heart of my work is a deep trust in our innate movement towards healing and wholeness when we are met within safe, compassionate and attuned relationships.

 

The natural world continually reminds me that life knows how to heal. Given the right conditions, seeds grow, forests regenerate and ecosystems find balance. I believe people are no different. Beneath our strategies for surviving, there is an instinctive movement towards connection, vitality and belonging. Therapy is a place where the conditions for that movement can gently emerge.

 

For over twenty years I have worked across sexual health, trauma and abuse recovery, community counselling services, children's residential care and the HIV sector. My roles have included therapist, clinical lead, supervisor and trainer, giving me a broad and grounded understanding of how trauma, relationships, culture, stigma, loss and love shape our lives.

 

In 2021 I stepped fully into independent practice and co-founded The Bird House in Falmouth, bringing together a community of body-based and talking therapy practitioners. Alongside my private practice, I facilitate groups, workshops and retreats that support people to reconnect with themselves, each other and the living world.

My therapeutic approach is relational, embodied and integrative. Whilst conversation is an important part of therapy, I am equally interested in the language of the body—how experiences become held in patterns of tension, protection, emotion and disconnection. Together we listen for what your whole system is communicating, allowing space for new experiences of safety, authenticity and connection to emerge. My intention is not simply to help you understand yourself differently, but to support changes that become deeply lived.

BACP accreditation

Alongside psychotherapy, I have developed a specialist interest in supporting people navigating expanded or non-ordinary states of consciousness, whether these arise through spiritual practice, breathwork or psychedelic experiences. I completed a two-year depth relational training with the Institute of Psychedelic Therapies and am currently apprenticing with Gathering Groups within their Community of Practice model, supporting relational psychedelic work in small-group settings.

 

These experiences can be profoundly illuminating whilst also challenging to integrate. I offer a grounded and reflective space where insights can settle into everyday life with care, meaning and integrity. I also offer archetypal astrology as another way of exploring life's deeper patterns. Whether used on its own or alongside psychotherapy and integration work, astrology can offer perspective, support important life transitions and help us work more consciously with the cycles we are living through.

 

Throughout my career I have found myself drawn towards accompanying people through life's thresholds: adolescence, pregnancy, early parenthood, illness, grief, spiritual emergence and other profound periods of transformation. These are often times when old identities begin to loosen and something new is asking to emerge. Rather than seeing them as problems to solve, I understand them as deeply human processes that deserve care, patience and thoughtful accompaniment.

 

After more than two decades of practice, what continues to inspire me is the quiet intelligence that exists within each person. My role is not to direct your journey or tell you who to become, but to offer a steady, ethical and compassionate relationship in which your own inner wisdom can be heard. Together we create the conditions for healing, integration and a deeper sense of belonging to yourself, to others and to the wider web of life.

cosmic image

Qualifications

BA Communications with Linguistics, University of Leeds

Diploma in Reflexology, The Bayley School

Level 5 Professional Diploma in Person Centred Counselling and Therapy, Plymouth University

Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) Accredited Training, Anna Freud Centre

IPT Supervision Training, Anna Freud Centre

Transactional Analysis foundation and applied training, The Link Centre

Group Facilitation, Embodied Relational Training School

Diploma in Professional Supervision, National Counselling Society/Online Therapy Institute

Depth Relational Training, Institute of Psychedelic Therapies 

Rosa Smiling

@charlotteparkinson_art

During the pandemic, I chose to step away from organisational roles and move fully into independent practice as a psychotherapist, supervisor, astrologer and group facilitator. In 2021, I co-founded The Bird House in Falmouth, a thriving therapeutic space bringing together body-based and talking practitioners. This transition has allowed me to work more deeply and open-endedly with individuals, as well as facilitate groups, workshops, and retreats.

 

My approach is relational, embodied, and integrative. This means that alongside talking and reflection, we pay attention to the responses in your body and the deeper feelings held here. I am interested not only in insight, but in how your lived experience is held — in patterns of tension, dysregulation, connection, and protection, that may want subtle expression through sound or movement as well as words. Therapy becomes a place to gently explore these layers, supporting a deeper intimacy with yourself and how you relate to others. The intention is not simply understanding, but integration — supporting meaningful, lived change in how you experience yourself, your relationships and your movement through the world.

Sea

“I used to associate myself with the word 'overwhelmed', and I’d shut down; now I can navigate my way through my emotions and understand them. Rosa never pushed me to talk about anything I didn’t want to; she challenged me in a reassuring way so that I knew I could stop, or I could join her in asking myself questions I didn’t realise I needed answers to.”

“In retrospect I can see I thought my trip would bring only blissful insights. But it actually also showed me stuff I wasn’t really prepared for. I am so glad I had somewhere to go with this where I could make sense of it knowing I wouldn’t be judged."

“From the get-go, I felt comfortable and safe enough to be vulnerable and honest. I wanted to understand and process a previous abusive relationship I was in, and throughout my two years of seeing Rosa, I came to understand other relationships in my life that also had an effect on my thinking/feeling processes.”

“My daughter is in a completely different place from where she was 2 years ago. I cannot thank you enough."

“No emotion was too ugly to share. Our weekly sessions transformed the way I see myself and the way in which I show up in the world. ”

“Before, I lived mostly in my head and felt like I was operating from the neck up, but through our sessions, I’ve learned to trust myself to feel things without falling apart.”

“I feel lighter, like I’ve released something I had been carrying for years. The real healing happened in the weeks after, though, through our integration work.”

" You have been a constant support for me through a really challenging period of loss, grief and anxiety. You didn’t rush me or ask me to be anywhere other than where I was. I will miss our sessions deeply, but I’ve reached a point where I know I can cope.”

FAQs

  • I began practicing as a reflexologist in 2004 and as a talking therapist in 2011.

  • I am fully accredited with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and adhere to their ethical guidelines. I am also a member of the Institute for Psychedelic Therapies (IPT).

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