Meet Cienna
I'm Cienna Baker, a Clinical Psychologist, Board Approved Supervisor and Advanced Certified Schema Therapist.
My work centres on helping people understand the patterns that keep showing up in their lives — and, importantly, helping them create meaningful change.
A BIT ABOUT ME
What I believe about therapy
I don’t think therapy should feel like you come in, talk about your week for 50 minutes and leave with a little more insight but no real sense of what to do with it.
Understanding yourself matters, but understanding alone does not always create change. I’m interested in helping you make sense of why certain patterns developed, notice when they are playing out in your life now, and gradually build different ways of responding.
I value therapy that feels human. You should be able to bring the messy, contradictory and uncomfortable parts of yourself into the room without feeling judged. At the same time, I won’t just agree with everything you say or reassure you out of difficult feelings. When it is helpful, I will gently challenge patterns that may be keeping you stuck.
My aim is for therapy to feel like something we are doing together. I bring psychological knowledge and a framework for treatment; you bring the expertise on your own life. We use both.
HOW I WORK
Four principles
We look beneath the surface.
Symptoms matter, but I am also interested in understanding the patterns, experiences and unmet needs underneath them.
Therapy is collaborative.
I want you to understand what we are doing and why, and to have a say in the direction of your treatment.
Insight is only part of the work.
We use experiential and behavioural strategies to help change patterns emotionally, not just understand them intellectually.
Therapy is tailored to you.
I primarily work from a Schema Therapy and EDMR framework and integrate DBT and CBT strategies when they fit your needs and treatment goals.
MY APPROACH TO THERAPY
Schema Therapy, EMDR & more
Schema Therapy
Schema Therapy is the main framework I use. Schema Therapy helps us to understand and change deeply rooted beliefs we have about ourselves, others and the world - and the unhelpful coping behaviours that follow. In schema therapy we aim to target the enduring, stuck patterns that we can find ourselves in.
We might notice that one part of you becomes highly anxious and needs reassurance, another shuts down or disconnects, or another becomes extremely self-critical. Rather than treating these reactions as random, we work to understand where they came from, what keeps them going and what you need instead.
Depending on what we are working on, therapy may also include EMDR to process distressing or traumatic memories, DBT skills for emotion regulation and coping, or CBT strategies where they are useful. You do not need to know which approach you need before you start — that is something we work out together.
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
I also offer EMDR therapy, either within traditional 50-minute therapy sessions or as an EMDR Intensive.
EMDR is a trauma-focused therapy that can help your brain process distressing experiences and memories that continue to feel emotionally “stuck”. Rather than needing to talk through every detail of an experience, EMDR uses a structured process to help reduce the emotional intensity attached to memories - and the beliefs, emotions and physical responses connected to them.
Traditional EMDR can be incorporated into ongoing therapy, with processing occurring across regular sessions alongside the other work we are doing.
EMDR Intensives offer the same evidence-based therapy in a longer, more concentrated format. Instead of spreading EMDR processing across a number of 50-minute appointments, we set aside an extended period of time to focus specifically on a particular experience, theme or treatment goal. This can allow more time to prepare, process and work through material without needing to stop simply because the usual session time has ended.
An intensive isn’t necessarily “better” than weekly EMDR, and it won’t be the right option for everyone. We will first consider what you would like to work on, your current circumstances and whether an intensive format is clinically appropriate for you.
What I can help with
Childhood and adult trauma, including PTSD and complex trauma
Personality difficulties and personality disorders, particularly Borderline Personality Disorder
Emotional dysregulation and intense or rapidly changing emotions
Longstanding patterns in relationships
Chronic or recurring depression and anxiety
Low self-worth, shame and harsh self-criticism
Attachment and interpersonal difficulties
Addiction and unhelpful coping patterns
Feeling stuck despite having a good intellectual understanding of why you feel or behave the way you do
When I may not be the right fit
I generally do not provide treatment where an eating disorder, psychotic disorder, or neurodevelopmental condition such as ADHD or Autism is the primary focus of treatment. This does not necessarily mean I cannot work with you if you have one of these diagnoses — particularly where the reason you are seeking therapy falls within my areas of expertise. We can discuss this when considering whether I am the right fit for your needs.
I also do not provide cognitive, ADHD or Autism assessments, or medico-legal assessments and reports.
If what you are looking for falls outside my scope of practice, I will let you know and, where possible, suggest the type of clinician or service that may be better suited to what you need.
Get in touch
Finding the right psychologist matters. If you think my approach might suit what you are looking for, you're welcome to get in touch. I offer free 15-minute discovery calls where you can tell me a little about what you would like help with and we can work out whether Psychology Laine is the right fit.