Tarragon Elder

Tarragon Elder is currently completing an MSc in Integrative Psychotherapy with a Transactional Analysis approach. She is a trainee member of the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and is part of the Awareness Centre’s low-cost counselling team in Clapham.

Drawing on the core principles of Humanistic and Person-Centered therapy, Tarragon believes passionately that everyone has the innate capacity for change and can decide their own destiny. Providing a warm and empathic space for exploring whatever feels most important to the client, she works collaboratively, believing that unconscious life scripts developed in early childhood, which seem to dictate long term behaviors, can be constructively challenged to help individuals break free from unhelpful or self-limiting patterns. Ultimately this can help people realize their full potential, but for some people, just being seen and heard in a compassionate, confidential and non-judgmental space can be a very powerful and healing experience in itself.

Before training as a therapist, Tarragon spent many years as a Creative Director for a Hong Kong based global corporation specializing in fashion retail. She was fortunate to live and work in multiple countries with people from diverse religions and cultures; however, the dynamics of a relentlessly fast-paced, high-pressured, politically challenging environment often took its toll, with many colleagues suffering stress, anxiety and professional and personal burnout. Concerned that the corporate culture was increasingly dissonant with her core values of integrity, authentic communication, fairness and compassion, she decided to retrain as a psychotherapist specializing in Transactional Analysis, a relational modality which analyses our communication styles and works towards building greater autonomy and fulfillment through self-awareness. Tarragon is particularly interested in the impact of childhood trauma and relationship dynamics.