Meet Anya Zinkivskay
Choosing a therapist is a personal decision. Alongside knowing what someone can help with, you may want a sense of who they are and how they work. I’m Anya, a counsellor and psychotherapist. I run Sanctum, where my work centres on understanding your experiences and supporting the changes you want to make.
Getting to know you beyond the difficulties
When you come to therapy, you bring more than the problem that prompted you to seek help. You bring your relationships, your history, your ways of coping and the things that matter to you.
I want to understand that wider picture. What has life been like for you? What are you finding difficult now? What would you like to be different?
Some of these questions may be easy to answer. Others may take time. We can work with that uncertainty together.
At Sanctum, support, growth, development and learning are central to my practice. That might mean understanding a familiar reaction, recognising something you need, or finding a way to approach a situation that has felt difficult. What matters is that our work has meaning for you.
My experience and areas of focus
My practice focuses on anxiety disorders, with particular expertise in obsessive compulsive disorder, known as OCD.
I also have extensive experience working with PTSD and complex trauma. This includes supporting people affected by abandonment, verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse and specific distressing events.
The effects of these experiences can be part of a much wider picture. Someone seeking help with anxiety may also be grieving. Someone affected by trauma may be trying to understand how neurodivergence shapes their needs and relationships.
My work also includes support around:
You may recognise several parts of your experience here. We can discuss how they relate to each other and decide where it would be most useful to begin.
How I work
I practise integrative therapy. This means I draw on different therapeutic approaches when considering how to support you.
We begin by talking about what has brought you to therapy and what you hope to gain from it. We can then discuss ways of working that relate to your needs, with room to review things as we go.
The approaches I draw on include:
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing, known as EMDR
- Cognitive behavioural therapy, known as CBT
- Exposure and response prevention, known as ERP
- Dialectical behaviour therapy, known as DBT
- Person centred therapy
- Transactional analysis
You do not need to research these approaches or arrive with a preference. Part of my role is to explain what I am suggesting, why it may be relevant and what it would involve.
If something is unclear, uncomfortable or does not feel useful, I want you to be able to say so. Your responses help us consider how the work is going.
What matters in our work together
Being heard
I want to understand your experience in your words. There may be things you have struggled to explain before, or feelings that seem contradictory. We can take time to explore them without expecting a tidy account.
Having a say
We can discuss what you want to focus on and what you hope will change. You are welcome to ask questions, raise concerns and tell me when there is something you would like us to approach differently.
Understanding your circumstances
Your relationships, responsibilities and surroundings are part of your life. I want our conversations to take account of those circumstances, including the demands you face and the support available to you.
Making room for learning
Therapy can include exploring how you respond to situations and what you have learned from earlier experiences. We can consider which responses still serve you and which you would like to work on.
An online practice with room for individual needs
Sanctum operates predominantly online, supporting clients in the UK, Europe and Southeast Asia.
Before we begin, we can discuss whether online sessions are suitable for you and what you would need to take part comfortably. This includes having somewhere private to talk and considering any practical or communication needs you would like me to know about.
If you will be attending from outside the UK, please tell me which country you will be in. I can then confirm whether I can offer support in your location.
Questions about working with me
Explore some of our frequently asked questions.
I have particular expertise in OCD within my work with anxiety disorders. I also have extensive experience supporting people affected by PTSD and complex trauma. My practice considers these difficulties alongside other experiences that may be relevant, including neurodivergence, depression, addiction and bereavement.
It means I draw on more than one therapeutic approach. We can discuss your needs and the focus of our work, then consider how different approaches may be useful. I will explain what I suggest so you can ask questions and understand what it involves.
Yes. You may want support with several connected experiences, or find that your priorities become clearer as we talk. We can discuss what is affecting you and agree a focus, with opportunities to revisit that focus during our work.
My work includes supporting people whose experiences involve autism, ADHD or specific learning difficulties. You can tell me about your communication preferences, previous experiences of support and anything that may affect how you take part in sessions.
No. You can begin by telling me what has brought you to therapy. If you have tried a particular approach before, it can be helpful to discuss what that was like for you. We can consider your preferences when talking about our work.
You can contact me to ask about my experience, how I work and the support you are seeking. It is reasonable to want clear answers before making a decision. We can discuss whether my practice is a suitable fit and what the next steps could involve.
Have a question about working with me?
You are welcome to get in touch to ask about therapy, explain what you are looking for or discuss whether my practice might be right for you. You do not need to share everything in your first message.