Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Dr Vivien Sabel
Senior Lecturer
Experienced Senior Lecturer in the field of psychological therapies and mental health. UKCP/APA/BACP registered Psychotherapist. Fluent in British Sign Language. Clinical Supervisor. Author, Researcher, Filmmaker and Artist.
Vivien was raised by a deaf mother and a hearing father. Her early years have seen her embody language as a whole body/mind experience. She previously trained as a British Sign Language (BSL) Interpreter and is fluent in BSL. Her work in the field of mental health and disability spans over 30 years. She is a keen advocate of diversity and equity.
Vivien is interested in how counsellors and psychotherapists, view and consider language, in particular the language of the body - sensorimotor and somatic narratives. She recognises how much value there is in being mindful of the body (of self and other) in therapy. Vivien studied at Leeds Beckett where she completed her MA Psychotherapy and was awarded a distinction for her thesis addressing contemporary models in parent-infant psychotherapy.
Vivien is a published author of a therapeutic children's book and a parenting book. She has edited, produced, and directed a film and she is a keen artist who has used her art for design purposes.
Current Teaching
- Psychological Foundations
- Undergraduate Counselling Skills and Mental Health
- Postgraduate Counselling
Research Interests
- Somatic models for clinical and everyday settings.
- Parent-infant attachment
- The body in psychotherapy
- The value of observation
- The Blossom Method as a model for counselling/psychotherapy and everyday settings
- Relationship
- Somatic attachment
