“The Therapist Who Chose Both: Healing Others and Herself”
In a world where therapists are often expected to be selfless to the point of depletion, Dr. Heather Boland is carving out a new path—one that’s rooted in compassion, creativity, and fierce devotion to both her clients and her family.
Heather is a clinical psychologist based in St. Helens, UK. For years, she worked inside the structure of the NHS, supporting people through the most complex layers of trauma, anxiety, and emotional pain. She loved the work but something was missing.
When she became a mother, clarity came fast and loud: She needed flexibility.
Freedom.
Creativity.
She needed to live in a way that honored her role as a healer and as a mother.
That’s when her private practice was born.
Why She Stepped Out of the System
For Heather, the NHS provided a vital foundation but it was also a system with constraints. “There are ways I want to work with people,” she shares, “that just don’t always fit inside the box.”
Her independent practice became a container for that creative healing.
Here, she’s not just following protocol—she’s building something human.
She works with people who have experienced physical and psychological trauma, and people who just feel stuck.
Her approach is grounded in compassion-focused therapy, helping people untangle from lifelong patterns of self-criticism and learn what it means to treat themselves gently, even in the wake of trauma.
The work is deep.
But it’s also soft.
There’s room for nuance, for mess, for laughter.
Heather helps people see what’s possible when they stop trying to fix themselves and start learning to accept themselves.
Building a Practice from the Heart (and the Playroom)
Right now, Heather is on maternity leave with her newborn, while also raising a four-year-old.
And still—she’s quietly building something powerful behind the scenes: courses, workshops, resources that will bring therapy out of the room and into everyday life.
But this season isn’t all about doing.
It’s also about becoming.
“I have an anxious inner part that wants to stop me from going all in,” she says. “Fear of judgment.
Fear of failure. But I’m a trauma therapist. I work with these parts every day. I’ll figure this out.”
There’s such integrity in that, someone who walks her talk.
Who gives her clients permission to be messy because she gives that same grace to herself.
Healing Looks Like This
Heather doesn’t post for performance.
She shares to serve.
Her goal isn’t to grow for the sake of metrics, it’s to be visible for the people who need her most.
She knows there are people sitting with trauma they can’t name, shame they can’t shake, and fear they don’t even feel safe to admit.
That’s who she shows up for.
And the impact is real.
She’s seen clients move through decades of trauma, reclaim their self-worth, and start over—not because they “fixed” themselves, but because they finally felt seen.
A Therapist With Boundaries and Big Dreams
Running a trauma-informed business as a mother of two isn’t easy.
Heather names it honestly: she worries about financial pressure, about maintaining relationships, about being the helper in her family and never being helped in return.
But she also builds in rest.
Uses her own therapeutic tools.
Chooses boundaries.
Chooses balance.
Chooses joy.
And now, she’s building toward something even bigger—earning more in less time, through thoughtful passive income streams.
More courses.
More workshops.
More women helped.
More afternoons spent on the floor with her boys.
Because that’s the dream, not to burn out in service of others, but to build a life where your own joy matters too.
“She’s Not Just Here to Heal You, She’s Healing the System Too”
At Reignelle, we celebrate women like Dr. Heather Boland who don’t just do the work, but embody it.
She’s not loud..
But she’s unshakable..
And her work reminds us that healing doesn’t always look like a breakthrough moment—it looks like showing up again and again, with softness, with presence, with compassion for even the hardest parts of you.
Connect with Heather: