Dr Cristina Tabacu

Hi! I’m Cristina and I’m a Clinical Psychologist.

I have always been drawn to people’s stories in their full complexity — I pay close attention to all the parts of someone’s identity: their culture, faith, relationships, gender, neurodivergence, and the wider social and historical context they have lived through. I believe these threads are never incidental to a person’s story — they are often central to understanding it, and to understanding what helps.

I grew up in Romania and moved to the UK in 2011, and I feel fortunate to call this country my home. That experience of moving between cultures has only deepened this way of thinking, and shaped how attuned I try to be to identity and difference in my work.

I have worked in the NHS for over eight years, mostly within community mental health settings, and I currently work as a Senior Psychologist in a specialist NHS addiction service. Across this time, I have worked with adults and families from a wide range of backgrounds, and I have come to see that the richest, most meaningful therapeutic work happens when all of who someone is gets to be part of the conversation.

I take a relational approach — for me, the relationship between us is often the most important part of what helps things change. In our first session, I will want to understand what has brought you to therapy and what matters most to you, and from there we will begin to build a shared understanding together, at whatever pace feels right for you. I will always let your needs shape the direction we take, rather than fitting you into a fixed way of working.

I work integratively, drawing on a range of therapeutic models including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and systemic ideas, with Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) as my main model. Rather than working from a single fixed approach, I let your needs guide the therapy, drawing on whichever tools and ways of thinking will be most helpful to you at any given point.

Once we have built a shared understanding together — of the patterns that keep showing up, what keeps you feeling stuck, and the influences and relationships that have shaped these — we can draw on a range of ideas and tools to think about what needs space to be accepted, and where there might be room for change.

I work with adults and families, and have particular experience supporting people navigating neurodivergence, relationship difficulties, anxiety, depression, trauma and addiction. I also support people through burnout, grief, and questions around sex and intimacy — as well as those moments in life that are harder to name: a sense of feeling lost, of searching for meaning, or simply needing somewhere honest to talk when things have quietly become too much.

Outside of work, I love to travel and take photographs along the way — it is my favourite way of slowing down and noticing a new place properly. I also practise yoga, enjoy cooking, and spend a lot of my downtime with my family and dog, who has fairly firm opinions about how much of that downtime should be spent on walks.