BEVERLEY J WESTON, MA.

Greetings, Greetings.

I am the Founder Director of Aya Training & Development an

Intercultural Psychotherapist, Supervisor, Psych-spiritual Speaker and Complex Trauma Mental Health Trainer.

Specialising in complex PTSD presentations, domestic abuse, sexual trauma and racialised descrimination; I'm dedicated to offereing a culturally and spiritually sensitive, inclusive, trauma informed approach to talking therapy for individuals and couples aged 18 and over.

I combine many different approaches to accomodate the needs of clients, work through a trauma informed lens and consider the individual and collective impact of culture, ethnicity, and spirituality and how this contributes towards mental health experiences; regardless of race, religion, gender or sexuality. 

My journey into becoming a Psychotherapist began after being referred by my GP during a very stressful period in my life. After having experienced counselling for the first time, I was totally inspired by the ability to make sense of my behaviours and thought processes, and was positively overwhelmed by the outcome of talking to a complete stranger in a professional setting about my problems. I came out of short-term counselling with a significant level of personal understanding and enlightenment that enabled me to uncover my passion for changing lives. 

After completing my therapy training with a masters degree in 2016, my private practice evolved from specializing in sexual trauma and domestic abuse to a more ethnic-racial-cultural and spiritually sensitive approach to a trauma informed practice.

My culture-centric approach proved popular and I felt inclined to develop a platform that could support others to practice in a similar way. I established and successfully managed a Group Private Practice with a small team of associate therapists for several years. I then started to lean more into delivering presentations and training, focused on complex trauma informed Intercultural and Spiritually sensitive practice; thus, The ACIT Approach (Afrikan-Centred Intercultural Therapy) was born.

With a professional background in management I'm business minded and have a keen interest in strategic development, integration or services to enhance mental health provisions, and influencing core counselling training curriculums to enhance the cultural competency of practitioners.  

I have contributed to several NHS Trust community focused initiatives in South East London as well as raising awareness talks focused on 

Black mental health. Contributions include:

• Chairing the first Lewisham Public Reference Group for Lewisham's Clinical Commissioning Group (now the Integrated Care Board) 
• Co-establishing Lewisham's Independent Advisory Group (IAG) with South London and Maudsley NHS Trust.
• Key note speaker: Lewisham's Black Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Mental Health Summit (2018) 
• Key note speaker: Lewisham IAG's first Black Mental Health Conference (2026)

 You can find out more about my talks and presentations on the Complex Trauma Mental Health (CTMH) page