Private Therapy
Adults & young people aged 16+
One-to-one therapy in Maghull, Crosby or online.
Meet the Co-Founders
Different perspectives. One shared purpose.
Imago Skye brings together more than 26 years of combined therapeutic experience, grounded in the belief that no person should be reduced to a difficulty, label or standard pathway.
Co-Founder · MBACP Registered Therapist
Elle Byrne
Specialist experience across schools, alternative provision and therapeutic services, with support shaped around the individual.
Co-Founder · Therapist & Supervisor
Katie Byrne
Twenty years of therapeutic experience across different approaches and supervision, bringing depth and perspective to Imago Skye.
Elle’s story
Helping children feel heard, understood and supported.
Every child has a story. Sometimes it is shared through words. Sometimes it appears through behaviour, anxiety, attendance difficulties, confidence, relationships or emotions that feel difficult to understand.
My role is to create a space where children and young people feel safe enough to explore those experiences, make sense of them and begin to move forward. Throughout my career, I have worked across schools, alternative provision and specialist therapeutic services, supporting children and young people facing a wide range of emotional, behavioural and mental health challenges.
Every child is different.
Every journey is different.
What helps one child may not help another. What feels safe for one child may take longer to develop for another. That is why I do not believe in asking a child to fit a predetermined model.
I begin by building trust and understanding the individual in front of me. From there, the pace, techniques and therapeutic approach are shaped around their experiences, strengths and needs. Meaningful change rarely follows a fixed timetable. It develops when someone feels safe enough to be honest, curious and fully themselves.
Behind what we can see, there is often something important to understand.
Children communicate in many different ways. Some communicate through conversation. Others through play, creativity, behaviour, withdrawal or changes in how they engage with school and relationships.
A particular passion of mine is therapeutic play and creative therapeutic approaches. For many children, play provides a language when words feel too difficult, allowing thoughts, feelings and experiences to be expressed in ways that feel natural and accessible.
Working with schools
Support that works with the school, not around it.
Schools are supporting increasingly complex emotional needs while balancing attendance, safeguarding, wellbeing and learning. I believe the most effective support happens when children, families and schools work together.
My school-based experience includes delivering specialist therapeutic interventions across a range of primary and secondary schools, developing whole-school wellbeing initiatives, leading learning mentors, contributing to multi-agency reviews and coordinating safeguarding responses. I have also worked in alternative provision with young people experiencing trauma, anxiety, family breakdown and barriers to engagement.
That breadth of experience helps me understand both the individual child and the wider system around them. Whether the work involves therapeutic play, attendance-focused intervention or individual support, the aim remains the same: helping children feel more confident, more connected and more able to thrive.
School-based expertise
Experience delivering therapeutic support across a range of primary and secondary schools, alternative provision and specialist settings.
Therapeutic play
Creative, play-based approaches that help children communicate, explore emotions and build confidence when words feel difficult.
Individual support
A flexible approach shaped around each child’s experiences, strengths, communication style and pace of therapeutic change.
At the heart of my work
Every child deserves a space where they can be completely themselves.
A space where they do not need the right words.
A space where they do not need to pretend everything is okay.
A space where they feel safe enough to be heard.
Professional grounding
Qualified, accountable and continually developing.
MBACP Registered · 00973278BA (Hons) Counselling & PsychotherapyEnhanced DBSLevel 3 SafeguardingYouth Mental Health First AiderSchool & Alternative Provision Experience
Katie’s story
Helping people feel understood, not fitted into a model.
For 17 years, I have worked as a counsellor and therapist with adults, children and young people across the NHS, mainstream schools, specialist SEND education, colleges, private practice and Employee Assistance Programme services.
Across those settings, I have supported people experiencing anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, trauma, bereavement, relationship and family difficulties, stress, emotional regulation challenges, neurodiversity and significant life changes.
People are different.
Support should be too.
My approach is integrative. I do not believe in using one fixed therapeutic model for every client. Instead, I draw on a range of counselling approaches and interventions, shaped around the needs, communication style and level of understanding of the person in front of me.
The therapeutic relationship comes first. I aim to create a space where people feel safe, understood and able to explore things at their own pace, while introducing more structured or practical approaches when these may be helpful.
People should feel they are talking to a real person.
Not being fitted into a process.I have extensive experience working therapeutically with children and young people who may struggle to engage with more traditional forms of counselling. This means adapting how I work, noticing how each person communicates and creating a therapeutic experience that feels accessible rather than imposed.
Education and SEND
Understanding the person and the setting around them.
A significant part of my professional experience has been within education. I have worked extensively across mainstream and specialist settings, including with young people with SEND, neurodiversity and Education, Health and Care Plans.
This work involves collaborating thoughtfully with schools, colleges and other professionals while protecting the confidentiality and therapeutic relationship at the heart of counselling.
That balance matters. Effective support needs to understand both the individual and the environment around them, without allowing systems, labels or expectations to obscure the person themselves.
17 years in practice
Experience supporting adults, children and young people across health, education, private practice and EAP settings.
Integrative therapy
A flexible approach drawing on different models and interventions according to the person’s individual needs.
Clinical supervision
Six years supporting qualified counsellors and trainees through reflective, ethical and developmental supervision.
At the heart of my work
Warm, down-to-earth and individualised.
My aim is to help people feel heard, understood and supported while developing greater insight, confidence and ways of moving forward.
Professional grounding
Experienced, reflective and ethically led.
MBACP Registered Member17 Years’ Counselling ExperienceQualified Clinical Supervisor6 Years’ Supervision ExperienceNHS & EAP ExperienceMainstream & Specialist SEND EducationAdults, Children & Young People
