Rachel Selmes, professionally known as Rachel Hillerby

Hello, I am Rachel

I know that choosing a therapist can feel like a big step. You may be looking for someone with the right clinical background, but also someone who feels calm, steady and human.

Believe EMDR brings those two things together. My work is grounded in more than 20 years of NHS experience as a Senior Occupational Therapist, specialist EMDR training and accreditation pathway, and a whole-person Occupational Therapy lens. At the same time, my private garden practice in Billingham has been created to feel nothing like a hospital room.

It is quiet, warm and private. A place where we can work carefully with trauma, anxiety, grief, burnout or distress without rushing, pushing or overwhelming you.

Clinical roots in Teesside

I have worked across local NHS services and community settings under the name Rachel Hillerby, including North Tees, Hartlepool and James Cook in Middlesbrough, as well as community outreach, West Park Hospital and Roseberry Park, focusing on complex mental health needs and eating disorders where trauma, control, safety and the body are deeply connected.

This clinical foundation allows me to support a wide spectrum of difficulties, including Complex PTSD, Childhood Trauma, and Traumatic Bereavement, alongside Anxiety, Panic Attacks, and Relationship Trauma. I also provide specialist support for Executive Burnout, helping high-pressure professionals recover from shutdown and loss of capacity.

Clinical background and professional registration

My career has included over 20 years experience across North Tees Hospital, Hartlepool Hospital and James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough, also community-based work and clinical experience connected with West Park Hospital and Roseberry Park. That experience has shaped the way I work now: clinically informed, practical, compassionate and always aware that trauma affects the whole of daily life.

As an Occupational Therapist, I do not look only at symptoms. I look at how life is being affected: sleep, work, relationships, confidence, routines, sensory load, stress responses and the small everyday things that can start to feel impossible when the nervous system is overloaded.

My health coaching training adds another part to the work. We can respect what has happened in the past, understand what is happening in the present, and also begin to build towards what life needs to look like next.

Credentials

Why my Occupational Therapy background matters

Trauma does not stay neatly in one part of life. It can affect how you sleep, how you work, how you parent, how close you feel to people, how safe you feel in your own body, and how much energy daily life takes from you.

My Occupational Therapy background helps me keep the work practical and connected to real life. We are not only asking, “What happened?” We are also asking, “How is this affecting the way you live now, and what would feeling safer allow you to do again?”

Problems people often bring

You might not search for a therapy name first. You might search because something in life has become hard to manage.