Dr Carla Rainbow - Clinical Director
Dr Carla Rainbow (Carla) is the clinical director at Lumeah. She is a UK Chartered Clinical Psychologist and registered Counselling Psychotherapist with over 15 years of clinical and therapeutic experience spanning a variety of settings, including the National Health Service (NHS), the Public Prison Service, and private charitable organisations. Carla shapes the psychological framework and evidence based therapies behind everything we offer. She utilises her extensive qualifications and experience to bring you safe and ethical care.
Carla says - For as long as I can remember, my brain has had one persistent habit: it wants to understand. I have always found myself quietly asking, “But what is really going on underneath this?” Whether it was family dynamics, school playground politics, or later, the complex stories my clients brought into the therapy room, I’ve been drawn to the deeper patterns that shape how we think, feel, and relate.
That curiosity led me into a career in clinical psychology and, eventually, to founding Rainbow Psychological Services Ltd in the UK. Over the years, I have specialised in evidence-based therapies, including EMDR, DBT, ACT CBT, CFT, and narrative approaches, working with people who have experienced trauma, anxiety, depression, burnout, and long-term emotional overwhelm. I have seen first-hand that people are not “broken” or “too much”; they are often doing their best with nervous systems that have had to work incredibly hard for a very long time. I have listed my qualifications and registrations below so that you can understand the depth of my knowledge and experience that I bring to Lumeah for you.
In my clinical work, one thing became increasingly clear: real change happens when we stop treating the mind in isolation from the body. You can talk for hours about your past, but if your nervous system still sits in a constant state of threat, it is incredibly hard to feel safe enough to move forward. I became more and more interested in how the brain and body process experience, how trauma is stored, or how past experiences become scripts for how we should live, and how carefully targeted therapies, especially EMDR, can help people finally unhook from old patterns and step into a very different way of living.
At the same time, I noticed something else: my clients did best when they were given space not just to “work on themselves” but to truly rest, be nurtured, and feel held in an environment that honoured their whole humanity. The fast pace of weekly sessions squeezed between work, parenting, and life admin often wasn’t enough. There was a need for deeper, more immersive spaces where people could focus on themselves without guilt or interruption.
When I began sharing these reflections with Sacha, everything aligned. Her world of touch, scent, ritual, and sensory care dovetailed perfectly with my world of nervous systems, trauma processing, and psychological safety. We realised we were both asking the same question in different languages: “How can we create experiences that are not only beautiful, but genuinely healing?”
Lumeah was our answer.
At Lumeah, my role is to hold the psychological container. I map out your history, your patterns, and the ways your brain has been trying to protect you. I use EMDR and other evidence-based therapies to help you process what has happened, calm your threat system, and reconnect with the version of you that feels confident, grounded, and capable. We work with your goals, whether that is healing from old wounds, unblocking success, softening harsh self-criticism, preventing or healing from burnout, or finally feeling “enough”, and we approach it with both scientific rigour and deep compassion.
Sacha and I design every retreat so that the psychological work and the sensory experience speak to each other. While she crafts the soothing, tactile, and aromatic elements that allow your body to exhale, I guide the deeper emotional and cognitive shifts. You are never “just” having therapy, and you are never “just” having treatments. You are held within a carefully thought-through process designed to meet you as a whole person: mind, body, and spirit.
For me, true luxury is not about excess. It is about feeling emotionally safe, deeply understood, and supported by approaches that can work. At Lumeah, my commitment is to bring the very best of clinical psychology into an environment that allows you to soften, integrate, and move forwards – not just feeling better, but living differently.
I think its really important you understand the level of clinical experience and qualifications I bring to Lumeah. I am a fully trained DBT therapist and a member of the Society for Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (SfDBT). I am also a qualified EMDR therapist, having completed EMDR training with EMDR Academy UK, and being a member of the EMDR Association. In addition to DBT & EMDR I am fully trained in a number of therapeutic modalities including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Compassion Focussed Therapy (CFT), Mindfulness, and Narrative Therapy.
I maintain full professional insurance and ICO membership for data protection, reflecting my commitment to ethical, safe and accountable practice.
You can read more about me on my private company website - Dr Carla Rainbow - Rainbow Psychological Services Ltd | Psychologist near me or on my social media accounts.
Qualifications and Registrations
Dip TC: Diploma in therapeutic counselling
Dip SP & C: Diploma in social policy and criminology
FD: Foundation degree in counselling and psychotherapy
BSc (Hons): Criminology and psychological studies (First Class)
PG Dip: Post graduate diploma in dialectical behaviour therapy
MSc: Psychology (Distinction) - awarded the Deans scholarship for academic excellence
DClinPsy: Doctorate in clinical psychology
Registered with Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
CPsychol: Chartered psychologist with the British Psychological Society
AFBPsS: Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society
MSfDBT: Member of the Society for Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (SfDBT)
Reg MBACP: Registered member of the British Association of Counsellors & Psychotherapists (on their accredited register)
EuroPsy certificate: meaning qualifications are verified and meet or exceed requirements across Europe.
