Our Team

Tonia Martin

Clinical and Counselling Psychologist | Talking Sleep Psychology Founder & Director

Tonia Martin is a Clinical & Counselling Psychologist, sleep specialist, and founder of Talking Sleep Psychology, with over 25 years of clinical experience spanning nursing, mental health, and sleep medicine. As both a Clinical and Counselling Psychologist, she brings a deep curiosity about the person behind the sleep problem — not just its mechanics.

Sleep problems are rarely just about sleep. Sometimes the body’s rhythms have shifted, circumstances have changed, or the weight of a busy life has simply followed someone to bed. And sometimes something deeper is keeping the nervous system alert long after it should have settled — patterns that formed quietly, often long before the sleeplessness itself began. Tonia’s work is interested in all of it.

Her approach integrates Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) — the gold standard evidence-based treatment — with Compassion Focused Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and trauma-informed practice. She also draws on EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) where a specific experience appears to be at the root of someone’s sleep difficulties — working directly with that memory rather than managing its effects. She is currently training with the Compassionate Mind Foundation under Professor Paul Gilbert, work that has deepened her understanding of the role of safety, self-compassion, and the nervous system in lasting sleep recovery.

She has a particular interest in midlife women navigating sleep disruption alongside hormonal transition, shifting identity, and lives that have rarely given them permission to slow down.

Her roots are in nursing — in presence, in night shifts, in sitting with people through the small hours — and that foundation of compassionate accompaniment has never left her clinical work.

Tonia offers Telehealth appointments Tuesday to Thursday.