Jayakara Ellis has been practising psychotherapy since the early 1990s. She is interested in helping people find their true self, seeing how the true self has been oppressed and how we perpetuate this by internalised oppression so that our mental and physical health is thwarted. Our needs can be oppressed in so many ways e.g. parenting practices, family dynamics, culture, sexism, racism, heterosexism, religion and the economic systems. Jayakara is an ordained Buddhist and has a daily meditation practice. She prefers to be called by her Buddhist name Jayakara (Ji ark ka ra). She has been meditating for over 30 years and integrates aspects of mindfulness and compassion into her practice as a therapist. Jayakara is also part of the leadership group of the Black African and Asian Therapist Network (BAATN). BAATN is a network of therapists, students and trainees of African, Asian, Caribbean and dual heritage descent who support each other to make therapy appropriate and more accessible to their communities. As well as this, BAATN seeks to support more people from these communities to train as therapists. BAATN offers training to all communities and invites allies to be members. Jayakara has a private psychotherapy practice, seeing individuals, couples and supervisees in East London. She trained at Metanoia as a Transactional Analyst psychotherapist. Jayakara has worked in the voluntary sector offering therapy to the unemployed and those with mental health issues. She was previously a probation officer, a forensic social worker and an Approved Mental Health Professional.