Counselling & Psychotherapy
For individuals, couples & groups.

Research consistently demonstrates that psychotherapy can be highly effective with approximately 75% of people showing some improved emotional and psychological benefit (APA) .

COUNSELLING & PSYCHOTHERAPY

Searching for the right help can feel bewildering, especially when something is wrong and you're feeling unsettled. After all, we rarely seek out support just for the sake if it. You’ve likely been struggling for a while, living with an uncomfortable feeling but, something has now tipped the scale.

Meaningful therapy has a purpose. It’s aim is to relieve you of your pain. Finding a relationship where you feel trusting enough to speak freely, usuually brings enormous relief and overtime, can be transformative. To experience yourself connected and in deep conversation, expressing feelings you might otherwise avoid sharing. Feelings that have hitherto been silenced, ignored, minimised or negated.
The terms counselling & psychotherapy are broadly interchangeable. Counselling perhaps leans towards problem-solving and the latter more of a journey; the boundaries however are fluid. Both have evolved over recent years to meet the needs of a more informed, tech-savvy society.

Contemporary counselling and psychotherapy is generally a relational experience. While confidential, non-judgemental, supportive and professional, there is now an active relational process that takes shape. We all bring something different to an encounter, so the work moulds and shapes itself to fit the needs of each individual.
In simple terms, therapy offers an opportunity to speak freely. To experience yourself in conversation with someone who can actively listen to what is spoken and to notice what is not. You may find yourself speaking when previously have remained silent and thinking thoughts that may have never crossed your mind.

Psychotherapy is a unique experience around which a relationship develops and where hopes and expectations invite change, toward an outcome neither party can quite foresee. Therapy is often referred to as 'work' by those who practice it, as therapeutic relationships require intention, commitment, thoughtfulness and time. Opportunities for change appear, as blind spots in our thinking are carefully highlighted, within the body of what we can hold together as patient and therapist.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a long established and well researched approach which links present experience with past events, relationships & ways of coping. On adjusting to new perspectives and understanding, meaningful and lasting change can occur.

It is worth noting that clinical terms or phrases have become attached to particular behaviours or traits; this can be helpful. For example, anxiousness, obsessiveness, hyperactivity or depression. These terms attempt to offer meaning for what we experience, however behind the symptoms or diagnosis is a complex and unique individual with thoughts, feelings and memories...

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TYPES OF PROBLEMS

Depression

Low mood & self loathing is often described as anger turned inwards. In many ways this is useful however, without being able to communicate these depressive conflicts you remain disconnected, unmotivated & unable to see a way out.

Speaking to someone offers a opportunity to witness the light, from within this darkness.

Anxiety

Recognition of anxiety & stress in society is commonplace, but do we really understand it? Is it brought on by external events or does the threat come from within?

Has the anxiety become chronic? Is it somatic (bodily) such as in panic attacks, hives, aches & pains, face picking, hair pulling, headaches and so on?

I am particularly interested in discovering the forms that anxiety takes. Is it a warning signal or parental in tone, in becoming a somewhat familiar and consistent, yet perhaps unwelcome feeling.

Intimate relationships

Intimate relationships are the life blood of our existence. They are the source of great joy and also unbearable pain. You might be in a meaningful long-term relationship or something more fleeting.

For you this might be about family issues, friends, parenting or a problem with colleagues or associates? You might be losing a sense of yourself - what it means to be you somehow? Maybe you're feeling stuck, attacked or in some way dependent, or perhaps lonely. You might be experiencing the pain of loss, a break-up, separation or divorce.

We can think about the way you are currently coping and together seek strategies that feel more helpful and resilient.

Confidence

It's remarkable how many lofty goals have been achieved not through skill and intellect, but through buckets of confidence and determination. Without the confidence to make the first move, you can find yourself stuck and unable to start.

Low self-esteem is a crushing state to experience. You may be dreading a public speaking engagement or feeling chronic unease in social situations or a in a relationship? You may be overly critical of your appearance, your weight, how you look or your performance in the bedroom.

Speaking about these tensions will get you some space to think, to notice & challenge assumptions and perhaps quieten this critical voice.

Substance misuse

In most instances substance misuse indicates a coping mechanism underpinned by trauma, neglect or perceived threats.

Substance misuse can bring temporary relief of course, but often torment us with deeper anxieties. Anything can become addictive so I won't attempt to make a list, suffice to say there are familiar culprits.

More often than not it's about how we take care of and value ourselves; so this is where we might begin.

Sex & sexuality

Insecurities around sex & sexuality need to be handled with openness, sensitivity and warmth as at their core this is about intimacy and vulnerability.

I work with any gender, sexual orientation or those who are simply disinterested in sex. I work with individuals exploring festishes, chemsex & in particular porn addictions, aggressive feelings and acting out around sexual desire.

Professional life

The self-worth we garner from our work is significant. Establishing working patterns, our careers; the interpersonal & financial implications of success, change & failure, can attract their own set of problems.

Through interpersonal conflict at work, recruitment, retirement or other transitional issues, I can help you consider what strategies and decisions might be right for you.

Physical Trauma

The impact of physical injury, surgery and the resulting pain is often overlooked. We may feel the physical traumas but often mis-read or even begin to neglect the impact this has had on our mood and sense of the future.

Having someone alongside you on this journey as you cope dealing with or overcoming an injury, cannot be overestimated.

A field of corn signifying the path of life

Loss & Bereavment

Feelings of loss can arise in relation to anything - whatever you've become attached too. However the grief of losing someone you love deeply, can be debilitating. Whatever your beliefs about death, speaking to someone can bring enormous comfort.

I can provide the time and emotional support in whatever way is useful and the create the space to revisit your own life, in the reflection of those you've lost.

Clinical Disorders

Receiving a mental health diagnosis can bring relief and insight previously absent. It can also be distressing, on being faced with a new reality.

We can work together to support your diagnosis, your symptoms and behaviours. We can find new ways to think about the feelings you might be facing living with a clinical disorder, and find ways to look beyond it.

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WHAT IS THE AIM?

Counselling & Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is about knowing ourselves more deeply so that we can live our lives with greater freedom and flexibility, instead of being ruled by past experiences and in ways we don't fully understand. Meaningful psychotherapy has a purpose. It’s aim is enduring relief of your pain.

PSYCHODYNAMIC COUNSELLING & PSYCHOTHERAPY

Psychodynamic

Psychodynamic psychotherapy is about exploring those aspects of self that are not fully known, especially as they are revealed and potentially influenced in the psychotherapy relationship. New definition. Jonathan Shelder (2025)

Academic papers demonstrating the efficacy of Psychodynamic Theory
David J. Roseborough. (2005).

Jessica Yakeley & Peter Hobson. (2018)
Falk Leichsenring, et al. (2017).
Peter Fonagy (2015).
Jonathan Shedler (2010).
Christiane Steinert, et al. (2010).
Stephen Briggs, et al. (2017).
Falk Leichsenring, et al. (2013).