Individual Therapy

What might bring you to therapy

You don’t need to be in crisis to come to therapy. You might know that something isn’t working but find it difficult to understand why. Perhaps the same problems keep appearing in your relationships, you’re struggling with anxiety, addiction or shame, or you’ve reached a point in your life where you’re not sure what comes next.

Life transitions can bring this into focus. A relationship beginning or ending, becoming a parent, changing career, moving somewhere new, loss, ageing, or simply realising that the life you’ve built no longer feels quite right. Times of change can unsettle our sense of who we are and bring old ways of coping to the surface.

Sometimes we get very good at coping. We withdraw, keep people at a distance, seek approval, lose ourselves in relationships or find other ways to avoid what feels difficult. These ways of coping often developed for good reasons, but over time they can become the very things that leave us feeling stuck.

What happens in a session

There isn’t a set formula for a session. We might start with something that happened during your week, a relationship that’s troubling you, something you’re feeling, or simply what is happening between us as we sit together.

I work primarily as a Gestalt therapist, which means I’m interested in what is happening for you now, not only in talking about what happened in the past. The relationship between us is an important part of the work.

I also draw on psychodynamic thinking. Sometimes understanding our early relationships and experiences can help us make sense of the ways we relate, protect ourselves and cope today.

I’m not there to tell you what to do or give you a better version of yourself to become. Together we can get curious about what you do, where it might have come from and whether it still works for you. With greater awareness comes the possibility of doing something differently.

Beginning therapy

Sessions are 50 minutes and usually take place weekly, in person or online. Therapy is open-ended, so we can work at a pace that feels right rather than deciding in advance how long the process should take.

If you’re used to dealing with things on your own, starting therapy can feel like a big step. You don’t need to know exactly what you want before getting in touch. I offer a free 15-minute conversation where we can talk about what’s happening and see whether working together feels right.

As a Registered Member of BACP, I work within its Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions.