Individual psychotherapy and relationship therapy Bristol
I am Bristol-based psychotherapist with 25 years experience of helping individuals who are feeling not good enough, anxious, depressed, overwhelmed, or some part of their life is painful or stuck, and of helping couples with communication problems, emotional distance and repeating fights from all sorts of causes. My office is near College Green.
You don’t need a specific issue to begin therapy
You don’t require a specific issue to begin therapy. Simply, it’s enough to think “Something needs to change. I (or we) could do with some help.” own the page are a few of the specific problems individuals and couples mention when they come to me, but these are only examples. You may just have a feeling that some part of your life or relationship is painful or difficult, or you feel trapped in a cul-de-sac or a repeating cycle.
And you don’t need to know how long you want to come for. I work with many clients for just a few sessions, and with others long term.
These are among things we discuss at a no- charge, no-obligation half-hour initial meeting.
My approach
I’ve been a therapist for 25 years and seeker my whole life and participated in many workshops, training courses and meditation retreats. I’ve learned from experience that even therapy methods with great depth and breadth are never fully complete in themselves; people need different things at different points in their journey. So in my practice I have integrated together the approaches I’ve trained in based on what I have found works best for my clients.
Therapy is a human activity. Techniques are truly transformative when they help to give birth to each person’s intrinsic potentialities. I have a trust that the wellsprings of love and strength, of action and of acceptance, are present in everyone. They don’t fundamentally need to be created; they basically need to be recognised, affirmed, and believed in. If I had to briefly condense my therapeutic approach it’s this: I believe in the best in people. There’s a page here with some further discussion of the human factors that underlie healing.
Couples or individual therapy?
I don’t work with partners in a relationship both as a couple and as individuals at the same time. If you’re not sure whether you need individual or relationship therapy, then you are welcome to come for a half-hour initial meeting and we can discuss that.
Fees, location, office hours, parking …
For fees, working hours and location, parking and all practical questions, please see the FAQs on the Fees page.
Some individual psychotherapy issues
Depressed ● Feeling anxious ● Part of life isn’t working ● Feeling no good / not enough ● Recurrently unhappy ● Trauma ● Conflict with your family ● Painful loss ● Feeling an imposter ● Fearing rejection ● Feeling lost ● Your life feels meaningless ● Divorce/separation ● Can’t find your next step ● Can’t make your next step ● Being a parent ● In a major transition ● Fear of being alone ● Negative thinking you can’t stop ● You feel you can’t cope ● Conflicts with your partner ● Repeating relationship patterns ● Painful breakup ● Feeling shame ● Blocked by fear ● Can’t say No ● You are overwhelmed ● Something’s wrong but you can’t put into words what it is ● You just need to talk to someone without being judged
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
– Buddha
Some couples therapy issues
Can’t communicate ● Fights repeat like a video loop ● Lack of emotional connection ● Can’t face the past ● Can’t let go of the past ● Infidelity ● Loss of trust ● Unbalanced workloads ● Need to be alone but then your partner feels abandoned ● Need to be close but partner focuses on things they do alone ● Anger – yours, your partner’s or both ● Words that wound ● Either avoid difficult conversation or insist difficult conversations happen right now ● Afraid of having needs ● Afraid of expressing needs ● Unable to recognise needs ● Resentment over support with young children ● Afraid/unable to set boundaries ● Saying Yes when you’d rather say No ● Not feeling a team ● Your contribution isn’t valued ● Blame ● The other person making you responsible for their hurt, or you them ● Saying wounding things ● Lack of sexual intimacy ● One person not getting their sexual needs met ● Power struggles ● Feeling emotionally powerless ● Different views of parenting ● Jealousy ● Feeling unworthy ● Feeling unlovable ● Unsure about the future ● Coping with major life events including illness ● Stress from having toddlers (common) ● Stress from doing a house conversion (also common!) ● Simply cannot understand each other
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
– Mark Twain
Useful resources
Snuggle up, talk about films, save your marriage
This is a fun, easy but deep, research-validated couples self-help exercise to bring you and…
The barefoot stress counsellor: a solution-oriented self-help tool
This is a good self-help technique which is different and effective. Its a series of…
The Red Flag couples self-help exercise
If you both do it, the Red Flag exercise can cut through fights and save…