Psychotherapy and Counselling in Southampton, New Forest, Hampshire

For People – a trouble shared

If your future worries you or your past troubles you, if you feel that you are losing direction, can’t cope or just feel a bit adrift

Mental Health: stress, anxiety, depression, phobias, relationships, trauma, addictions, your boss, your family, your job, bereavement, emotional worries

For Workers and their Employers – workplace well-being 

Helping your staff and helping your company too

Workplace counselling, workplace stress, trauma and critical incidents management

Psychotherapy, Counselling, Psychology – are they different?

Psychotherapists, counsellors, and psychologists all help people who have issues with their mental well-being, with psychological difficulties, or with emotional problems. Put simply, these therapists are there for you when life’s struggles start to become a bit too much, perhaps even a bit overwhelming.

Actually, there is a huge overlap between these three professions. This is because they are all a part of the so-called “Talking Therapies”. The differences between them are more in their purposes than in their professional boundaries. Psychotherapy is more to do with helping people who have mental health issues, with problem solving, and finding ways forward. Counselling is more to do with sympathetic listening, comforting, and self-understanding. Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind.

Psychotherapy, when compared to counselling generally, is a more intensive and more comprehensive approach to people’s mental health issues and emotional problems. Psychotherapists are trained to a high level, (Masters’ degrees and higher). They provide a wide range of solutions to a wide range of mental health problems, and they have a lot of different therapeutic tools to offer their clients. Good psychotherapists tailor their therapeutic methods and approaches to meet their patients’ individual needs.

Taken all round, counselling is less intensive than psychotherapy. In some ways talking to a counsellor is a bit like talking to your best-ever friend but it is a lot more confidential and certainly a lot more constructive. Most counsellors are only trained to diploma level although degree level trained counsellors are becoming more common. A small, but growing, number of counsellors have advanced training and higher-level qualifications and can provide a more comprehensive service.

Not all psychologists become therapists but those that do usually specialise as either clinical psychologists or as counselling psychologists. Like psychotherapists, their training too is at a post-graduate level.

Another type of currently popular psychological, (talking), therapy is known as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT. CBT is targeted at helping people change the ways of thinking or behaving that causes them problems. In fact, CBT is just another branch of psychotherapy. Sometimes it is the best way to treat a patient and sometimes it is not – horses for courses.

One very important service that all good counsellors and psychotherapists offer is total discretion. Clients rightly demand privacy. I see people mostly from Southampton, Totton, Romsey, and the general New Forest area, (Lyndhurst, Ashurst, Brockenhurst, Lymington, Ringwood). This includes all of the Waterside villages, (Hythe, Marchwood, Holbury, Blackfield, Fawley). None of my clients ever meet.  However, some people feel that distance adds an extra level of privacy and so they travel to me from all over Hampshire and Dorset and even much further afield. In fact, my video-link clients come from all over the UK and from all over the world. However, it doesn’t matter where any of them come from, they can all talk to me in complete privacy. Anyone who comes to see me can be certain that anything they tell me will be kept confidential.

WHAT I DO

Senior Accredited Psychotherapist & Counsellor

Private Practitioner and Counselling Teacher & Researcher

Former Head of Counselling & Psychotherapy Studies at the University of Southampton

Psychotherapy & Counselling Consultant to UK & US Mental Health Care Insurers

Examiner in Psychotherapy and Counselling to UK and Overseas Universities

Counselling & Psychotherapy Consultant to major UK & European industrial organisations

Critical Incident Debriefer and PTSD therapist

Clinical supervisor and practice consultant to:

1. Independent counselling and psychotherapy practitioners
2. Major care and rehabilitation services providers
3. Local Authority Social Services Departments
4. The Voluntary Sector

Ex-Principal Research Therapist – University of Leeds

Consultant Trauma Therapist – UK Emergency Services

Psychotherapy & Counselling Textbooks Author and Editor