People come to psychotherapy for very different reasons, and similar symptoms can have very different origins.

Anxiety, depression, emotional numbness, relationship difficulties, anger, self-criticism or difficulties with identity may be problems in themselves. They can also be connected with earlier experiences, relationships, ways of adapting, or patterns that have developed over many years.

Understanding how a difficulty developed, what continues to maintain it, and what you want to change can therefore be an important part of therapy.

Sometimes focused work is appropriate.

Sometimes more sustained psychotherapy is needed.

And sometimes another form of help would be more appropriate.

The purpose of the initial assessment is to understand your situation sufficiently well to decide what direction is likely to be useful.

You do not need to know exactly what is wrong before coming to psychotherapy.

You may have a particular difficulty that you want to address. You may have tried therapy before without feeling that it got to the heart of the problem. You may function well outwardly while continuing to struggle with something that has been present for years.

You may also be less interested in finding a quick explanation or learning another technique, and more interested in understanding what is actually happening.

This kind of work requires some willingness to look carefully at your experience, including aspects that may be uncomfortable or difficult to recognise. It is collaborative: I will bring clinical experience, knowledge and judgement, but your participation in the process matters.

The aim is not to impose an explanation on you. It is to understand your situation well enough to decide what might genuinely help.

My practice brings together Integrative Psychotherapy and Existential Analysis, with an emphasis on understanding the deeper patterns through which psychological difficulties develop and continue.

Depth psychotherapy can involve exploring experiences that are difficult to see clearly from the surface of everyday life — including relationships, attachment, trauma, emotional development, beliefs about yourself, recurring patterns of behaviour, and ways of responding that may once have been necessary but are no longer serving you well.

It can also involve looking at the wider circumstances in which we live: relationships, work, culture, social expectations, values, meaning and the questions that arise when the life we are living no longer seems to fit.

The work is collaborative and interactive.

It is not about applying a predetermined technique to every person.

The approach, depth and pace of the work depend upon what you need and what we discover together.

Trauma can affect much more than our immediate response to an event.

Experiences of abuse, neglect, loss, frightening or overwhelming circumstances, and difficult early relationships can influence how we experience ourselves, other people, our bodies and emotions, sometimes long after the original experiences have ended.

Complex trauma can be particularly difficult to understand because its effects may become woven into personality, relationships, attachment and everyday life.

It may appear as anxiety, depression, emotional disconnection, shame, insecurity, difficulties with relationships, recurring patterns, problems with self-worth, or a persistent sense of being unable to feel fully at ease with yourself.

Working with trauma therefore involves more than addressing individual symptoms.

It involves understanding what happened, how you adapted to it, what difficulties may have remained, and how those adaptations may continue to affect your life.

Our relationships can reveal some of the deepest patterns in our psychological lives.

You may find yourself repeatedly drawn into similar kinds of relationships, struggling with trust or intimacy, becoming overly responsible for other people, withdrawing when relationships become difficult, or experiencing recurring conflict despite wanting something different.

Attachment and relationship difficulties can have roots in our earliest experiences, but they also develop through everything that happens to us subsequently.

Depth psychotherapy can provide an opportunity to understand these patterns rather than simply repeating them.

Not every difficulty is simply a problem to be eliminated.

Sometimes we are struggling because the way we have been living no longer makes sense to us.

Questions about identity, meaning, purpose, freedom, responsibility, mortality, relationships and the kind of life we want to live can become particularly important during periods of change or crisis.

Existential psychotherapy takes these questions seriously.

It asks not only “How can I feel better?” but also:

What is happening in my life?

How did I become the person I am?

What matters to me?

What am I avoiding?

What possibilities are available to me now?

These questions can form part of psychotherapy alongside work with more immediate psychological difficulties.

Psychological difficulties do not develop in isolation from the world in which we live.

Alongside personal history, relationships and individual psychology, my approach considers the social, cultural and spiritual dimensions of human life.

The expectations of family, work and society, the values we have absorbed, the roles we feel required to fulfil, and the culture in which we live can all influence how we understand ourselves and the choices available to us.

Existential psychotherapy is concerned not only with how we adapt to our circumstances, but also with whether the life we are living is genuinely our own.

A central concern of my approach is therefore the development of authenticity — becoming more able to recognise what is genuinely important to us, to distinguish this from what has been imposed or absorbed from others, and to take responsibility for how we live.

This can be difficult in a culture in which external expectations, social pressures and conventional ideas about success, identity and happiness can increasingly shape how we see ourselves.

The aim is not to reject society or withdraw from it, but to develop a more conscious relationship with the world around us while becoming more fully ourselves within it.

For some people, this also involves questions of a spiritual or existential nature — questions about meaning, values, purpose, mortality, belonging, transcendence and what makes a life worth living.

These dimensions are not separate from psychological health. They can be part of understanding who we are, how we have come to live as we do, and what kind of life we want to create.

I have been practising psychotherapy for 27 years, including ten years working full-time in the NHS and subsequent years in private practice.

My NHS experience included both primary and tertiary mental health services.

In primary care I worked with difficulties including anxiety, depression, panic, bereavement and relationship problems.

In tertiary services I worked with people experiencing serious and enduring mental health difficulties, including PTSD, personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, major depression, psychosis, eating disorders and the effects of rape and abuse.

This experience taught me that psychological difficulties can look very different from one person to another, and that a good understanding of the individual is often more important than simply applying a particular category or technique.

My professional training included more than six years of psychotherapy study and led to two Master's degrees, in Integrative Psychotherapy and Existential Psychotherapy, both with Distinction.

I continue to develop my understanding through clinical work, reflective practice, professional development, study and writing.

My way of working is intended to be human, unpretentious, interactive and plain-speaking.

☞ See the ABOUT page for more

If you live locally, you can also attend sessions in person at my practice in Stepps, Glasgow, approximately four miles north-east of the city centre.

The practice is in a quiet residential setting with free on-street parking and nearby bus and rail connections.

Sessions are by appointment.

Over many years I have written extensively about psychotherapy, trauma, relationships, psychological development and the experience of being human.

My Resources website existential-resources.com contains more than 1,300 original articles and other resources developed through many years of clinical work, study and reflection.

Access to the library is available as optional support to current patients doing longer-term therapeutic work.

The material covers a wide range of subjects relating to psychological difficulties, psychotherapy and the questions that arise in human life. It is intended to complement therapy rather than replace it, and to give patients who want to explore more deeply an opportunity to engage with these subjects between sessions.

You do not need to know exactly what is wrong before contacting me.

You may simply know that something has been difficult for a long time, that previous attempts to resolve it have not been enough, or that you want to understand yourself and your life more deeply.

An Introductory Meeting gives us an opportunity to talk about what brings you to therapy, what you are hoping for, and whether I might be the right person to work with you.

There is no obligation to continue.

If we decide that another form of help would be more appropriate, I will tell you.

If we decide to work together, we can then consider what kind of psychotherapy is likely to be most useful.

I do not see psychotherapy as something I do to you.

My role is to bring clinical experience, psychological understanding and professional judgement to the process: to listen carefully, ask questions, identify patterns, offer interpretations and, where useful, challenge assumptions or ways of relating that may be keeping difficulties in place.

Your role is not simply to answer questions or receive advice. Your experience, observations and willingness to think about what we discover are an essential part of the work.

Sometimes therapy is reassuring. Sometimes it is challenging. Often it is both.

The purpose of challenge is not to judge you or impose my own values, but to help us understand what is happening and consider whether something different is possible.