People come to my practice with a wide range of difficulties and circumstances, from everyday struggles and diagnosable problems to existential concerns that extend beyond conventional psychological definitions or psychiatric labels.

This can include people experiencing the effects of:

• Trauma, complex trauma, sexual trauma and developmental trauma.

• Anxiety, insecurity, panic and depression.

• Relationship, attachment, communication and intimacy difficulties.

• Emotional and mood difficulties, and struggles with self-care and self-regulation.

• Enduring ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that are difficult to change.

• A need for a stronger sense of embodied identity, self-esteem and authenticity.

• Loss, bereavement and significant life changes.

• Adverse childhood experiences.

• Stress, overwhelm and persistent internal or external conflicts.

• Difficult family, social group and workplace circumstances, including scapegoating and stigmatisation.

• A feeling that something is wrong without being sure what it is.

Existential work might also include enquiries into:

• Life meaning, values, purpose and direction.

• Social position, identity, belonging and feelings of alienation from, or aversion to, mainstream society.

Some people come to my practice because they are struggling with a specific problem. Others have tried different therapies before, with varying degrees of success, or may have received a diagnosis. Some function remarkably well outwardly but continue to experience difficulties that have not been resolved inwardly.

You do not need a diagnosis or a clear understanding of your difficulties before engaging with my practice. Nor do you need to know exactly what kind of help you need. What matters is a willingness to talk honestly and openly about what is happening, so that we can consider together what might help.

See Resources → Change and Authenticity for further discussion.

My practice is rooted in Integrative Psychotherapy and Existential Analysis.

I do not use a predetermined technique simply because a particular symptom or diagnosis is present. Similar difficulties can have very different origins, and effective therapy depends on understanding the individual rather than treating a diagnostic category or symptom.

Looking beneath the surface appearance or explanation of a difficulty can help us understand its deeper emotional, personal and existential significance.

Where it can help us better understand you, we may explore:

• Your personal history and significant experiences.

• Relationships and attachment.

• Emotions, physical sensations and ways of relating to your body.

• Your beliefs, assumptions and ways of understanding yourself.

• The circumstances and relationships in which you are living.

• Values, meaning, purpose and identity.

• The wider social, cultural and spiritual dimensions of your life.

The aim is not simply to put your difficulties into a diagnostic box, or to reduce or eliminate symptoms. It is also to understand what may be maintaining them, what they may express or signify, and what might help you address the difficulties themselves.

Not everyone needs the same kind of psychotherapy, or the same degree of depth in the work.

Counselling may be appropriate when you need space to understand a current difficulty, make sense of an experience, consider your options or regain a clearer sense of direction.

Focused, shorter-term work may be appropriate when you are dealing with a particular problem or seeking a specific outcome.

Trauma-focused work may involve understanding and regulating the effects of traumatic experiences and, where appropriate, working more directly with traumatic memories and their continuing effects on thoughts, feelings and everyday life.

Longer-term psychotherapy may be appropriate when difficulties are longstanding, more complex or rooted in ways of thinking, feeling and relating that have developed over many years. This can involve deeper exploration of relationships, self-esteem and self-view, emotional conflicts, assumptions and behaviours that are no longer serving you well.

Existential Analysis takes a broader view of wellbeing, not simply as psychological health, but also as emotional, moral, social and spiritual wellbeing. Alongside personal history and relationships, it considers more fundamental questions of freedom, responsibility, values, meaning, mortality, belonging and who we are choosing to become.

A number of methods and protocols may be used in this work, including experiential approaches that help bring greater awareness to emotional conflicts, bodily experience and the continuing effects of difficult memories.

These forms of work are not mutually exclusive. The appropriate approach, or combination of approaches, depends on what you need, what you hope to achieve and what we discover together.

Online psychotherapy is not a lesser version of in-person therapy.

The same therapeutic relationship, assessment and depth of psychotherapeutic work can take place online, provided that your environment is appropriate and the practical and professional requirements can be met.

I work online with English-speaking patients in the UK and internationally. This can be particularly useful if you live outside Glasgow, travel regularly, have moved countries or simply prefer the privacy and continuity of working from your own surroundings.

For longer-term psychotherapy, continuity is often more important than physical location. Online work can allow that continuity to be maintained when circumstances, geography or travel would otherwise make regular attendance difficult.

The important question is not simply whether therapy takes place online or in person, but whether your setting, broadband connection, lighting and privacy allow us to work properly together.

See my Guide to Online Therapy in Resources.

The first four sessions provide an opportunity to assess your needs and circumstances in depth and detail before deciding what kind of further work, if any, is appropriate.

Sometimes the most useful approach will be focused therapeutic work on particular symptoms or problems. Sometimes it will involve more exploratory psychotherapy that looks at the origins of your present difficulties. Sometimes another form of help may be more appropriate.

The aim is to arrive at a considered conclusion rather than simply fitting you into a predetermined treatment plan on the basis of a symptom or diagnostic label.

Existential Analysis is concerned not only with our psychology, but with how we choose to live.

It asks how we adjust and adapt ourselves—sometimes against our better judgement—to our circumstances and the people around us. It also asks whether the life we are living is a genuine reflection of what matters most to us, or whether it has become largely shaped by other people's ideas, rules, values, demands and expectations.

This can involve giving yourself the opportunity to explore and discuss what genuinely matters to you, including in your relationships and in relation to cultural and social expectations. It also involves developing greater awareness of your choices and values within the bigger picture of life.

This does not necessarily mean rejecting the world around us. We are shaped by relationships, culture and society. Rather, it means developing a more conscious and critically aware relationship with the world while becoming more faithful to ourselves within it.

Existential work involves questions of meaning and purpose, and of what the shortness of life ultimately means for the choices we make. It examines our freedom to create and embrace possibilities beyond our usual habits and tendencies, our responsibility for the lives we lead, and the spiritual significance of the life we are choosing to live.

Where appropriate, additional support may include meditation, yoga and other experiential practices that form part of the therapeutic work within my practice.

Current patients may also have optional access to my private Resources library, containing extensive written material that can support longer-term therapeutic work.

You do not need to decide in advance which service or therapeutic approach you need.

The purpose of the initial meeting and assessment is to understand your situation well enough to make a responsible judgement about what kind of help may be useful.

If you are unsure whether this practice is appropriate for you, the Guide page may be helpful before booking an Introductory Meeting.