Services
Attend weekly*, in-person or online from anywhere in the world via high quality video call
Counselling and Symptom Management (brief therapy up to 12 sessions)
Depth Psychotherapy and Analysis (for legal age adults): brief, medium- and long-term work
Personal Development: career, lifestyle, critical awareness, spirituality etc
Supported Attendance options including extensive Resources (1200+ articles, courses, audio recordings, experiential exercises) and Supplementary Support for patients doing long-term work
Graded support and challenge: choose the level of support and challenge you want for your psychotherapy
*ad hoc attendance is possible for up to 12 sessions only. Weekly psychotherapy is recommended and necessary for real change.
“Existential Analysis is fundamentally non-pathologising of people, and views and relates to individuals in human terms rather than via problems or diagnostic labels.”
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Time-limited or open-ended work
Brief to long-term work
Psychosocial assessments and therapeutic support planning as standard
Optional written assessment and problem formulation summaries available
Also available in sessions as standard:
Trauma Work (various methods)
Breath Work and Pranayama
Yoga tuition for stress, tension, anxiety and depression
Makko Ho stretches
HRV Biofeedback Training
Yoga Nidra and other forms of guided relaxation
All forms of meditation instruction
Body awareness and grounding work
Art and Play Therapy
Online or In-Person
You can attend sessions in-person if you live locally in Glasgow, or online via Microsoft Teams if you live elsewhere in the world. Appointments are booked the same way via the Appointments page.
I work online with patients from all over the world* including all parts of the UK, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and other places where English-speaking patients reside or travel. Wherever you live in the world and however you are travelling you can receive effective help and professional support at home or on the move: all you need is a laptop or smartphone with Microsoft Teams installed.
*Exceptions include the USA and other territories. See Appointments page for others.
“Stephen provides a unique service in psychotherapy with in-depth work that you might not get elsewhere. He really opens your mind to new ways of thinking and dealing with the stresses of everyday life and past trauma. I appreciate his honesty and patience. I also love that he teaches meditation which is something I have been interested in for years but never got around to learning. It was great to have a session purely about meditation and I'm sure I will be back for more. Thank you again!”
~ testimonial by N.K.
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Counselling and symptom-management approaches are available in this practice for patients doing brief work (up to 12 sessions).
For patients who want to work on identifying and resolving the root causes of their struggles in life, Existential Analysis and Integrative Psychotherapy are formulated in this practice as depth approaches to psychotherapy. This means psychotherapy is experiential and somatic (body-focussed) and aimed at healing your core wounds in order to resolve the fears, traumas and other root causes of your suffering.
Patients who benefit from depth psychotherapy the most are those who place greater value on truth than on comfort, and who prefer more interaction and open collaboration with their psychotherapist than is typically offered by conventional approaches. Patients who are open to having their lifestyles, beliefs, habits, assumptions and self-defeating behaviours explored and challenged when appropriate will readily make gains in therapy. New skills and awarenesses can then be formed for greater authenticity, self-reliance, self-respect, better self-care, self-confidence and clarity of purpose in life.
🕊️ It is important to emphasise that trust and honesty are essential for depth psychotherapy to be effective. This allows you to co-create a therapeutic relationship that is safe, respectful, and straight-talking. Without deepening trust and honesty, healing and resolution of struggles held in the body and nervous system are, in my experience, unlikely. Depth psychotherapy is therefore not suitable for individuals who are unwilling to develop their inner life by being fully open, transparent or honest in the therapeutic relationship. Simpler approaches focussing on talking, symptom management and changes to thinking habits, and that don’t rely so much on relationship integrity should be sought instead.
Depth psychotherapy can be as challenging and supportive as you request it to be. Working on your personal authenticity is, for example, perhaps the most challenging level of work, which can include electing to address and resolve your ‘shadow’, or the less appealing aspects of your personality and habits that most individuals make great efforts to conceal, even from themselves. Whilst very challenging, some of the many benefits of this deeper work include greater inner peace and feelings of wholeness, greater personal integrity, enduring security and a surer sense of identity, genuine confidence, greater humility, clarity of one’s true values and purpose, a deeper and more courageous trust in your own personal wisdom and intuition. And dropping the false social masks that we are socially conditioned to wear, often in defeat of ourselves.
Depth psychotherapy can help you bring your mind and body into harmony, reducing the internal struggles you have with yourself. It can help you heal your nervous system and strengthen your ability to manage and centre your life around self-care, meaning and purpose. Optionally, you can also address the wider stressing or traumatising influences upon us that produce and maintain mental distress: our histories and infancy, our relationships, workplaces, social conditioning received from our very dysfunctional society, the lack of meaning in our increasingly shallow culture, the political and economic pressures we feel, and our unmet spiritual needs to make sense of the bigger picture.
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Resolve the roots and traumas that create low self-esteem, poor self-image, and lack of confidence, at a deep level of greater authenticity and trust in yourself
Stop comparing Self to others or people pleasing and start developing the courage to be you
Resolve chronic insecurity, lack of personal identity, unstable sense of Self, and narcissistic traits that only help you maintain a false social mask and way of being
Clarify and strengthen your life purpose, assertiveness and direction
Resolve your struggles with appearance, body image, eating disorders, sense of identity and Self
Develop greater courage, self-empowerment and freedom from subservience to authority figures
Resolve the torments of loneliness, social isolation, feeling 'disconnected', 'not fitting in'
Learn how to survive being scapegoated* and how to stay sane in an insane family, group, workplace, society etc
Find inner peace as an outsider, non-conformist, unique, shy, highly sensitive or solitary individual
Resolve the root causes of dissociation, derealisation/ depersonalisation habits
Bring an end to chronic self-doubt, self-criticism, deliberate self-harm, self-loathing
Resolve habits driven by jealousy, anger, rage, and destructive envy
Transform passive-aggression and covert-aggression habits into honest communication
Turn procrastination and avoidance habits into meaningful action
Address body image problems, body dysmorphia and other perceptual disorders
Identify and resolve the underlying causes of self-starvation, eating disorders, addictions and phobias
Bring an end to dependency and co-dependency by building self-support and self-reliance skills
Resolve depression, unhappiness in life, lack of personal meaning
Explore and identify the important meanings of your fantasies, dreams and nightmares
Come to terms with who you are and your 'shadow side' (narcissism, dishonesty, secretiveness, cowardice etc)
Approach psychiatric diagnostic labels from a completely different perspective - please enquire about specific diagnoses during an Introductory Meeting
Heal from child and adult sexual harassment, abuse and assault
Manage and resolve addictions** and phobias, including sexual addictions and problems e.g. pornography addiction, promiscuity etc
**except substance misuse. You must have good control over any current dependency, with minimal use of alcohol or substances in order to meaningfully engage with psychotherapy to address the underlying causes of your addictions and phobias
*The Scapegoat
Family scapegoating of one or more family members is extremely common. The family project all of their unwanted feelings and qualities onto the child so that she grows up with a perverted idea of her own identity. Scapegoating is one of the most common and corrupt things the group can do to an individual, and is seen in the same mistreatment of adults in the dysfunctional family, workplace, social group, social media circles, and wider society: groups that routinely attack individuals who are different, whistleblowers, dissidents, and people of integrity who dare tell the truth. The scapegoated individual can convince himself that the group's views about him are true, and that his own experiences are false. This is one of the most powerful ways society creates 'mental illness' in family members, partners, employees, patients, and citizens, whereby the individual's mental disturbance is then used as 'evidence' that he or she is deserving of scapegoat status. The real problem is not the individual, but the cowardice, dishonesty, immorality and cruelty of those who stigmatise and scapegoat any person who fails to play the game of the dominating majority.
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A troubled or abusive past or present
Traumatic events (loss, all forms of abuse, rape, violence)
Post Traumatic Stress (associated with PTSD and c-PTSD, DD, DID for example)
Childhood- and family-related difficulties
Living with regrets, guilt, shame, tragedy or loss
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Difficulty with being aware of emotions and expressing them
Anticipatory anxiety, worry and rumination habits
Stress and panic attacks
Low mood, mood instability, and depression
Fears and phobias
Anger and aggression
Social anxiety and social phobia
Retirement, loss and bereavement anxiety
Generalised anxiety and trauma-related anxiety
Existential anxiety: death, isolation, freedom, meaninglessness
Fear of Engulfment: being easily overstimulated or overwhelmed
Overwhelm and difficulty coping with emotions
Guilt, shame, embarassment, vulnerability and other difficult feelings
Addictions, emotional eating
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All problems, including:
Workplace, family, partner, social group problems
Habits of repeatedly choosing and settling for the wrong partners and friends
Learning how to seek the right partner and friends for you
Surviving and healing from betrayal, deceit and infidelity
Healing and being better prepared before looking for another relationship
Difficulties with intimacy, openness, expressing oneself
Coping with a relationship ending
Co-dependency, triangulation, and victim dependency
Insecure attachment/ fear of being alone
Controlling behaviour
Mediation between separated or conflicted partners and family members
Surviving an exploitative/ abusive relationship (including narcissistic or sociopathic exploitation; sexual, emotional, financial and other forms of abuse)
Surviving childhood abuse and poor parenting
Domestic violence (both sides)
Anger, rage, violence and passive-aggression
Bereavement, grief and loss
Sex, sexual intimacy and sexual problems
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Develop and improve social skills
Empathy
Confidence
Authenticity
Non-Violent Communication Skills
Ending subservience and people pleasing
Developing effective boundaries
Developing your interpersonal ‘radar’ and self-protection when engaging with others
Skills in identifying and dealing with highly toxic people, including Narcissistic-Sociopathic individuals
Finding the right partner and avoiding the wrong people along the way
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Existential Awareness Development
Life Assessment and Review
Re-discovering deeper Life Purpose and Meaning
Creativity and Creative Impasse Resolution
Personal Authenticity Development
Present-Centred Awareness Development (a wide variety of practices available)
Grounding: Relaxation, Stress and Anxiety management
Developing Personal Spiritual Practices
Spirituality and Soul: Developing a personally meaningful existential practice
Learning to live by conscience in a society of diminishing conscience
Individual yoga tuition and other body work
Meditation tuition (Mindfulness, Zen, Yoga etc)
Emotional and body awareness development
Non-Violent Communication Skills
Developing Critical Awareness: political, cultural, medical and social dimensions
Cultural narcissism and resolving personal narcissism for greater integrity
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I work with almost every kind of presentation where the patient is suitably motivated, sincere, honest and willing to do the work offered. I have particular interests in the following:
Outsiders, scapegoats, whistleblowers, and individuals who feel that they don’t - or who refuse to - fit into this society
Survivors of trauma, abusive personal and workplace relationships, and adverse childhood events
Creative, sensitive, or spiritually motivated individuals
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Written work is only available to patients currently attending weekly psychotherapy sessions. I no longer provide references or letters in support of benefits or other financial claims after a patient has been discharged.