Philippa Patel

If you are looking for someone to discuss issues affecting your well-being or preventing you from leading a fulfilling and rewarding life, psychotherapy or counselling can help bring about the changes you want to make. You may decide you need only a few sessions to deal with concerns that have begun to dominate and disrupt your life, or you may want longer term psychotherapy/counselling.

The aim of therapy is to create an atmosphere of safety, in which exploration, understanding and growth can flourish, with the ultimate intention of gradually releasing the client's dependency on the therapeutic relationship.

Based on extensive psychological research, I believe

• We all have a capacity for self-reflection, growth and healing.
• Counselling has the potential to change the client and the counselor in equal measure.
• Childhood experiences have a profound effect on us as adults. Unresolved childhood issues can interfere with our effective functioning.
• Depression, anxiety and anger are frequently, though not always, the result of self-defeating emotions and perceptions.
• None of us knows how it might have been had our choices been different. We come into this world with an imperfect understanding of it, and hence, our choices are in themselves limited by this imperfection. If our life choices lead to despondency and dispiritedness, this is largely a contributory factor to depression and anxiety.
• Certain concerns can permeate some of our lives, such as isolation, loneliness, death and the feeling that life has little or no meaning.
• Not fulfilling one’s potential, and concerns such as the passing of time, death and uncertainty of the future are all highly anxiety provoking.
• Emotional pain often has its roots in not living the life that feels right for us. We feel our choices have plunged us into a type of living hell.
• Removing blocks to freedom of choice and living the life one wishes to have are the primary concerns of therapy.

What I have to offer as a counsellor:

A wide-ranging knowledge of Psychology and Psychotherapy/Counselling.

Alongside my psychotherapy practice, I have taught Psychology for more than 20 years to college students studying Mental Health Nursing and students applying for undergraduate degrees in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

I have also taught Counselling Skills to college students training to become Social Workers or Counsellors.

My Psychotherapy training involved many different disciplines, which I can utilize to cater for each person’s unique needs. For example, although I am not a Cognitive-Behavioral therapist, I can use these techniques to assist in making practical changes.

My heritage is mixed, Indian and British, which affords intrinsic knowledge of cultural diversity and similarities. One example is Eastern mysticism and its contribution to the development of self-awareness and to stilling the mind.

My approach is interactive as I think therapy is most effective when it is collaborative.

What I expect from you:

To attend on time and commit to once-a-week therapy for an hour. My fees are £45 per hour. I ask to be paid at the end of each month.
Cancellations and holidays should be discussed one week in advance whenever possible.

The most productive outcome for therapy is:

Your willingness to engage authentically and my commitment to enable you to immerse yourself in the therapeutic process.

• Current problems
• Self-exploration
• Strategies for developing confidence and self-worth
• Feelings of isolation and loneliness
• Fear of aging, death and abandonment
• Breakdown in relationships

£45 per hour. Minimum concessionary fee £30.

I am enthusiastic about keeping up to date so I regularly attend workshops and lectures in psychotherapy/counselling and other related fields. Advances in neuroscience, for example, lend validity to the findings and key beliefs in psychotherapy and are a fascinating area of rapidly advancing scientific research.