Alison Rolfe

I am a Jungian Analytical Psychotherapist, registered member of the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPS), and of the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), and have two decades experience in the field. I offer psychotherapy based on the principles of Jungian analytical and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, to individuals, generally on an open-ended basis and for long-term work. I work with people in-depth, often twice or three-times weekly. This is often helpful or even necessary, to enable space and time for engagement at depth, to bring about lasting change. Each session is 50 minutes long.

Why therapy?

People come to therapy for a wide range of reasons but often because they have been feeling particularly low, anxious, feel bad about themselves, or feel stuck. Often people feeling out of touch with what they want or need, and are unsure which way to turn in life, or indeed if there are any options. I see therapy as providing a thinking space, to consider and explore what is happening in your life and your relationships, with another person who, in a safe and confidential setting, can think with you. A crucial difference between this approach to therapy and others is that the emphasis is on the role of the unconscious, meaning all that is affecting your thoughts, feelings and behaviours, but is currently out of conscious awareness. 

My approach to therapy

My approach is based in Jungian analytical psychotherapy and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. This means that I would would want to think with you about the meaning, for you, of your thoughts, feelings and experiences. It involves thinking about things that may be out of our conscious awareness. This includes current and past experiences, since I believe that our early experiences can often affect our present lives, often in ways that we are unaware of, perhaps because we have always felt or done things in a particular way. It also involves examining how you typically respond in the relationships in your life. This can, at times, be a painful process and does involve considerable commitment because it takes time to build up trust to enable work at depth to happen.

Listening to our internal worlds

One of the founders of psychotherapy, Carl Jung, thought of as a way of helping people on the journey to understanding ourselves through learning to listen to and understand what is happening within ourselves, and to learn to trust this as a source of wisdom and authenticity. I encourage people in therapy to bring dreams, images and words that are meaningful to them to sessions, in order to further the process of communicating more with these 'hidden' parts of ourselves. This can, over time, allow for a more creative and fulfilling way of living and being.

How to start therapy

If you arrange to see me with a view to engaging in therapy, I would arrange for us to meet initially, normally for a couple of sessions. This is to allow sufficient time to get to know you, and for you to get a good idea of my way of working. At the end of this process, we should be in a position to decide whether therapy, with me, is likely to be of help with you, or whether an alternative might be more helpful to you. Jungian and psychoanalytic therapies are not appropriate for everyone, so I might suggest another form of therapy, for example, or referral on via the NHS. If you started therapy with me, your session(s) would be the same day and time each week, to provide a containing and secure space for you to explore the issues that you were bringing.

What to do next

If you would like to consider starting therapy, or have any questions, please contact me via email or phone to discuss further.

If you are interested in arranging an initial consultation, please contact me by email or phone to discuss further.