Anna Bradford

If moving positively forwards in your life seems to be impossible, or overwhelming, it can be helpful to seek therapy.

How can I, as a counsellor with the training to work psychotherapeutically, help you?

I am a therapist who believes that given the right conditions, we all grow towards the light. Whether life feels stressful, confusing, challenging, or disappointing and pointless, it is worth taking an important step towards looking after your self, and finding a therapist who provides the right conditions for you.

I am a skilled therapist with a feeling of vitality for my work, actively engaging with my clients through attentive listening, and considered, non-judgemental responding from the very heart of me. I am open and gentle, but also not afraid to challenge the internal obstacles to your fulfilment.

Addressing the obstacles - does it take shorter, or longer term work?

You may have already identified the obstacles, having come up against them due to changing circumstances at this point in your life (such as bereavement, or loss of relationship or work), in which case shorter term counselling work for these ‘problem focused’ issues may be sufficient. Sometimes the work addresses deeper issues; this can be the result of deepening self-understanding having addressed the more apparent obstacles, or maybe you feel you have been struggling for a long time, that life in general is a problem.  This might suggest that internal, underlying reasons may be stopping you from leading a fulfilled life, in which case we can work at a deeper, longer-term psychotherapeutic level. It is important to say that I go at your pace and do not prescribe, but stay alongside you in this decision.

Counselling with me is an exploration, whereby I am alongside you, in all your diversity, really noticing how behaviour, thoughts or circumstances seem to be holding you back from allowing a full, enriching and rewarding life.

Therapy can be challenging. There can also be humour, creativity, fear, sadness or joy. At times it may simply be necessary to feel the wonderful release of offloading. I offer you this confidential, non-judgemental space to really voice your fears and desires, committing to the heart of your self, allowing you to live more consciously.

I offer you the opportunity to meet me as yourself, to express yourself free from judgement, and alongside you I believe I can help you to re-engage with a life that is yours to be lived, consciously.

What is the first step towards finding a therapist?

The first step might be to allow yourself to contact a few qualified practitioners who you are drawn to from their profiles, and from there, to find someone that you feel you ‘fit’ with. This is very personal, but is helpful in going forwards. It can be useful to ask yourself - How open can I be with this person, and in their presence might I grow to find the courage to also be really honest with myself, speaking from the most basic and true part of me?

You may feel worried about moving into this new way of opening up your possibilities, or you might even question whether you really ‘deserve’ to focus on yourself. It is quite common to feel 'stuck' even when surrounded by kind offers of help from friends and family, as sometimes the closeness can feel limiting, but learning to manage your life and feelings without others’ expectations can be very rewarding and fruitful.  Take heart and courage - I offer a brief phone call if a client has left me a message by e-mail or phone, so that you can get a sense of me. This phone call also helps me to gauge the issues you are dealing with, and whether an in-person (or online), open appraisal of the landscape you find yourself in, is the next step.

If you would like to read more about me, please visit my website.

Increasingly I have been working with psychosomatic illness, often with clients who have been referred to therapy by their GP when they have exhausted the medical route.  Other clients have recognised the somatic problems or pain they are experiencing and have made a link themselves to their mental health, thereby seeking therapy.  I have specific training and experience of working with trauma, and the traumatised body, and find this increasingly in demand. 

I offer a free 15 minute phone call, followed by an initial session at £30.  All further sessions are charged at £60.