About me
Hi, my name is Ben. I am a qualified psychotherapist and counsellor, and I am a registered member of the BACP. I am also a writer and write plays, film and TV scripts, and bits of journalism, alongside my work as a therapist.
I first came to therapy as a client myself, after struggling for many years with a number of personal issues which I finally found too hard to cope with. I found talking to my therapist at the time life-changing and that experience inspired me to train as a therapist myself, so that I could offer others a similar form of help.
I have three core values as a psychotherapist.
The first is confidentiality. This means that whatever you share with me will be held in the strictest confidence. Your trust in me and the process which we will undertake is paramount and it is vitally important that you feel safe sharing whatever is coming up.
The second is ethics. This means that I will endeavour to always put your needs first and to be continuously self-reflexive about my role in the psychotherapeutic relationship which we will create together.
The third is difference. This means that I understand that everyone's experience of being in the world is unique and can not be fully known by the other. I try to remain vigilant to the differences in our backgrounds and ways of experiencing the world and to resist making assumptions about what you are going through or projecting my own ways of thinking about things on to you.
These three core values influence my broader approach to working as a psychotherapist. Whilst I think we are all likely to encounter emotional challenges at various points throughout our lives, it is my view that the specific nature of those challenges, and the way in which we experience them, will be different for each of us. That is why any attempt to overcome your own challenges must place you, and the unique set of factors which have influenced your current situation, at the very centre of the approach.
A myriad of reasons could have brought you in search of help. Some people seek therapy because they're struggling to process an isolated incident, such as a bereavement, a break down in a relationship, or a recent medical development. Others arrive in search of a way to explore more long term struggles, such as a difficult childhood, a challenging relationship, or a general feeling of depression, anger, shame, loss of meaning, or low self-worth. And then there are those who can not yet even identify the causes of their distress.
Whatever your reasons for seeking out therapy, it is my belief that exploring your situation with an experienced, well-trained and highly-qualified psychotherapist might not just be life-changing but life-saving.
Training, qualifications & experience
I have degrees from Leeds University and the University of East Anglia, and a diploma from Regents University.
I have a background in integrative psychotherapy. That means that I am able to incorporate a wide range of theoretical models as I work with you, as required by the specificities of your needs. I also have a specialism in existential-phenomenology, which pays particular attention to what it feels like to be you in the present moment. This includes an exploration of everything that has informed this person who you have become; and considers all of the new possibilities which might still lie ahead of you.
I can and do work with clients from all walks of life. Your gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and reasons for coming to therapy are all welcome in my practice room. Everyone is different and I can think of no factor which might prevent me from working with you.
I am particularly experienced at working with clients who have been affected by cancer. I understand how difficult it can feel to speak to friends or family members about frightening health developments. But however scary, or lonely, your situation might feel, psychotherapy with me can offer a safe space for you to explore all of your complex feelings, without fear that I might emotionally collapse in response to what you share, or will attempt to diminish or control your experience of what you are going through.
I also have a particular specialism for working with men.
As we know from research, men are less likely to reach out for emotional support from mental health practitioners, and often struggle to explore their feelings on their own or with friends.
Many men prefer to tell themselves that they’re “fine”, or believe they have to deal with things on their own, for fear of feeling or looking “weak” or vulnerable. But avoiding uncomfortable feelings can often result in us becoming withdrawn, or cause those unwanted feelings (such as shame, anger, or sadness) to manifest in self-destructive behaviours. It can also prevent us from developing a more authentic sense of self, and impact negatively on our relationships.
Men often resist trying therapy because they feel they don’t know how to talk about their feelings. But working with me does not require you to have a skillset in communication - and does not even have to require talking at all! What I offer is a collaborative, non-judgemental, and adaptive process, in which we work together to explore what it’s like to be you and the challenges you’re facing.
Member organisations
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred). Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision. Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training. All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Fees
£75.00 per session
Additional information
I offer an initial online appointment of 50 minutes to explore our compatibility before committing to working together. This is offered at the reduced rate of £50.
Prior to arranging this initial appointment, I am very happy to answer any questions you may have over email. I appreciate that searching for the right therapist for you can feel scary or overwhelming. But reaching out to me via email is entirely confidential and comes with no obligations or costs to you. I'm here to help.
Should we choose to move forwards after our initial online appointment, ongoing, weekly, 50 minute sessions are arranged, either online or in person, in my discreet and comfortable psychotherapy room in central Crouch End, on an open-ended basis.
Further information
In terms of what doing therapy with me might look like, our first session is a chance for me to hear a bit more about you and your reasons for coming to therapy. It is also a chance for you to get a sense of who I am and how I work. You’ll hear about my policies on confidentiality and setting safe and respectful boundaries. We will explore who you are; how you experience yourself in relationships; and how working with me can help.
From that point onwards, no two sessions are necessarily the same. Everyone uses therapy differently and I will always defer to your sense of what it is you need to explore in each appointment.
It might be that to begin with you need to talk a lot, to get things off your chest. Or it might be that you feel more apprehensive about opening up, and we instead move forwards more slowly. I will adapt my approach to the specificities of your needs as we explore what’s coming up, in a way which feels most helpful to you.
Therapy is not something that I do to you. It is something we do together. At times the way we work might need to be gentle and containing. At other times you might benefit from me being more direct and challenging. Either way, my approach will involve us co-creating a unique relationship together, in which you can feel safe, respected and supported by me.
Our sessions will be strictly confidential, non-judgmental, and sensitively challenging enough for meaningful change to become possible for you.
