Dave Lewis

Come as you are. We can start from there.

Sometimes people come to counselling knowing exactly what they want help with. Other times, it’s much harder to put into words. You might just know that something doesn’t feel right, that you’re struggling more than usual, or that the same patterns keep showing up in your life.

There is more to you than the things you’re struggling with.

You may be living with anxiety or low mood, trying to make sense of trauma or difficult experiences, struggling with addiction, or finding relationships difficult. Perhaps you’ve recently discovered that you’re autistic or have ADHD, or you’ve simply spent much of your life feeling somehow different from the people around you.

Whatever has brought you here, you don’t have to edit parts of yourself to be accepted in therapy.

I’m Dave. I’m a qualified counsellor and registered member of the BACP, and alongside my counselling training I hold a Master’s degree in Psychology. I’ve spent many years working with people from different backgrounds and with a wide range of life experiences.

One of the things that experience has taught me is that there isn’t one right way to be a person and there isn’t one right way to do therapy either.

How I work

The foundation of my practice is person-centred counselling. For me, that means the relationship we build is at the heart of the work.

I won’t arrive with a predetermined idea of what’s wrong with you or who you need to become. Instead, we’ll try to understand your experiences together, at a pace that feels manageable to you.

My practice is also influenced by Gestalt and existential approaches. At times, this might mean paying attention to what’s happening for you in the present moment, noticing patterns in how you relate to yourself and others, or exploring questions around choice, identity, meaning and how you want to live.

None of this needs to feel theoretical. Therapy should feel like a genuine conversation between two people, not a psychology lesson.

Above all, I believe counselling should adapt to the person rather than expecting the person to adapt to counselling.

Neurodivergence and feeling different

I have extensive experience working with neurodivergent people, including autistic people, people with ADHD and people with learning disabilities.

Traditional counselling doesn’t always fit everybody. Things sometimes taken for granted in therapy - eye contact, sitting in silence, identifying emotions or communicating in a particular way - may not feel natural or useful to you.

We can find a way of working that does.

You might want to explore masking, burnout, relationships, self-esteem, emotional regulation or what a diagnosis means for the way you understand yourself. Receiving a diagnosis later in life can also lead to looking back at past experiences through a very different lens.

You don’t need a diagnosis to work with me. Perhaps you’ve simply spent much of your life feeling different, misunderstood or trying hard to fit expectations that never quite seemed to fit you.

You don’t need to perform a particular version of yourself in the counselling room.

Trauma, addiction and difficult experiences

I also have considerable experience working with people affected by trauma, abuse, addiction and complex life experiences.

When someone is struggling with an addiction or behaviour they want to change, I’m interested in more than simply asking, “How do we stop this?”

Sometimes another question can be just as important: “What has this been doing for you?”

Something that causes difficulties now may once have helped you cope, escape, regulate difficult emotions or simply get through a painful period of your life.

Understanding that doesn’t mean ignoring the consequences. It means making room to understand what’s underneath the behaviour rather than approaching it through shame.

The same is true of trauma. You won’t be expected to tell me everything that’s happened to you or revisit experiences before you’re ready.

We can work at your pace, exploring not only what has happened in the past but how those experiences may be affecting your life, relationships and sense of yourself today.

Identity, sexuality and relationships

Some parts of ourselves can be harder to talk about than others.

People’s identities, sexuality, relationships and ways of living don’t always fit neatly within conventional expectations. Therapy shouldn’t become another place where you feel you need to explain yourself, justify your relationships or wonder whether the person sitting opposite you is judging you.

I’m comfortable talking openly about sexuality, gender, intimacy, identity and relationships, including relationships and lifestyles that may sit outside traditional expectations.

You are welcome to bring those parts of your life into the room.

My interest isn’t in deciding whether the way you live or relate to other people is “normal”. It’s in understanding what it means to you, how you experience it and whether there are things you’d like to understand or change.

You don’t need to fit into a category

You certainly don’t need to identify with any of the areas above to work with me.

People also come to counselling experiencing anxiety, depression, bereavement, low self-esteem, loneliness, anger, stress, relationship difficulties or simply feeling lost or stuck.

Counselling gives us room to slow things down and become curious about what’s happening - patterns you keep finding yourself in, feelings that are difficult to understand, things you’ve learned to avoid, or questions about who you are and how you want to live your life.

We don’t have to know where that exploration will lead before we begin.

What are sessions actually like?

You don’t need to arrive each week with a topic prepared.

Some sessions might involve what’s happened during your week. Others may take us towards earlier experiences, relationships or memories. Sometimes we may notice something happening in the counselling room that helps us understand a pattern elsewhere in your life.

I’ll listen carefully, but I won’t simply sit silently. I’ll respond, ask questions, reflect things I notice and sometimes gently draw attention to something that might be worth exploring further.

There may also be humour. Therapy can involve painful and serious things, but I don’t believe every minute of counselling needs to feel heavy.

Most importantly, we work together. My role isn’t to tell you who you are, but to help you explore and make sense of your experiences in your own way.

My standard fee is £50 per session, either face-to-face or online. I also offer a limited number of £40 concessionary spaces for people on lower incomes. A free 30-minute initial consultation is available with no obligation to continue.

My professional background

Alongside private practice, I have spent many years working with people with learning disabilities, neurodivergence, complex mental-health needs and behaviours that can sometimes be challenging to understand.

This has given me experience not only of working directly with individuals, but also an understanding of the pressures that families and those supporting someone with complex needs can experience.

These experiences inform my counselling practice, but I try not to reduce people to diagnoses, labels or things that have happened to them. I’m interested in the whole person sitting in front of me.

If you’ve previously felt that counselling wasn’t designed with someone like you in mind, you’re very welcome to contact me to talk about what might make therapy more accessible or comfortable for you.

Getting in touch

Making the first contact with a counsellor can sometimes feel like the hardest part, particularly if you’re unsure how to explain what’s going on.

You don’t need to send me your whole story.

A short message saying you’re interested in counselling is enough. We can take things from there.

Come as you are. We can start from there.