Eleanor Murphy

Hello and welcome, it's a pleasure to meet you. 

You may have come to find me today having been struggling with distressing feelings and experiences; ongoing anxiety, panic, deep upset, stress, disconnection, loneliness, emotional shutdown, endlessly serving the needs of others, being mistaken as 'the strong one' and being lost in a world that doesn't seem to understand what you're going through (and perhaps you don't, either). You may be finding that you are acting or thinking in ways that worry, anger or distress you. Perhaps you have reached out to those around you to find this not helpful or enough, or even reached out to your GP only to find a frighteningly long waiting list for limited means of support. Maybe you've developed coping mechanisms which have gotten out of hand; over or under-eating, hardly leaving the house or hardly being home, over or under-sleeping, self-harming, pushing people away, distracting yourself by being 'on the go' non-stop, or becoming excessively absorbed by activities such as gaming or exercise, as just a few examples. Perhaps you've even tried other types of counselling in the past, but feel it didn't attend to the roots of your problems. I know you're trying your best to cope, but even so, you may feel like you're sinking right now.

My name is Eleanor Murphy, and together we can work on getting you back to the surface and beyond. I am a passionate adult psychodynamic counsellor currently taking on clients at my private practice in Hinckley town centre.​ I work with a diverse range of people and presenting problems, and am particularly drawn to supporting those experiencing anxiety, panic, lostness, low confidence, burnout, relational problems, and those in enmeshed and dependant relationships. Many of my clients feel that they are seen as strong, confident, or as the 'parental' one, and are exhausted by their own struggles and needs being overlooked and unattended to. 

In our therapy space you are priority, and the utmost care is given to hearing you and exploring your experiences without judgement to gain understanding of your current struggles. I recognise and appreciate you fully as the unique person you are. My aim is to be as useful to you as possible in our work, and offer you relatedness, compassion, and nurturing challenge for deep, genuine change.

The type of therapy I passionately practice ensures that you are the focus. You will not find me turning the conversation around to be about me or my life, as we sometimes find when approaching friends and family for support. All of our therapeutic work will take place solely within our 50-minute sessions, once per week, helping you to feel safe and secure within a predictable way of working together.

At my core, I believe we all deserve equal treatment and respect, irrespective of sex, gender identity, race, age, body shape, class, wealth, sexuality, religion, or ability/disability. I believe everyone has the right to feel empowered in themselves, to truly value who they are and receive thoughtful care and support. I also recognise the challenges to some of these beliefs that exist within our society, and value your personal experience of this highly.  

My Approach - Psychodynamic Counselling

Psychodynamic counselling has a long and rich history of alleviating distress, facilitating personal growth, increasing self-awareness and growing self-compassion. It is an in-depth form of counselling suited to discovering the roots of your problems and improving your psychological wellbeing (where other therapeutic approaches may focus on surface symptoms only). Due to the depth of this work, it is not time limited and consistently takes place once weekly (in 50 minute sessions) for the duration of sessions. Psychodynamic therapy is shown by research to have high effectiveness with lasting, long-term benefits.

This form of therapy recognises the influence of a dynamic unconscious, that is, an unconscious part of our minds which guides our automatic behaviours, thoughts, feelings and perceptions, based on our past experiences. Accordingly, in addition to exploring your current struggles together, we place value on thinking about past experiences that informed harmful or distorted narratives about the world and yourself. These felt senses and ideas, many of which form in early years, become part of our 'blueprint'; our unconscious way of perceiving and reacting to the world and others. It is in considering our own blueprints that we can come to know ourselves deeply, gain autonomy and gain freedom to make new choices in our lives.

It may also be valuable to consider together life experiences that have been difficult for you. It may be that emotions such as grief, anger, despair or fear continue to reside within you following these experiences, perhaps in an unconscious 'blind spot'. Likewise, we might too spend time reflecting on experiences which have brought you great joy and contentment. In the development of our relationship, you may feel safe enough to revisit some of these experiences and allow any emotions to be felt and processed in our compassionate and attentive space.

Psychodynamic counselling invites you to talk about whatever feels important to you in the moment. It pays deep attention to what you bring, curious about language, symbolism and metaphor which may help us to understand your unconscious communication. There is no homework or exercises to undertake; all of our work takes place within sessions. The process is necessarily organic and individual to you. 

Sounds like we could be a good match?

If so and you would like a short, free introductory call to determine our current combined availability and potential to work together, I welcome you to contact me using the details below:

Email

Telephone (if I am unavailable please leave a voicemail or text message and I will respond as soon as I become available): 07460019098

Please note that I will not return missed calls where no voicemail or text is left as I am unable to confirm that it is safe and appropriate to do so from a confidentiality and risk perspective.