Ellie Belfield

Are you curious, thoughtful and emotionally aware?

Perhaps you tend to feel things deeply, overthink your interactions or spend a lot of time wondering whether you said the wrong thing. Maybe you're interested in understanding yourself and your relationships more deeply, but find yourself stuck in familiar patterns that you'd like to change.

If that sounds like you, we might work well together.

I'm Ellie, an integrative psychotherapist offering warm, relational and down-to-earth therapy. I aim to create a space where you can slow down, breathe, unpack what's going on and, importantly, be yourself.

Some of the common themes I work with:

•  relationship difficulties (romantic, familial and platonic)
• low self-esteem & people pleasing
• processing grief & trauma
• navigating identity and life transitions.

You might arrive with one particular issue, but therapy rarely fits neatly into categories. We may start with what's happening at work and find ourselves talking about your family, a friendship that's bothering you, or something that happened three weeks ago that you still can't stop thinking about.

We'll look at the bigger picture: your relationships, attachment patterns, the feelings that get stirred up, the ways you've learned to protect yourself and the beliefs you hold about yourself and others.

I understand the need to take time to process things. I'm open-minded and not fazed by perspectives or experiences that might be considered a little more "alternative" or unconventional. I value emotional depth and nuance, while keeping our work grounded in professional practice.

What can you expect from me?

At the core, I'm person-centred and client-led, but that doesn't mean I'll simply sit back and nod.

There will be sessions where I sit with you in something painful, validate what you've been through and give you space to get everything out. 

There will be lighter sessions too: we'll probably have a laugh, talk about telly, what you had for dinner, the gym, beauty fads, the weather or whatever happens to come up.

There will be times when I gently challenge you.

Part of my role is to help you notice when your thoughts, assumptions or past experiences might be influencing how you're seeing a situation. Sometimes those conversations can feel uncomfortable. That's okay. Therapy isn't always supposed to feel comfortable.

If I've said something that doesn't sit right with you, I want you to tell me (and how hard that might be isn't lost on me). You can disagree with me, challenge me or come back to something retrospectively. I'll meet that with curiosity rather than defensiveness.

I believe this is part of what makes therapy powerful: having a safe relationship in which you can practise being honest, expressing disagreement and discovering that you don't have to make yourself smaller to remain connected.

Ultimately, I want to help you understand yourself more deeply, develop greater self-compassion and feel more able to live your life on your own terms.

This may be a good fit if you:

• enjoy self-exploration and going beneath the surface
• are curious about your patterns and relationships
• are open to challenge as well as validation
• value emotional depth, honesty and humour
• want meaningful change rather than a quick fix

This may not be the right fit if you:

• aren't interested in self-exploration or open to change
• purely want a space to vent and be agreed with
• don't want to look at your own patterns
• aren't open to having your perspective occasionally challenged

Logistics

I offer weekly or fortnightly therapy, either in person at Insightful Life in Sandbach or online.

Sessions are 55 minutes, allowing time to settle and close at the end. I generally recommend starting weekly, particularly while we're getting to know each other and there is lots to unpack.

I offer:

• short-term therapy (6 sessions)
• longer-term, open-ended work
• couples counselling
• clinical supervision for therapists.

My current availability is Monday and Wednesday - Friday, 10am - 5pm.

Ready to work together?

I no longer offer introductory calls. Instead, I've created a detailed enquiry form so I can get a sense of what you're looking for before we meet.

Grab yourself a cup of tea and submit an enquiry here: https://www.elenabelfield.com/enquire

You can also find me on Instagram @elenabelfield, where I talk about therapy, neurodiversity, relationships, and all sorts of other things.

Finding the right therapist matters, so take your time. But if you're reading this thinking “I think she'd get me,” I'd love to hear from you.

Warmly,
Ellie

I use an honesty-based sliding scale to make therapy more accessible to a wider range of people.

I understand that times can be tough, and that therapy can feel like a significant financial investment. (Although I can personally attest that it has been the single best investment I've made in myself.)

I recommend setting aside enough to commit to around 10-12 sessions, as this gives us enough time to build our therapeutic relationship, explore what's brought you to therapy and begin to see meaningful change.

Your session fee helps to cover room hire, supervision, insurance, professional membership, ongoing training, administration and communication outside of sessions, as well as my time and expertise within the session itself.

My standard sliding scale is:

Household income | Suggested session fee

Under £40k → £74
Under £60k → £80
Over £60k → £100

These are suggested contributions rather than strict income brackets. No proof, no paperwork and no questions asked. If you're able to contribute more, doing so helps make the service more sustainable and supports me to continue offering lower-cost spaces.

I also have a limited number of concession spaces available online-only at £60 per session. These are offered to clients who need a lower rate and require a commitment to weekly or fortnightly sessions.

I trust you to choose the rate that genuinely reflects your circumstances. In return, I ask that you trust me to provide the same quality of therapy regardless of what you pay.

If you'd like to work together, simply let me know which rate you'd like to pay when you apply.

This system helps me balance accessibility with the reality of running a therapy practice: including the space I rent, my professional development and supervision, and the wider community work I provide.

Thank you for supporting my work.