About me
How I Can Support You
Perhaps you've spent much of your life being the person who copes, carries responsibility, supports other people or simply gets on with things. From the outside, life may even look successful or settled, while privately you feel anxious, overwhelmed, stressed, burnt out, lonely or simply not yourself. You may find it difficult to switch your mind off, caught in overthinking, constant worry or negative self-talk. Or perhaps you've reached a crossroads and begun questioning what you want from the next stage of your life.
Sometimes there isn't one clear reason for coming to therapy. Anxiety may sit alongside low mood or depression, while stress and burnout can gradually affect your confidence, your relationships and the way you feel about yourself. You may struggle with low self-esteem, low self-worth, self-doubt or simply no longer believe in yourself in the way you once did.
Fear of failure or rejection can begin holding us back without us necessarily realising it. We might become perfectionistic, compare ourselves constantly with other people or find ourselves seeking their approval to feel good enough. For others, life has become about looking after everybody else. People-pleasing, struggling to set boundaries or feeling responsible for how other people feel can eventually leave very little room for ourselves.
You may also have become used to holding things in. There might be feelings, experiences or parts of your story that you've carried privately for years, including things you've never felt able to say out loud. Experiences of abuse, a difficult childhood, complicated family relationships, addiction, problems around food or other painful periods of life can continue to affect us long after the original experience has passed. Sometimes we don't realise how much we're carrying until something happening today brings it back to the surface.
Relationships are a significant part of my work because difficulties with other people can affect almost every part of our lives. Sometimes the struggle is within a marriage or intimate relationship. At other times, it's the relationship with a parent, child, family member, friend or even someone at work.
I work with individuals and couples, and the reasons people come can be very different. Communication may have broken down, the same conflicts may keep returning, or two people may simply feel disconnected from one another. There may have been an affair or betrayal that has damaged trust, or a relationship may be facing separation or divorce. For others, the difficulty is around rejection, boundaries or feeling unheard and misunderstood. Whatever the situation, understanding the patterns between us can often help us understand much more about ourselves too.
Later stages of life can bring questions and challenges of their own. Retirement, loneliness, children becoming independent or significant changes within relationships can alter the shape of a life that may have felt familiar for decades. You might reach a crossroads and realise you're no longer completely sure what comes next. Questions around direction, purpose, meaning and fulfilment can become increasingly important as we begin thinking about how we genuinely want the years ahead to look and feel.
You don't need to arrive knowing exactly what is wrong or what needs to change. Sometimes therapy begins simply because you've reached a point where you no longer want to keep thinking, feeling or living in the same way.
How I Work
I believe meaningful therapy needs to understand the whole person rather than simply managing the difficulty that first brought you through the door. What is happening today matters, but so does what you've experienced, what may have shaped you and what could still be influencing the way you think, feel, behave and relate to other people.
A central part of my work is helping you develop deeper self-awareness and recognise some of the unconscious drivers sitting beneath the surface. We may discover beliefs you've developed about yourself or emotional rules you've learned to live by without ever consciously choosing them. Recurring patterns, negative self-talk and self-criticism can become so familiar over time that we barely notice them, even while they're influencing the way we experience ourselves and our lives.
We can also explore the connection between our emotional experiences and the nervous system. Long periods of anxiety, stress or feeling unsafe can influence how we respond to situations in the present. Sometimes our reactions can feel confusing or disproportionate until we begin understanding what may sit underneath them. Greater awareness can help us become curious about these responses rather than simply judging ourselves for the way we feel or react.
Anxiety, overthinking, anger, low mood, OCD, burnout or relationship difficulties may be what first brings someone to therapy, but they don't necessarily tell us the whole story. What appears to be one problem can sometimes lead us somewhere we weren't expecting. By becoming curious about what sits underneath, we can begin connecting the dots between your thoughts and feelings, the beliefs you hold about yourself, your relationships, previous experiences and the patterns showing up in your life today.
This is where my background in counselling and psychotherapy shapes the way I work. I use an integrative approach rather than expecting every person to fit one particular model. Sometimes we need space to slow down, talk and process experiences that have been held inside for a long time. At other times, we may challenge an established belief, question the way you speak to yourself, look at something through a different lens or explore a different way of responding.
I know from my own life that we can reach crossroads we never expected, and that understanding ourselves more deeply can change the way we see both what has happened and what comes next. I don't believe therapy should be something done to you. It is something we explore together, with the work developing around you, your experiences and what you need.
The Relationship Between Us
The relationship we build is fundamental to that work. I offer a safe, confidential and non-judgemental space where you can speak openly and at your own pace, including about things that may feel difficult to say anywhere else. I listen deeply and remain curious about your experiences. As our understanding develops, I'll notice patterns, make connections and, when it may be helpful, challenge you to consider something from a different perspective.
I offer in-person counselling and therapy in Skipton, alongside online sessions where appropriate.
My aim isn't simply to help you cope better with the problem that brought you to therapy. I want us to understand what may sit beneath it, recognise what could be driving the way you think, feel and respond, and help you become more conscious of what you want to keep and what you may be ready to change.
Ultimately, our work can help you develop greater self-awareness, self-belief and confidence while strengthening your relationship with yourself and the people who matter to you. Whatever stage of life you're at, understanding yourself more deeply can create new perspectives and different choices. It can help you become clearer about what matters now and begin creating meaningful, lasting change in the life still ahead of you.
Training, qualifications & experience
My belief is that qualifications aren't about impressing people. They represent years of continued learning, personal growth and a commitment to understanding people more deeply and supporting them more effectively.
My professional training spans counselling, psychotherapy, life coaching and human behaviour. Some of my core training took several years to complete, and I have never viewed gaining a qualification as the end of learning. It provides a foundation that continues to develop through experience, further study and, importantly, through the people I have had the privilege of working with.
Professional Registered Memberships
BACP – Registered Member (MBACP)
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
NCPS – Accredited Registrant Member (MNCPS Acc.)
National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society
ACCPH
Accredited Counsellors, Coaches, Psychotherapists & Hypnotherapists
AC – Association for Coaching
Core Qualifications and Training
Therapeutic Counselling – SEG Certified Diploma
Integrative Psychotherapy and Psychodynamic Training
Life and Business Coaching – The Coaching Academy Diploma
Unbreakable Mindset Life Coaching – Certified Diploma
DISC – Personality and Behavioural Profiling
My counselling and psychotherapy training is integrative, allowing me to draw from different therapeutic perspectives according to the individual rather than expecting every person to fit one particular approach. My wider training and continued professional development include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Transactional Analysis (TA), Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and Person-Centred Therapy (PCT).
I continue to study psychology, neurology and human behaviour, alongside the relationship between our thoughts, emotions, beliefs, past experiences, relationships and nervous system. This continued learning helps me develop a broader understanding of why people think, feel and respond as they do, while keeping my work grounded in the individual sitting in front of me.
My experience has also been shaped by many hours of personal therapy, counselling and coaching across different approaches. This has given me first-hand experience from a client's perspective of building a therapeutic relationship, allowing myself to be vulnerable, exploring difficult parts of life and experiencing the value of both support and appropriate challenge.
I have worked with people from varied backgrounds and at different stages of life, previously volunteered as a Samaritans Listening Volunteer and spent many years in business and self-employment. These experiences have given me different perspectives on people, relationships, responsibility, pressure and the challenges we can face throughout our lives, and they continue to inform the way I work with clients today.
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
Other areas of counselling I deal with
Overthinking • Difficulty switching off • Emotional overwhelm • Negative self-talk and self-criticism • People-pleasing and approval-seeking • Difficulty setting and maintaining boundaries • Low self-worth and self-belief • Fear of failure and rejection • Feeling stuck • Identity and sense of self • Relationship with yourself • Major life changes and transitions • Life crossroads • Retirement and later-life changes • Loss of direction • Purpose, meaning and fulfilment • Work-life balance • Difficulty expressing emotions and needs • Long-held emotional experiences that still affect you • Loneliness and emotional disconnection • Relationship difficulties and feeling unheard • Rebuilding trust and closeness • Perfectionism and pressure to prove yourself • Self-sabotage and recurring patterns • Living by others’ expectations
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£60.00 - £100.00
Additional information
Fees range from £60 to £100 depending on the type and length of session, including individual counselling and psychotherapy and couples therapy.
Sessions are available in person or online, providing flexibility depending on your circumstances and how you prefer to work.
Our work doesn't necessarily end when the session finishes. Where appropriate, I provide personalised between-session insights, reflections and practices developed from what we have explored together. These are created around you and your individual work, helping you continue reflecting, deepen your understanding and carry the work into everyday life between our sessions.
Fees and session options will always be discussed clearly before we begin working together.
When I work
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Further information
Ready to Get in Touch?
If you feel I may be the right person to work with, please contact me in whichever way feels most comfortable for you. You're welcome to get in touch directly, or visit my website if you'd like to learn more about me and the way I work.
I offer in-person counselling and therapy in Skipton, alongside online sessions where appropriate. I work with individuals, couples and families, with sessions tailored around you and what you need from our work together.
✉ greg@identity-shift.co.uk
☎ 07388 002417
🌐 www.identity-shift.co.uk
