Hazel Kent

I am a fully qualified Systemic and Family Therapist specialising in couples and other forms of relationships.

You might come to therapy because your relationship feels stuck or distant, conflict has become hard to navigate, or you are holding different perspectives that are hard to resolve. Perhaps you’re struggling with a transition  parenting, illness, ageing or changing responsibilities. Or perhaps you want to explore intimacy, communication, or the meaning of your relationship as it evolves, begins, or ends. At the start of our work together, we’ll think about what your goals might be and how we’ll know when we’re moving towards them.

For some people, therapy focuses on a particular issue that can be explored over a few sessions. For others, it’s a longer process of reflection and change. I’m interested in creating a context where clients feel listened to and, in turn, are able to listen to one another to hear in new ways and create new understandings. As a systemic therapist, I ask questions sometimes challenging questions intended to create reflection, connection, and new ways forward. I take therapy seriously, to be approached with care and consideration, though there is also warmth and room for creativity, and even humour at times. I hold multiple perspectives in mind, helping to balance these without offering advice or searching for a right or wrong answer.

In couples therapy, this often means slowing things down stepping back from the back-and-forth of everyday conversations to notice the patterns in how you communicate, or zooming out to think about the wider contexts that may be shaping these interactions. This might include exploring attachment patterns, intergenerational themes, or how experiences such as trauma, illness, or social differences shape relationships. My practice is guided by curiosity about the contexts that shape our relationships families of origin, class, gender, race, culture, sexuality, ability, and wider social structures. This includes being aware of my own position as a white cisgender woman, and how this may influence the space we co-create.

Systemic psychotherapy engages with the complexity of the connections between people, whether romantic, familial or platonic. As such, I am interested in all forms of relationships couples, siblings, families, friends, and people in polyamorous or non-traditional relationships. You are welcome to invite whoever feels relevant to your sessions. 

I currently offer Monday daytime appointments between 9.30am and 2.30pm and Wednesday evenings from 6.30pm, usually on a fortnightly basis with the option to space sessions further apart as therapy progresses. If you’d like to think together about how systemic therapy might be helpful to you and your relationships, please get in touch for a brief (around 20-minute) conversation before booking your first session. Please note I don’t offer therapy where there is significant risk related to mental health, safeguarding concerns, or ongoing violence within a relationship.

Session length: 50 minutes Fee: £80

I have listed my core areas of interest as being around relationships and relationship issues, however my overall approach takes in a much broader range of topics, I believe relationship issues to occur within wider contexts. For example these might be in the context of cultural or gender differences, trauma, or mental health. 

Session length: 50 minutes