Dr Jon-Paul Marshall

I am a registered Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) and British Psychological Society (BPS) Practitioner Psychologist. I typically work with people struggling with anxiety, depression, anger, and shame; who wrestle with guilt, mistrust, addiction, and dissociation; who are self-critical, self-destructive, and who feel trapped in repeated patterns of hurting self and others. Such feelings, behaviours, and patterns of relating often stem from multiple and complex life events and circumstances, including, for example, past and present abusive and neglectful relationships, discrimination in many forms, bereavement, trauma, gender expectations, parenthood, study/work/financial pressures, and more existential challenges such as one's relationship to meaning, responsibility, authenticity, and mortality. I offer a warm, nurturing space in which, collaboratively, we can explore and make sense of difficulties you are facing. 

As a Counselling Psychologist, I recognise that emotional, psychological, behavioural, and relational difficulties usually have multiple causes, and therefore different therapeutic methods will be helpful for different people at different times. The frameworks I utilise include psychodynamic, existential, and third wave CBT, for example compassion focused therapy. Primarily, my style is relational, with attention to the many systemic (or environmental) factors which are inseparable from human wellbeing. I question the usefulness of medical models and language to the realm of psychotherapy and counselling, seeing approaches which foreground diagnosis, decontextualised medical conditions, and 'treatment' as often more harmful than helpful. 

In this capacity, I have published papers on young people's experiences of receiving the diagnosis of bipolar disorder (https://www.madintheuk.com/2022/11/young-people-bipolar-disorder-diagnosis/);

the impacts of economic factors on mental health (https://www.madintheuk.com/2023/05/austerity-class-war-mental-health/);

and addiction (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-79136-0_2). 

As part of my affiliation with the Institute of Psychedelic Therapy (https://instituteofpsychedelictherapy.org), I also offer one to one and group support for integrating challenging psychedelic experiences.

I offer free initial (scheduled) phone consultations of up to 20 minutes.