About me
Counselling & Psychotherapy for Anxiety, Overthinking, Low Mood & Relationship Patterns
About Me
I’m Lee Payton, an accredited counsellor and psychotherapist offering therapy for adults who may appear to be coping on the outside, but are experiencing internal pressure, anxiety, overthinking, low mood, or repeating emotional and relational patterns.
You might feel like you’re functioning, but not fully settled; mentally busy, self-critical, stuck in certain cycles, or unsure how to change what keeps repeating in your life.
My work focuses on helping you understand what is driving these experiences and supporting you to shift them in a way that feels steady, structured, and meaningful.
I work with both short-term and longer-term therapy, depending on what you need. Some clients come with a specific issue they want to focus on, while others want to explore deeper patterns and long-standing emotional themes.
Alongside private practice, I have worked in NHS services, hospice care, and school counselling settings, supporting people through complex emotional experiences and life transitions. This breadth of experience informs a grounded, thoughtful, and flexible approach.
My Approach
My approach is calm, reflective, and focused on meaningful change rather than short-term reassurance.
Rather than offering generic coping strategies, I help you understand the patterns underlying how you think, feel, and respond, particularly those that tend to repeat in anxiety, relationships, self-doubt, or emotional overwhelm.
I work integratively, drawing on person-centred therapy, psychodynamic understanding, CBT, EMDR, and mindfulness-based approaches. This allows therapy to be tailored to you rather than fitting you into a fixed method.
Where helpful, we may also use practical strategies, particularly for anxiety or moments of high pressure, but always in a way that supports deeper understanding rather than surface-level management.
Therapy with me is collaborative. We think together, at your pace, with the aim of developing greater clarity, emotional steadiness, and self-understanding.
Issues I Work With
I work with adults experiencing:
Anxiety and persistent overthinking
Stress and emotional overwhelm
Low mood and loss of motivation
Low self-esteem and self-criticism
Relationship difficulties and repeating patterns
Trauma and difficult past experiences
Anger and emotional regulation difficulties
Life transitions and identity-related uncertainty
You don’t need to have everything clearly defined before starting. Many clients come because something simply doesn’t feel right anymore.
How I Work
Sessions provide a consistent, confidential space to think clearly about what is happening in your life.
We slow things down enough to understand what is going on beneath the surface, not just in terms of symptoms, but in terms of patterns, emotional responses, and underlying experiences.
This often leads to a shift in how you understand yourself, which in turn creates more choice in how you respond to situations in your life.
Therapy is not about advice or being told what to do. It is about developing insight, emotional clarity, and the ability to make changes that feel authentic and sustainable.
What You Can Expect
Through therapy, you may begin to:
Think more clearly and feel less mentally overwhelmed
Understand the patterns driving anxiety, low mood, or self-doubt
Feel more emotionally steady and grounded
Reduce overthinking and internal pressure
Improve how you relate to yourself and others
Make decisions with greater confidence and self-trust
Develop a more stable and balanced sense of self
Session Fees
I offer:
£75 for 50-minute sessions
£80 for 60-minute sessions
Fees are agreed in advance and remain transparent throughout. Reduced-fee spaces may occasionally be available depending on current capacity.
Location & Availability
I offer sessions in Berkhamsted and online via Zoom.
Appointments are generally available on weekday daytime hours, with a limited number of Saturday morning sessions.
Next Step
If you are considering therapy, the best way to explore whether working together feels right is through an initial conversation.
This gives you the opportunity to talk about what is bringing you to therapy and ask any questions before deciding how you would like to proceed.
There is no pressure to commit, just a space to get clarity on what feels right for you.
Training, qualifications & experience
I hold a First-Class Honours degree in Psychology with Counselling (with distinction), along with professional qualifications in Person-Centred Therapeutic Counselling and EMDR Psychotherapy. I have further training in a range of evidence-based and complementary approaches, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), and both traditional and cognitive hypnotherapy.
I also trained within a psychologist training pathway, which deepened my understanding of psychological theory, assessment, and evidence-based clinical thinking.
Alongside my private practice, I have worked in a range of specialist settings. This includes carrying out psychological assessments within a hospice environment, supporting individuals facing serious illness and end-of-life experiences as part of a multidisciplinary counselling team.
I have also worked in a Hertfordshire school counselling service, supporting children and young people experiencing anxiety, emotional difficulties, family challenges, and school-related pressures, including those awaiting support from CAMHS.
These experiences have given me the opportunity to work across different life stages and levels of complexity, and have shaped a grounded, flexible approach that is tailored to each individual rather than relying on a single method of working.
Member organisations
school Registered / Accredited
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
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
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£75.00 - £80.00
Concessions offered for
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
I offer two session options:
£75 for a 50-minute session
£80 for a 60-minute session
Sessions are held on a regular, agreed basis to support consistency and continuity in the therapeutic work. Any changes to session length or structure are always discussed and agreed in advance.
I understand that cost is an important consideration when starting therapy, and I aim to be transparent and clear about fees from the outset. Reduced-fee spaces may occasionally be available depending on current capacity—please feel free to enquire if this is something you need to discuss.
Appointments are generally available during weekday daytime hours, with a limited number of Saturday morning sessions also offered.
Availability can vary, so it’s best to get in touch to discuss current options and find a time that works for you.
My aim is to make the practical side of arranging therapy as straightforward as possible, so you can focus on the work itself.
When I work
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Further information
I work with young adults aged 18+ to older age adults.
