About me
I’m an integrative, humanistic counsellor offering warm, relational, trauma‑informed therapy for adults who feel overwhelmed, stuck, lonely, disconnected, or unsure how to move forward. Many of the people I work with are navigating anxiety, trauma, dissociation, relationship difficulties, grief, or the emotional impact of neurodivergence. I work with clients face to face in Clapham, South London and online across the UK.
My approach is gentle, collaborative and grounded. I pay close attention to how your experiences live in the body as well as the mind, and I support you to understand your inner world with more clarity, compassion and steadiness. You won’t be rushed, analysed, or pushed into anything — we work at a pace that feels safe and manageable.
Whether you’re carrying old pain, feeling lost in the present, or trying to make sense of patterns that keep repeating, I offer the space to breathe, reflect, and reconnect with yourself.
My approach is gentle, collaborative, and grounded. I blend humanistic, integrative, trauma‑informed, neurodiversity‑affirming and somatic ideas to help you understand what’s happening in your inner world and how it shows up in your body, thoughts, and relationships.
Sessions with me often include:
- Curious exploration — noticing patterns, emotions, and meanings
- Grounding and regulation — supporting overwhelm, shutdown, or intensity
- Naming emotions — especially when feelings feel blurred or inaccessible
- Working with stuckness — gently loosening places where you feel frozen or conflicted
- Understanding your story — connecting past experiences with present reactions
- ADHD‑friendly pacing — flexible, collaborative, and shame‑sensitive
- You don’t need to arrive with a clear narrative or a neat explanation. We build understanding together.
Training, qualifications & experience
- CPCAB Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling
- Level 7 Diploma (COSRT) in Trauma Therapy from The Naos Institute.
- Experience supporting refugees, asylum seekers and survivors of trauma.
- Ongoing CPD in neurodiversity, somatic approaches and relational depth
- I’m mindful that my background and identity shape how I see the world and how I show up in the therapy space. I pay attention to the ways difference, culture, and lived experience can influence our work together, and I aim to create a space where your perspective is fully welcomed and embraced.
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
Therapies offered
Fees
£70.00 per session
Concessions offered for
When I work
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I offer face to face counselling in Clapham, South London on Thursdays. I am available for online clients the rest of the week.
Further information
It can be very difficult to know just by looking at a profile whether that person not only has the knowledge but the skills and the empathy to be a 'good fit' for you. Here is some feedback from recent clients who have completed therapy with me. All quotes are reproduced here with permission and are anonymised.
I truly felt like I was in a safe space with Michael, he listened, proposed thought provoking points and helped me get through one of the toughest moments of my life. Thank you Michael, you helped me more than you know. LW
I came to Michael around October 2024 after a big change in life circumstances and the end of a long-term relationship. Throughout our sessions, we focussed on the immediate consequences of that change and the feelings that were coming up, but also Michael began to pick up on other aspects of my life that surrounded these feelings. I found this very helpful - in some cases, I had never realised I had these specific traits, and in other cases, I hadn’t realised how they impacted other aspects of my life. After spending over a year seeing Michael, I feel I sometimes don’t recognise the person I was when we started. Michael was very warm, supportive, and has helped me immensely through some very difficult times in my life. DF
I would recommend Michael who is a thoughtful and empathic counsellor who is skilled at facilitating someone going through grief and loss. All sessions have been very helpful. PT
Having never engaged with any form of counselling before, I was deeply sceptical ahead of my first session with Michael. I was wary about the process and doubted that I would be able to be truly frank about my thoughts, fears, or hopes in the setting. But, within our first session or two, I felt truly comfortable with Michael. Thinking back to the state I was in when we first spoke, I can see now that the work I’ve done with him has enabled me to manage my anxiety and stress to a remarkable degree. The state I was the first time we spoke now feels thankfully remote. I feel both relieved and grateful that our time working together has given me a level of self-understanding and the practical tools to see, register, acknowledge, and then manage situations that are likely to cause me anxiety. GH
