About me
Hi, I’m Mike Longthorn - a qualified counsellor and coach based near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
Life doesn’t always feel manageable. Maybe you’re navigating relationship difficulties, feeling unfulfilled at work, isolated, or just worn down by the weight of everyday life. Maybe that’s showing up as anxiety, low self-esteem, low confidence, or depression. Whatever it looks like for you, you don’t have to sit with it alone - and you don’t need to have it all figured out before you reach out.
I offer a calm, non-judgmental space to explore what’s really going on beneath the surface, and practical tools to help you move through it. My approach is person-centred, but it goes beyond traditional talk therapy. I draw on solution-focused therapy, positive psychology and coaching techniques, alongside body-based practices like mindfulness and Focusing, to help you tune into what your body already knows. Somewhere inside, you know best how to right yourself - my job is to help you hear that more clearly, and to shift the thought patterns and behaviours that no longer serve you.
Areas I can help with
I work with clients on anxiety, low self-esteem and low confidence, depression, identity, relationship and family issues, work-related stress, and the sense of feeling stuck or disconnected from yourself.
Over the past three years I’ve worked closely with survivors of sexual violence, providing specialist support through trauma-informed practice. I also have two years of dedicated experience coaching clients who want to become alcohol-free - not through willpower or white-knuckling it, but through rebuilding identity, finding genuine reward in life without alcohol, and creating the kind of change that actually lasts.
Clients I work with often experience:
- Reduced anxiety and stress
- Relief from symptoms of depression
- Stronger self-esteem and self-confidence
- Better communication in relationships
- Greater emotional resilience
- Healthier daily habits and self-care
- A genuine sense of fulfilment and alignment in life
I know what it’s like to feel disconnected from yourself. I’ve rebuilt my own life from the ground up, and that’s part of why I do this work with real empathy, not just theory. I qualified as a counsellor with distinction and have since supported clients across more than 950 hours of one-to-one work.
Getting in touch
If any of this resonates, the first step is simple - email me here and let’s talk about what support could look like for you. If you don’t hear back within 48 hours, please check your spam folder. It’s also worth leaving a number I can text you on as a second point of contact.
Training, qualifications & experience
- Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling - Bangor University
- Diploma in Coaching and Positive Psychology - ARTA
- Alcohol-Free Performance Coach - ARTA
- Level 2 Award in Understanding Safeguarding – Agored Cymru
- Qualified to Practice Rewind Technique – IARTT
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
£60.00 per session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
I offer a free initial consultation by phone, which will take approximately 15 minutes, this is not a therapy session. Its a call to see if I feel I can help and to check we are a god fit to work together.
When I work
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Further information
Podcasts
Find out a bit more about me on a recent episode of the "Fall Rise Give" Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fall-rise-give-failure-is-the-greatest-gift/id1738978987?i=1000698608242
