Sharon Langford

Hello my name is Sharon.   Welcome to my profile.

Finding your way back to yourself.
Throughout our lives, we can learn to adapt ourselves around other people and their expectations.

We become helpful, capable, Independent, quiet, successful or strong.

We might become the people pleaser, perfectionist, carer or high achiever. We learn to keep the peace, avoid disappointing others, push through difficult emotions or put everybody else's needs before our own.

These patterns often developed for a reason. At some point, they may have helped us feel safe, accepted, valued or connected.

But what once helped us cope can eventually leave us exhausted.

You may find yourself overthinking everything, struggling to say no, worrying about what other people think, constantly needing reassurance or feeling responsible for everybody around you.

You can become so focused on coping and surviving that you lose touch with your own emotions, needs, boundaries, values and sense of who you are.

Counselling can provide the space to understand these patterns and begin reconnecting with yourself.

How I can support you
I work with adults experiencing difficulties including:

Anxiety, health-anxiety, worry and overthinking
Low self-esteem and self-doubt
People-pleasing and perfectionism
Burnout and feeling overwhelmed
Neurodivergence, including ADHD and autism
Grief, bereavement and loss, Abortion loss 

Relationship difficulties and relationship breakdown
Difficulties with boundaries
Difficult past experiences

Major life changes and transitions
Feeling stuck, lost or disconnected from yourself

Sometimes what brings you into counselling is only the beginning of what we discover.

Anxiety might lead us towards perfectionism, fear of judgement, uncertainty or a need to feel in control.

Low self-esteem may reveal an inner critic that has been present for many years.

Burnout might uncover a pattern of constantly prioritising everybody else's needs.

Relationship difficulties may bring us towards fears of rejection, trust, abandonment or feeling that you're never quite enough.

Rather than simply focusing on the symptom, we can become curious about what sits underneath it.

What is counselling with me like?
My approach is warm, humanistic and collaborative.

You don't need to arrive knowing exactly what to talk about and I won't expect you to find the “right” words.

We start wherever you are.

Sometimes you may simply need space to talk and be heard. At other times, we might explore a particular pattern, relationship, belief or experience more deeply.

I am primarily a Humanistic counsellor, which means I believe that the therapeutic relationship and feeling genuinely heard, understood and accepted are important parts of change.

I also work integratively and can draw upon approaches and skills from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) where they may be useful.

This means our sessions can include both deeper exploration and practical tools.

We might explore your inner critic, people-pleasing, perfectionism, boundaries or self-worth. We may look at how earlier experiences continue to influence how you feel and respond today.

Where helpful, we can also work with practical ways of understanding anxiety, regulating difficult emotions, challenging unhelpful thinking patterns and developing greater self-compassion.

I don't believe therapy is about me telling you how to live your life.

It is about helping you understand yourself more deeply, recognise the patterns that no longer serve you and develop greater trust in your own judgement.

Anxiety and self-esteem
Anxiety can leave you constantly thinking ahead, imagining what might go wrong, analysing conversations or questioning yourself.

Rather than simply trying to make anxiety disappear, we can become curious about what it may be trying to protect you from.

Similarly, when you've spent years looking outside yourself for approval, reassurance or validation, it can become difficult to trust your own voice.

Our work can help you recognise negative self-talk and understand your inner critic while developing a more compassionate and accepting relationship with yourself.

Over time, the question can begin to change from:

“What will everyone else think?”

to:

“What feels right for me?”

Grief and loss
Grief can affect far more than our emotions. It can change our relationships, our body, our sense of safety and even our identity.

There is no correct way to grieve and no timetable you should be following.

I offer space for you to tell your story and explore what your loss means to you. Where appropriate, I may introduce approaches such as the Dual Process Model to help you understand the natural movement between experiencing your grief and gradually reconnecting with everyday life.

The aim isn't to “get over” someone or something that mattered.

It is about finding your own way of moving forward while carrying what mattered with you.

Reconnection
At the heart of much of my work is connection — connection with your emotions, your needs, your boundaries, your values, your relationships and ultimately yourself.

Therapy doesn't have to be about becoming a different person.

Sometimes it is about understanding the layers of coping, expectation, fear and self-doubt you've accumulated over the years so that you can begin hearing your own voice again.

Perhaps you've spent a long time being who everybody else needs you to be.

Counselling can be a space to discover what you need.

If something you've read here resonates with you, you're welcome to get in touch. We can talk about what is bringing you to counselling, what you would like support with and whether working together feels right for you.

 I have  over 10 years' counselling experience across private practice, GP surgeries and university settings and lecturing. I offer a warm, down-to-earth and collaborative approach to therapy.

I work online or in my dedicated garage conversion with parking and easy accessibility. 

To book a session please email me, I will contact you back on your preferred method of email or text to arrange a 10 min telephone consultation. 

Cost 

£50 per 1 hour  

I offer discount rates to trainee counselling students and university students

Level 6 CPCAB supervisor - new pathways