Suzi Mackenzie

I’m an experienced Person Centred Counsellor, Supervisor and Focusing Teacher based in Burgess Hill and Brighton. I have experience working with anxiety, depression, sexual abuse, relationship issues, work related stress, ill health, bereavement, family issues and many other life and mental health issues. I offer online and in person sessions. ​

I have been counselling for over fifteen years. I am a kind, warm and open minded person and I love supporting others to be more accepting of themselves and to become more fully connected with themselves and their potential. 

My approach is Person Centred, so we will look at whatever is important to you. I work with clients with warmth, patience and compassion: I believe that we’re all unique and complex beings with innate potential for growth. Coming to counselling can feel a bit scary and I will work to help you feel safe and to be someone you can trust. Therapy can inevitably bring up difficult feelings and I will try to help you feel emotionally safe to explore this at your own pace.

Life might feel hard. You might be overwhelmed by strong feelings and feel alone. Having someone to share your feelings with can make them more manageable. When we’re able to feel as bad as we feel, without having to pretend we’re ok, and when we feel accepted just as we are, we often move through these feelings into feeling clearer and lighter: We’re more able to know and do what we need to do to feel better or make life changes. 

If you want to be more happy and fulfilled in life, counselling can be a chance to collaborate with another human to unpick your life situation and your potential to help you to make the most of it. I won’t know the answers for you, but I have faith in the potential of exploring what is meaningful to us in the company of another person who is prepared to hear you deeply and be with you in confusion as much as certainty, pain as much as joy. 

When we are able to more fully accept our feelings and ourselves we are more able to move forwards, but often we need the company of another to support this process. Being accepted and respected by another human helps us develop this inner relationship with ourselves.  

If you feel marginalised in the world I want to welcome you. Society values some people and groups more than others, and it is not always easy to talk about the experience of this. I want to hear your experience around this so it can be explored and validated. 

I have a longstanding interest in mental health and wellbeing. I was a counsellor at Mind for a number of years, including working as a crisis counsellor and co-facilitating an OCD support group. I have worked with clients experiencing anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, hearing voices, borderline personality disorder, psychosis and trauma. I’m interested in social and political issues including links between mental health and inequality in society. 

The Person Centred Approach is one that trusts that all humans are unique and hence there will not be one answer that works for everyone. Exploring the complexity of your own unique struggles can feel a challenge at times but within the context of a supportive therapeutic relationship this can be empowering. Unpicking how you feel and what you need with the support of another can help you be more self-reliant as you will find this a lifelong tool. Counselling can also help you experience the potential of human relationships. When you experience what it is to be accepted and understood just as you are, you may begin to be more authentic in relationships and feel both more free and more connected in the world.   
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Sometimes we don’t know what we need and we want guidance. My work is also influenced by a natural process called Focusing, which involves listening to our embodied, or holistic experience. If we pause and listen inside we may notice there is something, some feeling or sensation, however vague, which lets us know a little about what is wrong or what is needed. From a knowing of what is wrong comes a starting point, a gradual awareness of what would feel more right. Our body can often tell us more about this if we can listen to it. For instance, we may get a sense of tension or constriction when we think about an issue in our life, and maybe there is something else we notice which brings a sense of lightness or expansion. These sometimes subtle cues can help us find our way and I can help you get used to listening for them. 

I am responsible and professional, I work with integrity and I abide by the BACP Ethical Framework. I am BACP Senior Accredited and Registered. I welcome your feedback about how you find working with me and I am open to being challenged. I understand that clients trust me with issues very personal to them and what you tell me is confidential.

The above list is not exhaustive, we may be able to work with many issues together. Please contact me to discuss this.

£65 (£30 for initial session)

Reduced rates may be available for those on a low income or students, please ask me about this.