Theo Scheiner

Hello, I’m an integrative relational psychotherapeutic counsellor offering counselling and psychotherapy from a comfortable and easy to access consulting room in Central Hove.

I have four years experience providing psychotherapeutic counselling, including in a community low-cost clinic, and a service supporting adults living with HIV. Prior to training as a therapist, I worked in the voluntary sector for 7 years supporting people leaving prison to reintegrate into the community. As well as my private practice, I work in the NHS as a mental health support coordinator with a wide range of patients.

Counselling offers you space to express emotional difficulties and distress in a sympathetic and supportive environment. We all have low points in our lives,  and difficult experiences can easily end up leaving you feeling isolated and alone. You may want for all sorts of reasons to speak about your difficulties in confidence with a professional, and I will listen to you compassionately and without personal investment. I can also help you to assess your situation, gain new clarity and insight, and move forward in a direction that feels positive and hopeful.

In addition to counselling, I am able to offer psychotherapeutic support, which is more geared towards looking at root causes of emotional and mental health challenges you might be struggling with. My approach here is integrative and relational, which brings together the best from a wide range of psychotherapeutic traditions and research, including attachment-based, psychodynamic, and contemporary somatic trauma therapies. This work tends to be slower, but deeper and longer-lasting in terms of symptom relief. The reality is whether we work together for a short, fixed period of time, or a longer, more open-ended one, I bring both of these together to help you sort out whatever you’re going through.

A relational approach means prioritising patterns of how you experience yourself in relationship with others. We do this together, looking at formative early relationships in your family of origin, present day relationships with the people around you, and using the here-and-now of the therapeutic relationship to join up the dots as we go. In this way, relational psychotherapy offers a very lively, felt process that generates powerful, experiential insight into yourself, and the more subconscious aspects of your mind. It can therefore also produce profound shifts in how you relate to yourself, your life, and the world around you. It will probably feel challenging at times, but it’s my job to make sure that it goes at a pace which is led by you, and supportive of your goals. Ultimately most clients I have worked with find that it has helped them to create more emotional freedom in their lives, to be more mindful and self-aware, find greater peace and stability within themselves, and to live more deeply, and with greater clarity of purpose.

If you’re interested in working with me, please feel free to get in touch directly. I’m happy to answer any questions you have by email, or arrange a brief call to discuss by telephone. I also offer your first session at a reduced rate of £40, so we can explore how we would work together, and whether I would be a good fit for you.

If we do agree to work together, I offer my services on a sliding scale, with my standard fee being £75 for 50 minutes, and £95 for those on higher incomes (60k+). I also keep some reduced rate spaces for people on lower incomes, so if you feel you need one of these, please let me know when you make your enquiry.

I’m a registered member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists, and abide by their shared ethical and professional framework.

I’m also proudly committed to running a queer, inclusive, and anti-discriminatory practice. I warmly welcome enquiries from people of all class backgrounds, ages, genders, sexualities, racial identities, ethnic or cultural backgrounds, neurodiversities, and abilities.

I operate a sliding scale of fees. My standard fee is £75 for an hour, and I charge £95 for those earning 60k or over. I have some reduced rate spaces for people who would struggle to afford therapy otherwise. If you feel you might need one of these, please let me know in your enquiry.