Trudie Bamford

Think therapists are all soothing voices and beige cardigans? Yeah, no. I don’t fit that cliché.

To be fair, most people don’t fit the “ideal therapy client” cliché either.

I work in a focused, short-term way, offering therapy in blocks of eight sessions. The idea is pretty simple: we choose one thing that keeps getting in your way and get properly stuck into that.

We’re not fixing your whole life in eight sessions. We are getting properly stuck into one bit of it.

You might keep finding yourself in the same relationship patterns, overthink conversations long after everyone else has forgotten them, struggle to say no without feeling horribly guilty, second-guess your own judgement, avoid things until they become much bigger things, or understand perfectly well why you do something but somehow keep doing it anyway.

That’s the kind of work I’m interested in.

There’s quite a strong educational element to the way I work. We’ll talk, obviously, but I’ll also bring things into the sessions that help us make sense of what’s happening: therapeutic models, exercises, questions, diagrams, cards, buttons and occasionally a soft toy. My therapy room contains more props than you might reasonably expect.

We might look at the rules you’ve picked up about who you “should” be, the catastrophic what-ifs your brain keeps producing, what you can actually control, the roles you fall into with other people, what your emotions might be trying to tell you, or whether the way you’re currently living actually lines up with what matters to you.

There’s still room for tangents, because you’re a human being and life rarely has the decency to stay neatly on topic. There’s just a clearer thread running through the work, and if we wander too far away from it, I’ll help us find our way back.

I’m neurodivergent myself and particularly enjoy working with people whose brains don’t necessarily travel in straight lines. You don’t need to make yourself look tidier for therapy. There’s room for overthinking, unfinished sentences, losing your point halfway through making it and the occasional complete mental blank. Between us, there’s a fair chance at least one train of thought will leave the station unexpectedly.

If your idea of therapy is sitting across from someone very polished and very calm asking “and how does that make you feel?” on a loop, that’s not really what happens here.

You’ll be sitting across from someone with purple hair, tattoos, Doc Martens and a strong tendency to swear.

I’m warm, direct and curious. If I notice a pattern, I’ll probably name it. Sometimes that means gently saying, “Hang on, I think we’ve seen this before.” Sometimes it’s the diplomatic equivalent of, “Mate. Look what you’re doing again.”

This particular way of working isn’t designed for deep trauma processing, extensive childhood exploration, crisis work or open-ended therapy. Your past can absolutely help us understand what is happening now, but we won’t automatically disappear down every rabbit hole we find.

If what you need is longer-term or more specialist work, I’d rather tell you that than try to squeeze you into something that isn’t built for what you need.

Curious but unsure?
Totally fair.

I offer a free 15-minute introductory chat. You can tell me a little about what’s going on and what you’d like help with, and we can work out whether eight sessions of focused work sounds like a good fit.

Focused Therapy is offered as a block of eight sessions, usually meeting weekly. 

Eight sessions isn’t a promise that everything will be neatly resolved by the end. Humans have stubbornly refused to become that convenient. It gives the work a clear beginning, middle and end: we agree on one area of focus, give it proper attention, and then stop and take stock of what has changed, what makes more sense, and what you want to do next.

I currently see clients in person in central Chesterfield and online using Microsoft Teams.

Before booking, we’ll have a free 15-minute introductory call to talk briefly about what you’re looking for and whether this way of working is likely to suit you.