GESTALT PSYCHOTHERAPY
haslemere, surrey & online
It can start with feeling like you're failing,
and end with room to breathe.
If you want to feel steady and more like yourself, I won't start with toolkits or advice. I'll start with your experience, in your body as much as your head. Then we try new ways of being instead of talking about old ones, so you find more freedom, flexibility and spontaneity, and can start making sense of your patterns instead of just managing them.
Individual Therapy in Haslemere
Private therapy, 50 minutes, weekly.
Evening appointments available.
In Haslemere or online, whichever fits your week.
From £95 per session.
No early night, podcast or “me time” is going to fix this.
Even an early night only helps for about a day. Ignore your own needs for long enough and your body stops asking nicely... burnout, exhaustion, waking up flat and full of dread. Underneath is usually more than tiredness: resentment gone unspoken for years, and the quiet guilt of not feeling happier when everything looks fine.
I won’t hand you another coping strategy. I’ll support you to feel your own needs and understand why the pattern keeps repeating, without needing a breakdown first to justify being here. So you get real understanding, not just a better night's sleep. And, eventually, the version of yourself you recognise.
"But what if I open something I can't close?"
Fair question... you've probably kept the lid on for years, because opening it once felt like it might not stop. Gestalt psychotherapy works the other way around: we go at your pace, one layer at a time, with someone steady enough to hold what comes up alongside you, not throw it all open at once. So the question flips: what if opening it, slowly and safely, is what finally lets you put it down? (It usually is.)
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a Gestalt therapy session actually look like?
Less structured than you might expect. Rather than working through a set script, we pay close attention to what's happening for you in the room, in real time... in your body as much as your words. It's active, sometimes a little creative, and it moves at your pace, not a checklist's.
Can Gestalt therapy help with trauma, anxiety, stress or burnout?
Yes, this is a large part of what I see day to day. Gestalt therapy works well here because it doesn't just manage symptoms, it explores what's underneath them, so the change tends to hold.
Who is Gestalt therapy best for?
People who want to understand why a pattern keeps repeating, rather than collect another toolkit for coping with it. It suits people who are willing to look at what's happening between us in the room, rather than only talking about things in the abstract.
I've had a bad experience with therapy before, will this be different?
Quite possibly, and I'd genuinely want to know what didn't work last time. Gestalt is relational rather than interpretive... I'm not going to tell you what your experience means, I'm going to help you notice it for yourself.
What's the difference between a psychotherapist and a psychologist?
Psychotherapy training is postgraduate and focused specifically on the therapeutic relationship and long-term emotional work. Psychologists often come from a more research- and assessment-based background. Neither is "better," but if you're looking for ongoing relational or exploratory work, psychotherapist is usually the more direct route.
How much does individual therapy cost, and how long are sessions?
From £95 per session, 50 minutes, usually weekly. In Haslemere or online, whichever suits your week.
What happens in a first session?
You don't need to arrive with it all figured out, that's my job for the first session. I'll ask some questions and offer some structure, so you're not sitting there wondering what you're supposed to say next. Once we've found our footing, sessions become much more shaped by whatever's alive for you in the moment. But that first one? I'll hold the frame.
Is Gestalt therapy evidence-based?
Gestalt sits within the humanistic and experiential therapy tradition, which has a growing evidence base, though it's less extensively studied via randomised trials than something like CBT. What I'd say from experience: it's particularly well suited to people who've tried more structured, symptom-focused approaches before and found something was still missing. And I still hear from former clients, sometimes years on, telling me the work genuinely changed something lasting for them.
What I notice, again and again,
is people finding they can bring more of themselves forward: less hiding, less managing how they come across, more of what's actually true. There's a real freedom in that, finally feeling safe enough to be seen as you are.
Part of the work is learning to name what you need, not just notice it. Right now you might recognise yourself agreeing to things that make your life harder, and still not managing to say no. That's what shifts: you get clear on your own wants and needs, out loud, with your partner and friends, and start acting on them, including finding your no.
This might feel different to therapy you've had before. Talking about what's going on can quietly become its own way of avoiding it, so I work with what's actually happening for you, in the room, not just what you say about it. That's usually when something genuinely starts to shift.
I’ll invite you to try something new, in the room with me, rather than talk about it: telling me you’re angry, maybe, or role-playing the conversation you’ve never had the courage to have with your mum. That’s usually when new ways of seeing things start to emerge, not as one big insight, but as you see more of the picture coming into view, releasing you from what had previously seemed limited and stuck.
Ready to pull up a chair?
Email or call, and we'll start with a conversation about what's going on and whether I'm the right fit.