Paul McNicholls

Monday to Thurs

Monday 9am - 7pm

Tuesday 9am- 6pm

Wednesday 9am - 1pm

Thursday 9am - 1pm

I am a Gestalt Individual, Couples and Group Psychotherapist. With an M.A in Gestalt Psychotherapy from the Gestalt Centre, London. I am fully insured and ratified by the BACP.

I have a passionate interest in how people connect and disconnect, from each other, from ourselves and from life.

Change can be hard but I find that we can change, if we are willing to pay attention to ourselves and willing to experiment and try new things out.

The spirit of my practice and approach is to bring awareness to how we are, and "try out" how we might like to be, in ourselves and in relationship.

Talking about things can be essential and useful but trying things out is how children learn and grow best and so do adults and people in general. Often children learn best by playing, so I bring playfulness to my work.

Gestalt Psychotherapy is interested in the past, and what may have happened that is effecting you now, but also realises that we can't change the past, we can only change the present, the attitude and choices we have now.

So I pay a lot of attention to the here and now, to what brings us alive and what supports us to connect or withdraw, depending on what we need.

I have been running a private practice for over twenty years, with a  background in Japanese body therapy (shiatsu), Shadow work and group facilitation and rites of passage.

I am interested in what supports people to change and I lean on a diverse background to enable me to support people in a grounded, informed and compassionate yet challenging way.

I work from my office in Bristol, mainly online but also using walking therapy and I will be transitioning to face to face soon.

I have a passionate interest in story telling, Mythology, poetry and philosophy and poems often have a way of sneaking into my sessions- if they're welcome! 

I look forward to hearing from you.

In the first session I seek to find out what has brought you to therapy and what you might be looking for in working together.

I'm interested in how compatible we are and whether we are a "good fit" but ultimately what you hope to gain by our work.

So I will often ask questions like-

"So if we worked together for awhile and it really worked, how might your life be different"?

I'm also interested in what might be risky about coming to therapy or about seeking the changes you want.

The first session is at the usual rate but there is no formal assessment.

The first session is about getting clear on what direction you want to go and an opportunity for me to say a little about how I work so we can make a clear agreement together about how we get there- together.