Maria Bradley

My availability changes, so if you let me know yours I will do my best to find space.  I work Monday to Friday.

I am a BACP Accredited Psychodynamic Counsellor/Psychotherapist working with adults.  I am also accredited by the University of Nottingham in Emotion-Focused Therapy to work with the NHS and am a registered and approved therapist by AXA and AVIVA Healthcare Providers.  I have thousands of hours experience with all sorts of presenting issues that I bring with me into my practice.  Then I focus on YOU.

To condense the endless tomes written on human development and psychological health, counselling/psychotherapy starts with something fundamental; a trusting relationship that allows you, the client, to feel safe and in control.  Counselling with me is an alliance, a collaboration.  A good therapeutic alliance allows defenses to drop enough to allow us to venture into the unconscious and see things there.  It is not magic, the past talks in all sorts of ways between two people, my job is to notice the unspoken and talk about it. It is not 'treatment', we work together here, to understand and feel because, to put it simply, it is that connection of experience to feeling that changes us and knits together parts that have needed to disconnect to survive.  When you have become comfortable with and understand yourself better along with sadnesses and grief, defences tend to dissipate and you become more 'you'.  People recognise that and feel more valued in your presence.  Life can feel safe enough to be lived with a soft front, a strong back and a wild heart.  

If you want to ask more, please call or email and if I don't answer immediately leave a message and I will call back.   I see people face-to-face in my room near Hemel Hempstead, or by video, so location need not be a problem. Clients can choose open-ended or shorter term therapy.

email: mbcounsellingherts@gmail.com....07383 191912.

I am an Accredited and experienced Psychodynamic Counsellor/Psychotherapist working privately, for health insurers and with NHS patients.  Geography need not be an issue with video and I see people face-to-face in a room 7 miles outside St Albans, near Hemel Hempstead, near Redbourn). I offer short or open-ended psychodynamic counselling and 'Trauma-Informed' therapy. 

In the first session which lasts up to 90 minutes we both assess each other; I need to be sure I can offer the counselling you need and you need to feel I'm right for you.   I go through the terms of counselling so it is all clear before you decide if you want to commit to weekly 50 minute sessions.