Paul Hapney

Dr Paul Hapney (CPsychol).

Being a Chartered Psychologist (BPS accredited: no. 243364) means that I have had high level specialist training (Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology) for providing counselling. I offer short term - normally weekly but otherwise fortnightly - counselling to people experiencing temporary emotional distress such as can be triggered by life upheaval and change, relationship problems, or losses of various kinds. I also offer longer term psychotherapy to people suffering with chronic problems such as being affected by persistent stress, anxiety, or anger, recurrent bouts of depression, debilitating low self esteem, or repeated relationship problems. Sometimes people do not know what type of problem they have - only that something is wrong, or they find themselves engaging in habitual unhealthy behaviours. With time and commitment, these harder to name difficulties can also be understood and worked through. In all of my work I prioritise the formation of a very safe and trusting therapeutic relationship. From this place of trust, my aim is to facilitate a person's efforts to really understand and fully process what they are experiencing. I have provided therapy in NHS settings since 2010. I worked for many years as a Senior Psychology Practitioner and since 2018 took on the role of Specialist MBT Practitioner offering individual and group therapy to people with complex emotional problems, including personality disorder. My fee is £50 per 55 minute session. I can offer a small concession to people on a low income.  

The use of the title Dr in this directory listing relates to the member’s doctorate qualification. However, this does not imply a general medical qualification.

Counselling Psychology is based upon an approach that adopts a holistic attitude to people problems, seeing them as emerging from the multiple contexts of people's lives - such as their close relationships, family history, and cultural background.

The strength of being a psychologist in private practice is that it allows me to hold this broad view of people and their problems, whilst individually tailoring my work to any specific client. This is because the breadth and length of my training enables me to draw upon differing psychological models in line with the particular character, problems, and needs of any individual client. This approach contrasts with both a standard counsellor or psychotherapy training wherein the practitioner focusses on one main model, and also the 'treatment' approach used in health care settings where patients are offered a single module of therapy (such as counselling or CBT).

I prioritise the formation of a very safe and trusting therapeutic relationship. From this place of trust, my aim is to facilitate a person's efforts to fully process and really understand what they are experiencing. This means to help them discover how they are really feeling, deep down; to clarify how they are experiencing or understanding events as well as themselves; and to bring into focus limiting patterns of relating to, or being with, others. From this place of fuller understanding, I am then able to support a person's efforts to try out ways of coping with or overcoming the sources of their pain, as well as options for discovering greater fulfilment in life.

I believe that for therapy to be effective you need to feel:

• confident that you can (with time) develop high levels of trust in your therapist
• that your therapist has the ability to understand you at depth
• that your therapist can offer you a type of therapy that makes sense to you.

Booking up an initial consultation session will allow you to judge as to whether or not you feel that I can offer you these things. This initial meeting is full session (55 minutes) in length and, given that its therapeutic focus is upon assisting you to deepen your self-understanding, I charge my normal session rate.