Robert French

I currently have some availability for in-person or online work.

Hello, I'm Rob French. I'm an integrative therapist working with individuals, couples, and groups. I also teach humanistic counselling at the Gestalt Centre in Kings Cross.

I've been practicing for over fifteen years and have lots of experience working with a diverse range of clients on many types of difficulty.

I also work with trainee counsellors / therapists and people who experience no particular difficulty, but are interested in therapy to support living a full and satisfying life.

At the heart of my approach is the humanistic belief that people are naturally oriented towards health and growth. I see my job as one of supporting my client’s natural change process through increased awareness.

This is a specific attitude towards change- it rests on the belief that natural and long-lasting change comes from within, rather than being imposed from the outside. I’ll try to explain this more fully below:

People are very good at doing the best they can with what they’ve got. As we navigate our way through childhood, through socialisation, into adulthood, we generally manage life as best we can.

Difficulties often arise due to unaware value systems, fixed patterns of relating to others, lost potential, ways of being that are responses to adverse childhood relationships, or societal prejudice and discrimination.

Behaviours such as avoidance, perfectionism, over-working, depression, self-criticism, addiction, and so forth are often creative responses to life’s difficulties. Feelings such as anxiety, fear, shame, anger, low self-esteem, and so forth are often responses to, or attempted solutions to life's problems.

By exploring, understanding, increasing awareness, we can facilitate long-lasting, non-coercive change. Problematic feelings and behaviours subside when their meaning is understood and necessary change is accomplished.

The above is essentially a description of the main principle of humanistic counselling and psychotherapy- a warm and engaging approach. Initially trained in Gestalt, I now work in a humanistic / integrative manner, having been influenced by person-centred therapy, body work and trauma therapy. I strive to follow the four 'H's' for therapy- Honesty, Humanity, Humour and Humility.

To locate myself- I'm a white heterosexual man with pronouns he/him. I am committed and engaged in the life-long work of raising my awareness around equity, diversity, and inclusion. I strive to be ever-more affirmative and ally to minority and oppressed people.

If you think you might like to work with me, please get in contact.

I currently have some availability for in-person or online work.

I also have some availability which is online-only and term-time only. This may be of interest if your life is influenced by the academic year or if you are not local to London, or unable to travel.

If we can find a suitable weekly time, the next step is a brief phone-call to answer any questions you may have and set up an initial session.

The initial session will give you the opportunity to see if I'm what you're looking for, and if you feel comfortable with me. I will learn about your therapeutic goals and will tell you how I think we can meet them.

I see the initial session as a stand-alone session in itself, and not just for assessment. Among my aims are that you find value in it, have a positive experience, and know whether you would like to continue.

Thank you for reading,

Rob.

Hello, I'm Rob French. I'm an integrative therapist working with individuals, couples, and groups. I also teach humanistic counselling at the Gestalt Centre in Kings Cross.

I've been practicing for over fifteen years and have lots of experience working with a diverse range of clients on many types of difficulty.

I also work with trainee counsellors / therapists and people who experience no particular difficulty, but are interested in therapy to support living a full and satisfying life.

At the heart of my approach is the humanistic belief that people are naturally oriented towards health and growth. I see my job as one of supporting my client’s natural change process through increased awareness.

This is a specific attitude towards change- it rests on the belief that natural and long-lasting change comes from within, rather than being imposed from the outside. I’ll try to explain this more fully below:

People are very good at doing the best they can with what they’ve got. As we navigate our way through childhood, through socialisation, into adulthood, we generally manage life as best we can.

Difficulties often arise due to unaware value systems, fixed patterns of relating to others, lost potential, ways of being that are responses to adverse childhood relationships, or societal prejudice and discrimination.

Behaviours such as avoidance, perfectionism, over-working, depression, self-criticism, addiction, and so forth are often creative responses to life’s difficulties. Feelings such as anxiety, fear, shame, anger, low self-esteem, and so forth are often responses to, or attempted solutions to life's problems.

By exploring, understanding, increasing awareness, we can facilitate long-lasting, non-coercive change. Problematic feelings and behaviours subside when their meaning is understood and necessary change is accomplished.

The above is essentially a description of the main principle of humanistic counselling and psychotherapy- a warm and engaging approach. Initially trained in Gestalt, I now work in a humanistic / integrative manner, having been influenced by person-centred therapy, body work and trauma therapy. I strive to follow the 'four H's' for therapy- Honesty, Humanity, Humour, and Humility.

To locate myself- I'm a white heterosexual man with pronouns he/him. I am committed and engaged in the life-long work of raising my awareness around equity, diversity, and inclusion. I strive to be ever-more affirmative and ally to minority and oppressed people.

If you think you might like to work with me, please get in contact.

I currently have some availability for in-person or online work.

I also have some availability which is online-only and term-time only. This may be of interest if your life is influenced by the academic year or if you are not local to London, or unable to travel.

If we can find a suitable weekly time, the next step is a brief phone-call to answer any questions you may have and set up an initial session.

The initial session will give you the opportunity to see if I'm what you're looking for, and if you feel comfortable with me. I will learn about your therapeutic goals and will tell you how I think we can meet them.

I see the initial session as a stand-alone session in itself, and not just for assessment. Among my aims are that you find value in it, have a positive experience, and know whether you would like to continue.

Thank you for reading,

Rob.

I currently have some availability

April 2025- I’m pleased to be setting up a small, low-cost, online supervision group, as well as offering low-cost 1:1 supervision for the remainder of 2025.

These supportive opportunities are available for just £10 per session as I'm currently undertaking a one-year diploma in supervision at the Minster Centre. I have 16 years' experience as therapist and group worker. I'm a tutor at the Gestalt Centre, London.

The group or 1:1 supervision may suit you if you are training or recently qualified and feel you would benefit from support in addition to other supervision you may have. Or you may be well-established, but feel you would benefit from an additional safe and supportive space.

Supervision Group:

The group will run on Mondays, fortnightly, probably starting at 1pm, and will meet online via Zoom for two hours. We will be four people in total, and I hope we will be a diverse group. The format may be reviewed by the group, but at least at first will be as follows:

13.00 – 13.10- Grounding, breathing, body awareness.

13.10 – 13.20- Check-in.

13.20 – 14.50- Half an hour each to present clients for group supervision.

14.50 – 15.00- Reflections / check-out.

Tonally, I'm warm, engaging and affirming. I believe that supervision works best as an enjoyable, mutual creative process that supports client-work through increased awareness.

As a straight white man, I engage in the ongoing lifetimes' work of deepening my awareness around equity, diversity and inclusion. My work plays a small part in combating oppressive societal dynamics such as racism, homophobia and the patriarchy; and healing their traumatising effects. I'm in the habit of considering client work through an EDI lens and believe this to be an essential part of good practice.

The integrative supervision I offer is based on Shohet and Hawkins' widely-used 'seven-eyed model'. The seven areas of awareness-raising attention are: the client, the therapist/counsellor, the relationship between client and therapist, the therapists' strategies/interventions, the supervisor, the relationship between supervisor and therapist, and the contexts.

In the first session we will be beginning to get to know each other, establishing our relationship, and contracting. We may do some work with your clients if that feels right.

I largely work by raising awareness through the emerging process, rather than following a structure or formula. As such, we will find our way along together to identify and meet your supervision needs.

In the unlikely event you do not wish to continue after the initial session, or I think I'm not the right supervisor for you, I won't charge for the session.

I look forward to hearing from you, Rob.