Christopher Woodgate

My usual working hours are Monday and Thursday between 07:00 and 21:00.

I am currently fully booked and am starting to accept people onto a waiting list

I am a Doctor of Counselling Psychology offering consultation and private therapy work. I have 15 yrs experience working across a range of clinical contexts, including: the probation service; personality disorders; inpatient psychiatric settings; forensic services; adolescent mental health; community secondary care (IAPT) & psychological therapies (step 4 psychology) settings.

I am happy to work with complexity, offering long term work as well as shorter term/focussed work to fit peoples' needs & budgets.

I have worked with people attracting various diagnoses, including: depression; anxiety (/panic/phobia); complex PTSD & trauma; sexual abuse &/or physical abuse histories; 'personality disorder'; OCD; sexual fetish & body dysmorphia. I understand these as 'labels' that may offer some indication of difficult surface symptoms but which can often obscure the more understandable, deeper reasons someone has come to feel & struggle, the way they do. Alternately, you may have experiences that are difficult to reconcile with your beliefs & identity; feel cut off or loose chunks of time; have creative/'unusual' ways of making sense of reality that others don't easily understand. Or, you may have more general goals of: relating to people in new ways; improved self-understanding, self-worth & self-acceptance.

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.

I identify as a practitioner who draws heavily on applied psychodynamic theory in addition to other models and approaches, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, systemic work, social constructivist and social inequalities thinking.

My thesis explored the barriers to delivering therapeutically attuned care in a large NHS organisation, with a focus on trauma organised systems and the individual and organisational level factors that mitigate against this: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7107239