Stephane Preteux

I work in London on Tuesdays and Thursdays, online the other days of the week, except on the weekend.

I currently have some availability for new patients.

Most people come to see me when something has become too much to carry on their own — anxiety that won't settle, a low mood or flatness that doesn't lift, the same painful patterns repeating in relationships or elsewhere, something you can't stop doing or using, a persistent sense of guilt, or the feeling of being stuck. You don't need to arrive with the right words for it. Finding them, without searching too hard, is most of the work.

I trained in psychotherapy and counselling, and across nearly twenty years of practice I have come to work psychoanalytically, in a Lacanian orientation, drawing on the work of Freud and of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. What that means in the room is a particular quality of attention: to what you say, to the words you choose rather than others, and to how you say them. Particular weight falls on what comes as a surprise to you as you hear yourself saying it, perhaps for the first time.

Rather than measuring you against an ideal of normality, or working towards targets set in advance, this way of working begins from a simple wager. Speaking freely, and without fear of judgement, to someone listening in this way can allow you to begin hearing something you have known all along without knowing it — something that has been shaping your suffering, and that loosens its hold once it can be heard. Symptoms are taken as messages that have not yet found their addressee. The suffering they bring is often strangely familiar, something you know intimately even as it disrupts your life; like dreams, they may carry a meaning that has not yet been heard.

My role is to accompany you in this, but the direction of the work comes from you. The aim is not to turn you into someone you are not, but to help you articulate something closer to what is true for you.

I see people in person at Coppergate House in Spitalfields, two minutes from Liverpool Street station, and online by Zoom. Sessions are in English or French, whichever you find easier to speak in.

Ongoing sessions are usually once a week at a regular time. This can be increased if your situation requires it and subject to availability. 

Appointments are usually scheduled for around forty minutes, but I work in a tradition where the length of a session isn't fixed rigidly in advance, and I will explain what that means in practice when we first meet. How long we work together is open, and reviewed between us as we go — some people come for a few months around one particular difficulty, others stay longer.

Fees are £80 per session. I am also a recognised Bupa provider. 

I hold an MSc in Psychotherapy and Counselling from the University of Roehampton, having trained at the Metanoia Institute and WPF Therapy, and I've been in practice since 2010. I am an accredited member of BACP and a member of the New Lacanian School (London Society), and I work within the BACP Ethical Framework with regular clinical supervision.

The first meeting is a chance to talk through what has brought you here and what you are hoping for, and to see whether working together feels right to you. You are welcome to ask me anything about how I work. There is no obligation to continue afterwards, and if I think someone else would be better placed to help, I will say so and point you towards them.

There are no forms, questionnaires or scoring measures to complete, before or during. Nothing is expected of you beyond speaking about what is on your mind, in whatever order it comes.

The first meeting is charged at the usual fee of £80, with no separate assessment rate, and runs a full 40 minutes. It can take place in person at Coppergate House in London E1, or online by Zoom, in English or French. Some people know after one meeting; others prefer to come two or three times before deciding, and that is entirely fine — I won't ask you to commit to anything in advance.

If we do go on from there, we will settle on a regular weekly time, and I will explain the practical arrangements — fees, cancellations, confidentiality, and how I work with the length of sessions, which is not fixed rigidly in advance.