Michelle Mitchell

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There is no formula for a person.

Therapy, for me, is about looking beneath the surface, not only at what you think, feel or do, but becoming curious about why. The patterns that repeat. The beliefs that have quietly become truths. The things you avoid without quite knowing why. The experiences that may still be influencing the present long after you thought you’d left them behind.

Sometimes what keeps us stuck isn’t obvious. A response that feels frustrating or irrational now may once have served an important purpose. Something we think of as simply “who I am” may have been shaped by experiences we’ve stopped consciously connecting it to.

Understanding ourselves differently can create the possibility of responding differently.

That doesn’t mean therapy has to become an endless excavation of the past. The past matters when it helps us make sense of the present and when understanding it gives us greater freedom over what comes next.

My approach is integrative, relational and individual. Anxiety, overthinking, trauma, low self-worth, people-pleasing and overwhelm are particular areas of my work, but a label or presenting difficulty only tells me so much. Two people can experience something remarkably similar and be affected in entirely different ways.

A strong interest in neuroscience and the relationship between mind and body also informs my work. Our experiences aren’t confined to conscious thought. Emotion, stress and previous experiences can influence physiological responses, sensations and automatic reactions, sometimes before we’ve consciously made sense of what is happening.

The body can therefore become part of the conversation too, not something separate from the mind, but another way of understanding our experience.

Years of therapeutic work have reinforced something that theory alone never could: however much we understand about psychology, no two minds have lived the same life.

So therapy isn’t something I do to somebody. It’s something we work out together.

The therapeutic relationship sits at the centre of everything I do.

Trust isn’t something I assume because I’m the therapist. It develops through being heard, accepted and feeling able to bring more of yourself into the room without worrying about giving the “right” answer.

You don’t need to arrive knowing what to talk about. There is no expectation that you’ll know where to begin, what you need or even exactly why you’re there. Bring whatever comes into your mind and we can begin with that.

My style is warm, down-to-earth and engaged. There is room for silence and reflection, but also for questions, observations, psychoeducation, curiosity and challenge when they may be useful.

One person may need the freedom to talk and finally feel properly heard. Another may want to understand a repeating pattern, explore a core belief or look more deeply at earlier experiences and unconscious processes. At different points, our work might include psychoeducation, practical strategies, guided visualisation, exploring relationships or gently challenging a familiar way of thinking.

And sometimes none of those things are needed.

Sometimes you need someone to stay with what you’re saying long enough for something you hadn’t noticed before to emerge.

The aim is never to tell you who you are.

It’s to help you become curious enough about yourself to discover more.

Change is equally individual.

It might mean recognising a pattern. Thinking differently. Setting a boundary. Understanding something you’ve carried for years. Responding differently in a relationship. Trusting yourself. Making a practical change in your life. Or discovering that what you thought you came to therapy for wasn’t really the whole story.

Not everyone comes to therapy wanting to “heal”, transform their life or become a different person.

Sometimes you simply know something isn’t right.

We can start there.

Because sometimes the reason you begin therapy isn’t the reason you keep coming.

The first session is really about beginning to get to know each other.

We’ll start by going through the counselling contract together, including confidentiality and some of the practical aspects of how we’ll work. I’ll also ask some questions to help me understand a little about you, what has brought you to therapy and what might be happening in your life at the moment.

But I don’t see a first session as an interview or an assessment you need to prepare for.

You don’t need to arrive with your life story neatly organised, know exactly what’s “wrong”, or have a clear list of things you’d like to change. Some people arrive knowing exactly what they want to talk about. Others sit down and suddenly have no idea where to begin. Both are completely fine.

We can take the first session at a pace that feels manageable. I can ask questions and guide the conversation when you need me to, or simply give you space to talk if the words are already there.

There’s also no expectation that you tell me everything in the first session. Trust takes time, and you’re always in control of what you choose to share.

Just as importantly, the first session gives you an opportunity to get a sense of me. The therapeutic relationship matters enormously to the way I work, so you’re welcome to ask questions, get a feel for how I work and notice how it feels to talk with me.

You don’t have to decide there and then whether you’d like to continue. Finding the right therapist matters, and it’s completely fine to take some time to think about it.

By the end of our first session, we may have a clearer idea of what you’d like from therapy, or we may simply have found a place to start.

Either is enough.