Catharine Liddicott

I work with flexible hours between the hours of 10 and 7 Tuesday to Friday.  I can occasionally meet special requests when necessary for times outside of these hours, depending on regularity and need. 

I offer appointments that work around you - both financially and logistically.  I do not insist on any specific frequency, or for clients to always have the same time, or to book a number of sessions in advance.  

Relationship and Couples Therapist

I am a relational, integrative therapist with six years; experience offering couples and relationship therapy.

My approach is informed by attachment theory (how we learned to be in relationship in our earliest experiences) and my ongoing professional development in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and integrated approaches to couples work so as to bring a flexible and adaptive way of working to each couple and their unique relationship.

I am interested in understanding how our early experiences and attachment relationships (parents/caregivers) have shaped the way we connect, communicate and respond to one another in adult relationships. 

With this knowledge and understanding, I can offer a collaborative and non-judgemental space in which both partners can feel heard and understood on a deeper level.  Together, we can explore these patterns, develop greater emotional awareness and consider new and healthier ways of relating to each other.

I work integratively and relationally to help each individual couple with the unique framework of  their relationship and its issues, to work in a way that feels best for them.  

There is no one-size fits all fix to a relationship; each party within the relationship brings with them their history and experiences, their earliest attachment learnings.  The dynamic this creates between them is, therefore, unique, and this is at the heart of what we are working with to resolve unhelpful and unnecessary conflict.

My aim is to help couples move beyond simply revisiting the same disagreements and towards a deeper understanding of themselves, each other, and the impacts all these have on the relationship as a whole.  We are never arguing about the thing, but always the thing beneath the thing!  We then work to undo the unhelpful cycles we may be stuck in and find healthier and more compassionate ways to approach each other with our needs.

I have undertaken further CPD in EFT and integrated approaches and am working towards a further diploma in this area.  I also bring a lifetime of lived relational experience which enriches the understanding of what really happens when we encounter 'otherness' and all the joy and pain that that can bring as we also meet each others' wounded inner child and all their unmet needs.

I personally feel that when we are dealing with relationships, we need to be in a room together relationally, where, as the therapist, I have the ability to hold all the dysregulation and pain and maintain safety and respect for all parties.  I, therefore, prefer to work face to face in relationship work, but am open to looking at online or hybrid arrangements where it is felt appropriate.

Before we meet for our first session, we will have had a conversation (with either one or all parties in the relationship), to establish the reason for seeking therapeutic intervention.

I will then send out an assessment form to each party and ask that they complete this and return it before our first session where we will explore each party's experience of the difficulties they are currently facing within the relationship and what each party hopes to achieve within the therapeutic work we are undertaking.

We will agree to try 2 sessions and then reflect on whether this therapeutic relationship between us feels safe, right, and helpful, before then agreeing to continue.  As part of this reflection, each party is asked to bring what has felt right/helpful or what has not so that we can re-align to ensure everyone is getting what they need from the work, and to ensure successful outcomes for all.