Mike Swift

My working hours are Tuesday - Friday 8.30am to 7pm. 

This is my listing for couples therapy (see my other listing - BS1 1LT for individual therapy) 

If you're here, the way that you are being with each other is not satisfying you (maybe that's putting it lightly?). Perhaps the feelings you once had have changed. Perhaps this has built slowly over time, or a life transition or event has brought things to a head. Either way - something needs to change in the relationship. Perhaps you're at the stage where it's either - things have to improve - or you separate. Often, a build up of resentment and disappointment has slowly eroded the relationship. This needs to be understood, addressed and processed in order to move back into the healthy, growthful relationship you both want and deserve. Part of my task will be noticing and stopping what's happening between you and helping you to do things differently.

Commonly, the situation between a couple has reached crisis point by the time couples counselling is sought. If your desire to stay together is still strong, and you are willing to work at it, my goal as a couples therapist is to notice and to intervene in the patterns and shapes that you are co-creating, to assist you as a couple to re-establish communication and empathy where is has broken down. I will provide communication advice and exercises - to be done in sessions and at home - to help you re-connect.

When relationships get into difficulty, usually it can be traced back to our unconscious patterns and projections from the past and how these have become entangled with the other's in ways that activate our early wounding, I will help you to explore and begin to unpick these tangles and knots. This can be hard work, and will often require time and commitment to the process, especially when things feel hard. My commitment is to be reliable, fully present and in the process with you.

If you would both like to give it a go, we can meet for a free, no obligation conversation about working together.

I offer regular weekly couples therapy, and a more flexible package if it would be impossible for you both to commit to a regular time.

You will want to know something about me before reaching out - 

I have extensive therapeutic training - over seven years: an advanced level 6 counselling diploma from the well respected BCPC in Bath, couples therapy training with the School of Relational Couples Therapy, and recently I completed a second professional diploma in Depth Psychology and Psychedelic Assisted Therapy at The Institute of Psychedelic Therapy. Please note, I do not accept enquiries for psychedelic assisted therapy or psychedelic integration therapy.’I also have a Philosophy BA which, although was a 'rather' long time ago, still very much informs my outlook.

I am BACP registered, fully insured and my work is overseen by a qualified clinical supervisor. I am also a member of a small, long-term peer supervision group as an additional support to my work. I have my own personal therapy and see my own personal development work as a lifelong endeavour.

I work from my own private and confidential office in central Bristol and online.

The work we do is fully confidential, with the standard caveat that I may sometimes take our work to supervision to make sure that I am providing the best possible service for you.

I seek regular feedback from all clients to ensure that the work we are doing is helpful. I have not received any complaints, but do have a clear procedure in place should this ever arise, which I believe is important.

All of this gives you some guarantee that, if you choose to contact me, you are contacting a therapist who is well trained, passionate about the work, ethical and accountable.

I work Tuesday to Friday and currently have some space at various times - please reach out for latest availability.

Being human is often really hard. We all experience pain, constant hard work, uncertainty and the inevitable losses that are part of life. There’s a lot of beauty in life, and much suffering. For many of us, times are feeling hard. It’s likely that if you are here, you are moving through life with unhealed wounds from the past. Coupled with a sharp decline in living standards affecting most of us, and a stream of horrifying world events pumped into minds and bodies not evolved to deal with this amount of information and threat, it’s no wonder we can feel overwhelmed, no wonder we don’t know what to do.

The work we will do aims to create a sense of grounding in your life, to walk with you through the challenges you face in order to make sense of what’s happening and find ways of not only coping, but moving forwards with a renewed sense of purpose.

I do this by building a trusting relationship with you in which you feel free to explore any and all aspects of your experience, knowing that you won’t be judged or criticised in any way. I work with you to increase your resources, self-esteem and trust in your own capacity. Flowing from this is the practical work of where in your life you can effect positive change.

Often the problems we face are relational, involving the people in our life. I will work with you to unpack these issues, looking at the origins of how you operate in relationships, how others relate to you, how you relate to yourself - and the ways in which an increased knowledge of all this can be beneficially applied in your life.

We will also be working with your emotions. It’s here that your past experiences and the ways that you once coped might really need your attention. The work we will do has the goal of helping you to get in touch with and express deeper layers of feeling, often areas that are hidden and certainly hard to put into words. I call this the story of the body. I want you to feel safe enough with me to allow this story to emerge and be told.

In a nutshell then - we work across two interwoven planes - the stories you tell yourself about your experience and your embodied emotional life stretching back to your birth and beyond. We recognise the context and systems we live in and how this affects how we feel. You will often hear me use the word ‘integration’; the work we will do will hopefully result in an increased sense of harmony: your thoughts, your emotions, your actions and your relationships with others.

If this sounds good, drop me a line to arrange for a free, no-obligation conversation about working together.

First, you will want to know about me

I have extensive training over seven years: an advanced level 6 counselling diploma from the well respected BCPC in Bath, couples therapy training with the School of Relational Couples Therapy, and recently I completed a second professional diploma in Depth Psychology and Psychedelic Assisted Therapy at The Institute of Psychedelic Therapy. Please note, I do not accept enquiries for psychedelic assisted therapy or psychedelic integration therapy.’

I am BACP registered, fully insured and my work is overseen by a qualified clinical supervisor. I am also a member of a small, long-term peer supervision group as an additional support to my work. I have my own personal therapy and see my own personal development work as a lifelong endeavour.

The work we do is fully confidential, with the standard caveat that I may sometimes take our work to supervision to make sure that I am providing the best possible service for you.

I seek regular feedback from you to ensure that the work we are doing is helpful. I have not received any complaints, but do have a clear procedure in place should this ever arise.

All of this gives you some guarantee that, if you choose to contact me, you are contacting a therapist who is well trained, passionate about the work, ethical and accountable.

What to expect in an introductory session -

An introductory session with me is a chance to meet and see what it might be like to work together, for me to begin to understand what's going on for you and whether I feel that I can help. I will ask you to tell me what has brought you to therapy and you are welcome to ask me any questions you may have.

Although there are some things I will need to ask, it is your time and many people find even the first hour of therapy helpful and relieving.

We will discuss your initial goals for therapy eg, to feel less anxious, to feel happier within yourself, to be less self-critical, to be more confident, to move on from a break-up, to process a bereavement. If you don't know what you need, that's fine too and completely normal. Defining what the work is, is often a central goal.

​Perhaps you are aware of how things that have happened in the past are affecting you now? In the intro session, I might also invite you to tell me a little about your personal history. Essentially, I will just want to start to get to know you.

​Near the end of the session, we will discuss how you have found talking with me and whether you would like to continue. If you are unsure you are welcome to take a few days to think about it and let me know. Finding the right therapist is crucial.