Belinda Donn

I offer both face-to-face sessions in my North London practice and online therapy for clients across the UK.

Sessions are 50 minutes, and I offer both short-term and ongoing psychotherapy depending on what you are looking for.

If you're considering starting therapy, please feel free to get in touch by email or through my website. We can explore whether I might be the right person to work with you and arrange an initial session.

Do you ever feel stuck in familiar patterns of thinking, feeling or relating to others? Perhaps you're struggling with anxiety, relationships, loss or simply questioning where you are in life. Sometimes it's not about finding the answers, but learning to see things differently.

I'm an existential psychotherapist, and I believe therapy is about much more than simply having someone listen. It's an opportunity to really understand yourself, explore how you feel, why you might feel that way, and what meaning you give to the situations and relationships in your life.

I work in a very relational way. I believe the relationship we develop in therapy can tell us a great deal about how you experience yourself and relate to others in the outside world. Therapy can become a bit of a microcosm of life, where familiar patterns, feelings and ways of relating can emerge. By exploring these together, we can begin to understand them and perhaps discover new ways of relating, both to yourself and to others.

I'm naturally curious and will ask questions, offer different perspectives and sometimes challenge you to consider things in a way you might not have before. I'm particularly interested in helping people recognise the choices and freedoms they have, even in situations where they may feel powerless or stuck. Sometimes we have more freedom than we realise, and sometimes it's about understanding and making sense of the things we cannot change.

Above all, I'm human. I'm warm, down-to-earth, easy to talk to and bring humour into my work where appropriate. I believe therapy should be a genuine relationship where we can both be authentic. You don't need to have all the answers, or even know where to begin. We can work that out together.

I practise existential-phenomenological psychotherapy, which is really about exploring what it means to be you, in your particular circumstances, relationships and world.

Rather than looking at difficulties in isolation, I'm interested in understanding how your experiences, relationships, personal history and the world around you shape how you feel and understand yourself.

I believe we can often become caught up in familiar ways of thinking, feeling and relating, sometimes without even realising it. Therapy offers an opportunity to slow things down, look at things from a different perspective and question assumptions we may have carried for years.

My approach is collaborative and exploratory. There isn't a formula or a set of exercises that I apply to everyone. I work with you as an individual, and while I'll always listen and support you, I won't shy away from asking difficult questions or gently challenging you when I think it might be helpful.

Alongside my private practice, my doctoral research explores people's experiences of workplace counselling and how organisational structures, relationships and expectations shape our experience of ourselves. I also sit on the BACP Workplace Division Executive and have worked with organisations exploring the human experience of work.

I offer 50-minute sessions, both face-to-face in North London and online. I work with clients on a short-term or longer-term basis, depending on their needs.

My first session is 50 minutes, the same length as an ongoing session. The first session is really about getting to know you – what brings you to therapy, what you might be struggling with, and what hopes or goals you have for change.

A first session can sometimes feel overwhelming. I really like to get to know my clients, so I often ask quite a few questions about your childhood, family, culture, medication and other aspects of your life.

During this first session, I also bring my notepad and pen, as there is often a lot of information to take in. However, in our ongoing sessions, I pride myself on really sitting with you and being fully present – so no notepad or pen!

It's also an opportunity for you to get to know me, ask any questions and see how you feel about working together. Finding someone you feel comfortable with is an important part of therapy, and there is no obligation to continue after our first meeting.