Keith Johnston

I work with adults in person in Coleraine and online throughout Northern Ireland and beyond. I currently have availability for new clients. I work Monday to Thursday, with daytime appointments and some evening appointments on Mondays and Thursdays. Sessions are 50 minutes and cost £50.

Reaching out can be the hardest part, even when you know you want to. Counselling can be a place where difficulty is met with curiosity rather than correction, and where old patterns meet new understanding. You do not have to have it worked out before you get in touch. You can simply ask whether I might be able to help, and get in touch without any obligation to book anything. A first session is partly there for this: a chance to see how it feels to talk to me before you decide whether to carry on. If it is not the right fit, you are free to leave it there. I will not take it personally or press you to continue.

I don't want cost to be the reason you don't reach out. If the fee is a barrier, please let me know, and we can discuss what's possible.

There is off-street parking, and the room is wheelchair accessible. If you have specific access needs, please raise them with me beforehand so we can check the space suits you.

For details of how your data is collected, used and protected, please see the Client Privacy Notice on my website.

I'm Keith, an integrative counsellor. That means I work across a few different approaches, drawing on whichever is most useful at the time. Humanistic work centres our relationship: I meet you as a whole person, present, curious, and without judgement. Psychodynamic thinking helps us understand the patterns that keep showing up, where they come from, and why they hold on. CBT brings practical tools you can use between sessions, when something concrete would help. Whatever theory informs our sessions, the focus stays on you.

My role isn't to give advice or tell you what to do. It's to help you make sense of what you're carrying and find your own way forward. As a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, I know something about navigating difficulty and having to find your own way.

I bring what I know to our work; you bring what you know about your life. Together we explore, with curiosity, until new understanding becomes clearer. Sometimes that means practical skills you can use straight away. Sometimes it means sitting with something difficult long enough to understand it. You don't need to arrive with everything figured out. There's space here to not know yet. The focus is entirely on you. You can speak freely, without needing to manage my feelings or expectations in return.

The hope is that you come to feel more at ease with yourself, more able to trust your own feelings, and more free from the patterns that have kept you stuck. That might look like not replaying every conversation, or letting a good day just be a good day, or trusting your own feelings without needing someone else to confirm them.

I hold a BSc (Hons) in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy from IICP Dublin (First Class Honours) and a Foundation Degree in Integrative Counselling Practice from Northern Regional College and Ulster University (Distinction). I'm a BACP Registered Member.

I work with people who are finding life difficult, whether they can name what's wrong or not. If something doesn't feel right but you can't quite put your finger on it, you might recognise yourself in some of what follows.

Anxiety and Low Mood

You know something's wrong, but it's hard to name. Maybe it's a thread of anxiety that runs through everything, or a quiet sadness that lingers even when things should feel fine. Or you feel stuck without understanding why, or you look fine on the outside while feeling completely different inside.

Self-Doubt, People-Pleasing, and the Inner Critic

Maybe relationships feel complicated or unfulfilling. You might find yourself constantly reading other people's moods, adjusting to keep the peace, or giving far more than you receive. You might live with an inner critic that picks apart whatever you do, or carry shame or guilt that seems to go deeper than any single event. Emotions might feel overwhelming or frightening, something to be pushed down, powered through, or managed alone.

Early Experiences

The relationships you grew up with shaped how you relate to yourself and to others, whether your feelings were welcome, whether your needs were acceptable, or whether you had to earn your place. Those lessons run deep, and sometimes what you learned no longer fits the life you're living now. You might have grown up with criticism that never let up, or in a home where things felt tense and unpredictable. Maybe love came with conditions, or a parent was dealing with their own struggles in ways that left little room for yours. Or nothing obviously bad happened, but something important was missing all the same. It doesn't need to have been dramatic to have shaped you.

You might have wondered for years whether things could actually change.

They can.

The first session is 50 minutes, the same length as later sessions, but more structured. I'll ask some questions to understand what brings you to counselling, what's been happening for you, and how counselling might help. Some people come knowing what they want to talk about; others come because something feels wrong, but they can't say what. We work with whatever you bring. We'll also talk about how we want to work together: how often we'd meet, what you're hoping for, and what you want from our time.

What you bring stays between us, with a few specific exceptions that will be explained to you. My work is supported by regular supervision with another therapist who is bound by the same confidentiality I am.

It's normal to feel nervous about a first session. You don't need to arrive knowing how counselling will help, or with the right words. You won't be judged for not knowing where to start, for getting upset, or for going quiet. We'll work at a pace that feels right for you. You can pause, change direction, or set something aside for later.

It's also where we begin getting to know each other. You can ask me whatever you want to know about how I work or my training. After our first session, you'll have a clearer sense of whether this feels right for you, and I'll have a better sense of how I can be useful. And as we go, we'll keep checking in about how the work is going, and whether it's helping.

Sessions after the first follow your lead. You bring what feels most important, and we go from there.

If you'd like to talk about whether we might work together, you can get in touch.