Alan Archibald

I am working online and have a variety of times and days avaiable.  These are on a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon and evening.  Just ask and I can see what I can do. 

I am a psychodynamic psychotherapist with 28 years of experience in mental health, including 24 years in the NHS and 8 years as a psychotherapist at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. 

I trained at the Tavistock in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (Diploma, 2014) and Intercultural Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (D59I, 2017), and subsequently worked there as a Nurse Specialist in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. I have been in private practice since 2020, working exclusively online with adult clients across the UK.My approach is depth-oriented, relational, and rooted in psychoanalytic thought. 

The most enduring emotional pain, whether trauma, grief, depression, anxiety, shame, or relational difficulty, rarely responds to quick fixes. I do not offer advice or simple solutions. Instead, we work slowly and carefully together to explore how early experiences, attachment patterns, and unconscious processes have shaped who you are and how you relate, to yourself and to others.In our sessions, the relationship between us becomes central. 

I offer a consistent, confidential, and non-judgemental space in which you are free to speak, and in which things that have felt unspeakable or overwhelming can, in time, be understood. I listen carefully, reflect what I notice, and help you make meaning of feelings and patterns that may have long kept you stuck.I work with trauma, PTSD, complex grief, depression, anxiety, shame, identity, sexuality, cultural belonging, relational difficulties, attachment difficulties, and complex mental health histories. 

I offer both open-ended therapy and a structured 16-session format. I am registered with the BPC, BACP, and CCPA, and am a member of the Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists.

I have two core specialist areas. The first is trauma, including childhood trauma, developmental trauma, sexual and emotional abuse, PTSD, complex trauma, and dissociation. The second is perinatal loss and grief: miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death, infant loss, infertility, IVF, and pregnancy after loss, including the profound psychological impact of pregnancy following bereavement. These are areas of deep suffering that require a particular kind of clinical experience and emotional steadiness, and they are at the heart of my practice.

I also have extensive experience in intercultural psychotherapy, supporting individuals from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds, and those navigating questions of cultural identity, immigration, faith, dual heritage, and belonging. Emotional pain does not exist in a vacuum; culture, race, and identity are integral to the therapeutic work, not peripheral to it.

Beyond these specialisms, I work with depression, low mood, anxiety, panic, phobias, OCD, self-esteem, shame, relationship difficulties, attachment difficulties, men's mental health, sexual difficulties, grief and bereavement, work-related stress, and complex presentations including long-term mental health histories and personality difficulties.

My NHS background, 24 years, including acute, crisis, and community mental health settings, means I am experienced in working safely with risk, including suicidal ideation, self-harm, and complex presentations. I bring clinical rigour to what is always deeply human work.

I also offer clinical supervision to qualified and trainee therapists and counsellors globally, drawing on my Tavistock training and NHS experience to provide individually tailored, warm, and clinically grounded supervision online.

Sessions from £100. Concessions available.

I offer an initial consultation of two 90-minute sessions. This gives us genuinely unhurried time to think together about what has brought you to therapy now, what you are hoping for, and whether a psychodynamic approach is the right fit for you.

In the first meeting, I will invite you to tell me something about yourself, your life, your difficulties, and what has led you here. You do not need to arrive with a clear narrative or organised account of your problems. Often the most important things emerge gradually, and sometimes the feelings that are hardest to name are precisely the ones we most need to approach with care. I will listen closely, ask questions, and begin to develop a sense of what is troubling you and what kind of work might help.

We will also think together about practicalities: how frequently we might meet, how I handle breaks, cancellations, and endings, and how we keep you safe throughout our work, particularly if you are currently carrying significant distress, suicidal thoughts, or self-harm. I take these matters seriously, and we will address them openly from the start.

By the end of the consultation, I hope you will have a clear sense of how I work and whether it feels right. There is no pressure to commit. I want any decision to continue to feel genuinely chosen rather than anxious or rushed.

I work online via secure video link. Sessions are available on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, including evenings. The initial 90-minute consultation is £150 per session. Ongoing 50-minute therapy sessions are £100. Concessionary rates are available, please ask about these when you get in touch.

I look forward to hearing from you.

I work online via Zoom with UK clients. I have availability across Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday — afternoons and evenings. Please get in touch to discuss what works for you.

I am a Tavistock-trained psychodynamic psychotherapist and clinical supervisor with 28 years of experience in mental health, including 24 years in the NHS and 8 years at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. I offer individual and group supervision online to qualified therapists, counsellors, and trainees across the UK and internationally.

My approach to supervision is psychoanalytic and relational. I work with supervisees to attend closely to what is happening in the room with their clients, the unconscious communications, the countertransference, the parallel processes, and the material that resists easy articulation. I am interested in what a session contains beyond its surface content: what the client cannot yet say, what the therapist finds themselves feeling, and what that feeling might be telling us about the clinical relationship.

I aim to provide supervision that is rigorous without being persecutory, and warm without being collusive. The supervisory relationship itself is a clinical space, and I take it seriously as such. I work to create an environment in which supervisees feel genuinely safe to bring their most difficult cases, their uncertainties, and their mistakes, because that is where the most important learning happens.

I draw primarily on Kleinian and object relations frameworks, incorporating Bion's thinking on containment and linking, Winnicott on the holding environment, and Freudian structural concepts as the material requires. I also bring extensive practical experience of risk, safeguarding, acute mental health, and complex presentations from my NHS background.

I am registered with the BPC, BACP, and CCPA, and am a member of the Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists.

I supervise across a wide range of clinical presentations and therapeutic orientations, though my deepest specialist knowledge lies in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic practice. I am particularly experienced in supervising work with trauma, including complex trauma, developmental trauma, childhood sexual and emotional abuse, and PTSD, as well as perinatal loss and grief: miscarriage, stillbirth, infant death, infertility, IVF, and pregnancy after loss. These are areas where supervisees often feel unsupported or underprepared, and I bring both clinical depth and steadiness to this work.

I have extensive experience supervising intercultural and cross-cultural work, including cases involving structural racism, cultural identity, immigration, faith, and the dynamics of difference within the therapeutic relationship. I am alert to how power, race, and culture operate both in the clinical dyad and in the supervisory relationship itself.

I supervise work with depression, anxiety, OCD, phobias, self-harm, suicidal ideation, personality difficulties, relational and attachment difficulties, eating disorders, addiction, grief and bereavement, sexuality and sexual identity, men's mental health, and complex long-term presentations. My NHS background across acute, community, crisis, and psychotherapy services means I am highly experienced in risk assessment, safeguarding, and the management of clinical complexity.

Beyond case work, I am happy to support supervisees with the practical dimensions of practice: building a private practice, managing endings, navigating ethical dilemmas, CPD planning, and professional development.

I offer individual supervision, group supervision, and peer consultation online via secure video link. I work with trainees, newly qualified therapists, and experienced practitioners globally.

Sessions from £90 per hour. Concessions available.

The first session is an opportunity for us to meet, think together, and decide whether this supervisory relationship feels like a good fit. There is no obligation to continue beyond that initial meeting.

I usually begin by inviting you to tell me something about your practice and clinical background: how long you have been working, the setting you work in, your theoretical orientation, and the kinds of clients you typically see. This gives me a sense of the context in which you are practising and what kind of supervision is likely to be most useful to you.

From there, I will often ask you to bring a piece of clinical material, a case, a session, a moment that has stayed with you, or something you have found difficult or confusing. It does not need to be formally presented. In fact, some of the most productive supervision begins precisely from the things that felt too uncertain or too troubling to write up neatly. I am interested in what is happening in the room with your client, in your experience of the work, and in what the material is communicating that has not yet found words.

We will also talk about the practical frame: frequency and length of sessions, how I work, confidentiality, note-keeping, and what you are hoping to take from supervision. If you are a trainee, we can discuss what your training body requires and how I can best support that alongside the clinical work itself.

I work online via secure video, with availability across Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, including evenings. Individual supervision sessions are £90 per hour. Concessions are available, please do ask when you get in touch.

I supervise therapists and counsellors globally. Wherever you are working, I welcome your enquiry.