Victoria O'Callaghan

I am currently available for in-person and online sessions. 

Please contact me for more information.

Being alive is beautiful and confusing

We grapple with this tension every day. Perhaps a bereavement, break-up or job loss has left you feeling lost and low. You might have feelings you don't understand or are struggling to manage day to day living. Perhaps you're struggling with traumatic experiences, difficulties with food, your relationship to your body or intimacy. Or maybe you're experiencing a sense of stuckness in your life.

Exploring your experiences

We work together to explore your experiences. Sessions will likely weave through your current difficulties, their relationship to your past, your desires for something different, and what you sense is getting in the way.

How you learned to be you

As a psychodynamic and psychoanalytically-oriented practitioner, I am curious about how our early life teaches us to be a person, in a body, relating to the world around us.

Becoming aware of these can better help us understand how we might be repeating patterns preventing us from living with creativity and meaning.

About me:

I am an experienced psychodynamic counsellor and psychotherapist. I have worked as a psychotherapist for charities serving queer and gender non-confirming clients and for the NHS as part of secondary psychological services in Newham, East London. I also have a role as part of the editorial group for the academic journal Psychodynamic Practice.

My background combines academic research on the relationship between medical conditions, social responses and healthcare policy with using evidence from lived-experiences to redesign services in complex, regulated and public sector environments.

I am registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council and International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. I work within their ethical guidelines.

A text box on a page can only go so far. I encourage you to contact me so we can think together about what might be in your best interests.

My practice provides a space and relationship where you can become curious about yourself and how you interact with the world. I am fascinated by how we create fulfilling lives for ourselves and the creative strategies we unconsciously develop from an early age to manage our difficulties, conflicts and desires. Where there is pain, there is often the beginnings of hope.

Ways of working together

Psychological issues are common and there are different ways to approach them. Some can benefit significantly from shorter-term therapy (30 sessions or so) while others may be better suited to longer term, open-ended work.

I work online and in-person from my clinics in London Bridge and Tunbridge Wells. We will meet either once or twice a week, at the same time, for 50 minutes.

Who I work with:

I work with people from all walks of life who are experiencing difficulties and feelings of confusion and loss that colour times of transition in our lives. I often work with young professionals in navigating the complex dynamics of corporate organisations and creative living.

I have experience working in NHS secondary psychological services with patients with different diagnoses, mental health conditions and traumatic childhood experiences. I am also experienced working with gender-affirming medical care and queer relationships.

I have special interests in working with difficulties relating to embodied experiences:

- Questions around gender, sexuality and sexual experiences

- Difficulties with body image

- Relationships to food, exercise and difficulties with eating

- Bodily changes connected to medical conditions, experiences of illness and fertility-oriented health issues like Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome / Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and Endometriosis.

I offer a complimentary 15-minute phone call or online appointment to meet one another and think together about the issues and what might help.

Our first session is an opportunity to explore your experiences and see how we work together in more depth. We have an hour together but sometimes it is helpful to have up to 90 minutes.

We'll discuss what brings you to therapy and explore what you might find helpful. I aim to give you a feel for working with me.

We will discuss fees and suitable time to meet every week during this appointment. My fees are negotiable based on your circumstances. We will discuss and agree these before therapy starts.

We may decide it would be valuable to have an extended assessment - working together for 6 sessions and reviewing how it is to work together before deciding to commence with longer term work.

Following this, we will meet at an agreed upon time for therapy. I like to review how my clients think therapy is going every 6-8 months and will let them know when a review session might be helpful to thinking about how our work together progresses.

If, after an assessment, I believe you would benefit from working with a different therapist or support service, I will make sure to connect you. 

I am currently available for online and in-person appointments.

Please contact me for availability. 

Being alive is beautiful and confusing

We grapple with this tension every day. Perhaps a bereavement, break-up or job loss has left you feeling lost and low. You might have feelings you don't understand or are struggling to manage day to day living. Perhaps you're struggling with traumatic experiences, difficulties with food, your relationship to your body or intimacy. Or maybe you're experiencing a sense of stuckness in your life.

Exploring your experiences

We work together to explore your experiences. Sessions will likely weave through your current difficulties, their relationship to your past, your desires for something different, and what you sense is getting in the way.

How you learned to be you

As a psychodynamic and psychoanalytically-oriented practitioner, I am curious about how our early life teaches us to be a person, in a body, relating to the world around us.

Becoming aware of these can better help us understand how we might be repeating patterns preventing us from living with creativity and meaning.

About me:

I am an experienced psychodynamic counsellor and psychotherapist based in and around London. I have worked as a psychotherapist for charities serving queer and gender non-confirming clients and for the NHS as part of secondary psychological services in Newham, East London. I also have a role as part of the editorial group for the academic journal Psychodynamic Practice.

My background combines academic research on the relationship between medical conditions, social responses and healthcare policy with using evidence from lived-experiences to redesign services in complex, regulated and public sector environments.

I am registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council and International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. I work within their ethical guidelines.

A text box on a page can only go so far. I encourage you to contact me so we can think together about what might be in your best interests.

My practice provides a space and relationship where you can become curious about yourself and how you interact with the world. I am fascinated by how we create fulfilling lives for ourselves and the creative strategies we unconsciously develop from an early age to manage our difficulties, conflicts and desires. Where there is pain, there is often the beginnings of hope.

Ways of working together

Psychological issues are common and there are different ways to approach them. Some can benefit significantly from shorter-term therapy (30 sessions or so) while others may be better suited to longer term, open-ended work.

I work online and in-person. We will meet either once or twice a week, at the same time, for 50 minutes.

Who I work with:

I work with people from all walks of life who are experiencing difficulties and feelings of confusion and loss that colour times of transition in our lives. I often work with young professionals in navigating the complex dynamics of corporate organisations and creative living.

I have experience working in NHS secondary psychological services with patients with different diagnoses, mental health conditions and traumatic childhood experiences. I am also experienced working with gender-affirming medical care and queer relationships.

I have special interests in working with difficulties relating to our bodies and embodied experiences:

- Questions around gender, sexuality and sexual experiences

- Difficulties with body image

- Relationships to food, exercise and difficulties with eating

- Bodily changes connected to medical conditions, experiences of illness and fertility-oriented health issues like Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome / Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and Endometriosis.

I offer a complimentary 15-minute phone call or online appointment to meet one another and think together about the issues and what might help.

Our first session is an opportunity to explore your experiences and see how we work together in more depth. We have an hour together but sometimes it is helpful to have up to 90 minutes.

We'll discuss what brings you to therapy and explore what you might find helpful. I aim to give you a feel for working with me.

We will discuss fees and suitable time to meet every week during this appointment. My fees are negotiable based on your circumstances. We will discuss and agree these before therapy starts.

We may decide it would be valuable to have an extended assessment - working together for 6 sessions and reviewing how it is to work together before deciding to commence with longer term work. 

Following this, we will meet at an agreed upon time for therapy. I like to review how my clients think therapy is going every 6-8 months and will let them know when a review session might be helpful to thinking about how our work together progresses.

If, after an assessment, I believe you would benefit from working with a different therapist or support service, I will make sure to connect you.