Karl Uwe Hartke

My practice hours are flexible, and I work from several different practice rooms around London Bridge, Tower Bridge and the City.

Session are usually 50 minutes, but I am open to  longer sessions for more detailed work on specific topics.

Some years ago, the artist WRDSMTH posted notes above his graffities of old typewriters. I found one on an old red phone box. It said: "Smile. It's an old school status update"  ... (I'll come back to that).

What made you decide to contact a counsellor? Do you need help with a specific problem? Or do you have just a vague sense of something 'not feeling right' ? A relationship not working? Private or work-related (or both)? A tragic loss? Feeling angry, sad, anxious,  overwhelmed or lower than usual?  Or simply concerned about your mental health. And not  quite sure how to deal with it, other than 'kicking the can down the road'?

I have helped people make changes in their lives for the last 30+years, through coaching and individual development work in large and small organisations, and latterly also under the counselling  banner.

And I still feel the same sense of awe when the "status update" (see above) slowly emerges on a client's face (or showing in their posture, tone of voice, breathing) - indicating that something has shifted and changed. The most amazing thing: At times, neither my client nor I know exactly how that happened, but we both know it would not have happened if we had not started talking...

My default therapeutic framework is psychosynthesis (** see below), but I happily borrow concepts and models from cognitive, behavioural and emotion focused therapies and integrate them with ideas from coaching, short-term therapy,  learning and positive psychology. For me, there is not single right way. What's important is that it works for you.

When you decide to "hire" me, I aim for four things:

(o) (If necessary) Help you clarify what you want and realistically can achieve through counselling.

(i) To create the space for you to talk, and for me to listen closely to what you want to say (or don't), in order to really understand what concerns you and how it impacts you (and others?).

(ii) To get to know you and the different aspects of your personality, the events that have shaped you, and how they may relate to your concerns.

(iii) To help you gain insights, skills and tools, to give you new options for dealing with your concerns and make the changes you want in your life.

iv) To discover with you what new (or old?) thoughts, feelings, images and sensations may be emerging from your current situation, and in what direction you may want to take them.

(** Psychosynthesis is a therapeutic 'orientation' founded by Roberto Assagioli, who, like many others, studied psychoanalysis with Freud, disagreed with some of it and came up with his own philosophy and approach for therapy, combining Freud's insights with ideas from many other sources. I very much like and subscribe to the idea of "synthesis" -  the combination of parts, to form a connected whole - the exact opposite of analysis).

Ideally, I want to see you for at least two sessions (if you pre-pay , I offer the first 2 sessions for £90). At the end of these two sessions, we will discuss strategies for further work and options you have to make changes in your life. Then you can decide whether you want to continue working with me, and what format that should take.

Alternatively, we can arrange a solution-focussed single session, with a clearly defined purpose. You will need to do some pre-work to make that session effective.  And afterwards, you can decide to have further single sessions (single session work is prepaid only).

Or, we can just start talking ...