Kara Rosenberg

I currently have availability for new clients, both in person and online.

Appointments run on weekdays between 8am and 6pm. I see clients in Clapham, near Bank in the City of London, and online, with daytime slots including lunchtimes. Occasional 7pm appointments are available by arrangement, at a higher rate.

We begin with a free 20-minute introductory call, so you can get a sense of me and how I work before deciding anything. The quickest way to arrange one is through my website or by message here.

People often come to me when the way they have been living stops working quietly. From the outside, things may look fine: the demanding job handled, the family held together, the friend everyone else leans on. Inside, there is anxiety that arrives at 3am, a flatness that will not lift, or a growing sense that the life you built and the person you are have drifted apart. If that sounds familiar, you are exactly who I work with: capable, high-functioning adults who hold a great deal for other people and rarely show what it costs them.

I am an integrative counsellor and psychotherapist, which means I shape the approach around you rather than fitting you to a method. The relationship between us comes first, always; research consistently finds the bond between client and therapist to be one of the strongest predictors of how well therapy works, and my practice is built on that finding. Alongside it, I pay close attention to what happens as we talk, in the room and in the body, and, where it helps, we look at where a pattern first began.

My practice is grounded in both science and feeling. I trained clinically within NHS Talking Therapies, working with anxiety and depression at all levels of severity, and I hold an MSc in Psychology, accredited by the British Psychological Society, completed with Distinction. My Master's research explored the lived experience of people with OCD and is being prepared for publication.

Before retraining, I spent fifteen years in international finance and consulting; alongside that career, I counselled men in prison. Both worlds taught me the same lesson: people can begin again from anywhere.

Everything starts with a free 20-minute call. You tell me a little about what brings you, I tell you how I would approach it, and we both get a feel for whether we are the right fit. There is no obligation, and if I think someone else would serve you better, I will say so and point you in the right direction.

In our early sessions, my job is mostly to listen well: to understand not just what is difficult, but how you have been carrying it, for how long, and what it is costing you. From there the work takes the shape you need. Working integratively means I draw on several traditions rather than applying one formula. With some clients the work is mainly relational, using the relationship between us to understand and change the patterns that play out in other relationships. With others we work closely with the present moment, noticing what happens in the body as we talk, because the body often knows things before we have words for them. And where it helps, we trace a pattern back to where it began, so that what feels like a personal failing starts to make sense as something learned, and therefore something that can be unlearned.

I will never fit you to a programme. There is no fixed number of sessions and no set sequence of techniques; we review how the work is going openly, together, as we go. What I bring consistently is warmth without pretence, honesty you can trust, and close attention, informed by psychological science and by years of sitting with people in real difficulty, in the NHS, in prison, and in private practice.

Sessions are weekly, 50 minutes, at the same time each week where possible, because rhythm itself is part of what makes therapy work. We can meet in person in Clapham or near Bank, online, or a blend of the two, and the work can be held entirely in English, French or Italian.

Before your first session, you will have had our free introductory call and received the written agreement, so the practicalities are already settled and the hour belongs entirely to you.

The first session is a gentle, structured assessment. That word can sound clinical, but in practice it simply means I take the time to understand you properly before we decide anything about the work. I will ask what brings you now, and what made this the moment to seek help. We will map the territory together: how things are at work, in your relationships and family, with sleep, health and energy; what you have already tried; and whether there have been times of real crisis, because knowing how bad it has been helps me keep you safe. I will also ask about your history, not as a form-filling exercise, but because present difficulties almost always make more sense in the light of where they began.

Because my practice is grounded in psychological science as well as feeling, I may invite you to complete one or two short, well-validated questionnaires, the kind used across the NHS. They take minutes, give us a clear baseline, and let us measure real progress later rather than guessing. They inform the work; they never replace the conversation.

By the end of the session, I will share how I understand what you have described and how I would suggest we work, in plain language. Then we decide together, and you are free to take time to think. There is no obligation to continue, and if I believe a different kind of help would serve you better, I will say so and help you find it.

You do not need to prepare anything. Come as you are, say things in whatever order they come, and I will hold the structure; many people leave this first session feeling relief at having finally said it all out loud. If we decide to continue, we agree your regular time before you leave, so you walk out knowing exactly what happens next.