James Lovegrove

We are not defined by the issues we experience. The ways we think, feel and behave do not exist in isolation. They belong to lives shaped by our experiences, relationships, identities, circumstances and the wider world in which we live. Counselling can offer a space to explore how these different parts of our lives affect us and the meanings they hold for us.

I am an integrative counsellor, which means I can draw on different therapeutic ideas rather than trying to understand every person in the same way. I work relationally and collaboratively, which means the relationship we form is an important part of the work we do together.

I try to approach the work with curiosity and openness, and without judgement. Together we can explore whatever you bring. If there is something you would like from counselling, we can work towards it together, at a pace and in a direction that remain yours.

I have experience working with adults from many different backgrounds and circumstances, bringing a broad range of emotional, relational and psychological difficulties. Sometimes people have known what they want to explore; at other times, they have only known that something feels difficult, stuck or unresolved.

My experience includes anxiety and depression, grief and loss, trauma and abuse, addiction, relationship and family difficulties, identity and belonging, neurodiversity, disability and chronic illness. Further areas of experience include financial hardship and the effects of class, loneliness, exclusion and questions of meaning and direction.

I have worked within the voluntary sector, providing affordable counselling to adults in the local community, alongside my private practice.

I hold a Diploma in Integrative Counselling. My further training has included sexual violence awareness and trauma, as well as an introduction to existential approaches concerned with meaning, choice, freedom and responsibility.

I am interested in how people make meaning from their experiences, how our sense of self develops through relationship, and how we find belonging, purpose and direction within the circumstances of our lives. I am also interested in how change becomes possible, while recognising that counselling can have value even when change is difficult to identify or is not the reason someone comes.

I offer online counselling for adults aged 18 and over. Sessions last 50 minutes and cost £55, with weekly and fortnightly appointments available. Counselling can be short-term or open-ended, and we do not need to decide its length in advance. I also hold a limited number of reduced-fee spaces.