Marie Kolkenbrock

Current available slots: Monday mornings in N5, Tuesday mornings and Wednesday afternoons in NW6. 

Many people come to therapy because they feel that something in their life needs changing.

Perhaps you feel stuck, experience anxiety, have trouble sleeping or focusing on your work. Or you’ve lost interest in things you used to enjoy. Maybe you find yourself repeatedly in similar situations and want to better understand how you keep ending up there. You might like to be closer to others but find it difficult to form lasting, satisfying relationships.

You may spend a lot of time tending to other people’s needs and emotions, but struggle to make space for your own. Relying on others can feel impossible. You may be preoccupied with how others perceive you and be unsure who you are at the same time.

And sometimes, major changes in your life make you feel disconnected from who you thought you were. This might include a bereavement, a breakup or separation, a physical illness or injury, or trauma, whether recent or long ago. Other significant shifts, like becoming a parent, changing careers or retiring, moving to a new town or immigrating to another country, can also leave you feeling untethered.

Therapy can help you process experiences like these, feel more connected to your own needs and emotions, and relate more authentically to others.

As an integrative therapist, I draw on a range of psychotherapy approaches, which allows me to tailor our work to your specific needs and goals.

My practice is informed by the psychoanalytic tradition. This means that we pay attention to the often unconscious ways in which your earliest relationships and personal history may impact how you experience yourself and others.

I also draw on existential psychotherapy approaches, which help us explore your capacity for agency within your personal and universal givens. I believe that therapy also needs to acknowledge the role social norms and injustices play in individual difficulties, and how they shape the way we inhabit the world and our bodies.

My work is client-centred: I respect your autonomy, and you choose what you bring to therapy.

Born in Germany, I’ve lived in France, Austria, the US, and, for most of the last sixteen years, in the UK. I’ve had my own share of endings and new beginnings, and I’m ready to be alongside you as you experience yours.

The relationship between therapist and client is one of the strongest predictors of positive therapeutic outcomes. This means that even if all this sounds good on paper, it won’t help if you don’t feel right in the room with me. This is why I offer a free 20-minute phone consultation which allows us to get a first sense of each other and discuss whether I’m a good fit to help you with whatever brings you to therapy.