Maria Harding Peisley

I currently have availability mainly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when I work 09.30 to 18.30, and sometimes later by prior arrangement (and at a higher session rate). 

I offer sessions in the room, online, and on the telephone.

I am a BACP-Accredited Psychodynamic Counsellor with nearly 20 years' experience of working with individuals and couples. 

A more detailed explanation of how I work can be found on my website (www.CarewellCounselling.com) but in brief, I am based in a comfortable, self-contained room near Sudbury in Suffolk, offering short and medium-term as well as open-ended courses of  Psychodynamic therapy.

Also known as Analytic or Insight-oriented therapy, Psychodynamic work is based on the famous `talking cure' pioneered by Sigmund Freud and further developed by luminaries such as Carl Jung, Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott and John Bowlby.

Analytic work goes deeper than some other therapy models, exploring clients' early beginnings and helping them discover what really `makes them tick', and how formative experiences, developmental challenges and unconscious processes have shaped them into the unique individuals they are today.  

Armed with this insight, they can embark on a gentle process of  change which will help improve and protect their mental and emotional health, enhance their relationships and enable them to lead happier, better balanced and more fulfilling lives.

As well as my core work, I trained at London's Tavistock Clinic to offer-intensive 20 week Couples Therapy for Depression courses, and for more than ten years delivered these to IAPT patients as an NHS-accredited practitioner. 

I now offer this model to private clients, alongside longer-term relationship therapy encompassing not only couples who are married or in a sexual relationship, but also parents and children and even work colleagues who cannot get along.

I am also a clinical supervisor, accredited by the Institute for Individual Psychology to offer both Psychodynamic and Integrative supervision. 

Alongside counsellors in private practice or working for charities, I  supervise university students taking an MA in Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy, and continue to work with several post-qualification.

I offer weekly sessions only, as I believe less frequent sessions dramatically reduce the effectiveness of the work. 

After the main course of counselling has has been completed, my client has a good grasp of psychodynamic thinking and we are ready for an ending, I sometimes later offer `top up' sessions  on a less frequent basis. 

The idea is to offer a safe space within which clients can `check in' with themselves, assess their progress and consider any ongoing difficulties , using me as their `memory keeper' and an impartial sounding board to help them consider their way ahead.

While I would encourage clients to attend in person wherever possible, I do offer online and telephone sessions to clients who need more flexible arrangements, or those unable to attend in person every week. 

Before the first session, I  send clients a Counselling Agreement setting out in detail how I work, what they can expect from me and what their commitment will be in terms of session regularity, fee payment and missed session arrangements.

I also send clients an optional (and strictly confidential ) questionnaire, gathering important information (eg GP, meds, drug and alcohol use) and asking them to consider what their key difficulties are, what they hope to achieve in counselling, and what support network they currently have around them. All information received from or about clients is encrypted, identity-protected and securely stored.