Leo Barnard

I currently offer sessions on Wednesdays and Thursdays only, with the earliest session at 09:30 and the latest at 15:30.

I work exclusively online at present, with Zoom or Teams.

I am a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist with 25 years experience, accredited with BACP and BABCP, and a Member of the British Psychological Society. I have Masters Degrees in Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, and am  qualified in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. I have also trained in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, and work with elements of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT).

Additionally, I am a Relationship Counsellor, formerly a Relate staff member specialising in work with couples. I still work with individuals in this field, but am not currently offering couples work.

My job is to support you in identifying and clarifying your goals for moving increasingly towards what you consider to be a meaningful life. I am here to help you with developing an approach to those goals. Crucially, the work done outside the session is more important in bringing about change than the session itself. We will discuss techniques to help you optimise progress and troubleshoot any difficulties that may arise.

I work exclusively with clients over the age of 18.

My work is focused on the individual client with whom I am working, rather than a stereotypical one-size-fits-all protocol.

CBT is not a quick fix for symptoms. It’s a change in the way we think, behave and live. The purpose is to help you decide how you would like your life to be, and how to implement change to take you in your preferred direction. My job as a therapist is not to ‘cure’ a diagnosed condition, but to help you in that process of clarification and change.

The Cognitive Behavioural Therapies are much more than people realise. This is not the IAPT-style highly prescriptive short-term approach that most people have become familiar with. It is a joint exploration of the roots of distress and pragmatic, empirically-based ways of mitigating that distress in the development of a life which is meaningful for you.

There will usually be ideas for you to try out between sessions, and we will discuss how it went and how to build on the experience when we meet next. Typically I would suggest that we review overall progress every 6 sessions to make sure that we are on track to meet your goals. The duration of therapy is usually between 4 and 24 sessions, depending on severity and complexity of the issues with which we are working. You are, of course, at liberty to terminate therapy at any point should you so wish.

The therapeutic relationship is a key component of successful therapy, and we would begin with a free-of-charge initial consultation so that we can outline the issues to be addressed and begin to consider what that might entail. I would ask you to complete a psychometric test in advance of the consultation, and to give me some ideas about the things that you would like to work on, and what might constitute a satisfactory outcome for you. This free consultation carries no obligation. 

Please note that if you are funded by an insurer, I may not be able to offer this free assessment since the insurer will have already covered this with you.