Sally Pears

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

Life is challenging – it’s not easy. My aim as a therapist is to help my clients increase their ability to cope with life’s challenges and to live vital and meaningful lives.

I work with adults and young people (16yrs+) experiencing a range of difficulties, such as:

• Anxiety

• Body image

• Depression

• Disordered eating

• Health anxiety

• Low self-esteem

• Loss of meaning and purpose

• Procrastination

• Relationship issues

• Social anxiety

• Stress

I do not believe that one type of therapy is the right fit for everyone. I, therefore, practice from an integrative therapy approach, which means that I incorporate various evidence based techniques from different schools of psychotherapy and adapt my therapeutic approach for each individual and their particular situation. My core orientation is humanistic-existential psychotherapy, but I also incorporate Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

A basic assumption of ACT is that suffering is a normal and unavoidable part of human experience and that it is actually people's attempts to control or avoid their own painful experiences that leads to much long-term suffering and what doesn't work in people's lives. ACT helps people learn ways to let go of the struggle with pain, be more mindful, get clarity on what really matters to them, and to commit to living full, vibrant lives. The goal of therapy is not to eliminate certain parts of one's experience of life, but rather to learn how to experience life more fully, without as much struggle, and to live a rich, full and meaningful life.

I believe that what is unique about my approach is it is about much more than the problem of human suffering – it’s about reaching beyond suffering to the larger purpose of people's lives and helping them get active in really living.

My fee is £70 for a 50-minute session (including the initial consultation).