Annette Lilley

I have availability online and in person Tuesday to Saturday

I am an integrative therapist with nearly 20 years experience of working therapeutically with individuals and groups. 

At times we can feel overwhelmed by life events, relationships or distressing thoughts and feelings. Sometimes we believe that we are never going to feel better and lose hope that change can happen. If we have experienced long term distress we might feel that we are broken and unfixable. Counselling can help you to process painful experiences, to connect with yourself and others to improve your relationships and to get more of what you want from life.

As an integrative therapist I can tailor my approach to your needs and what you want from therapy. I believe that you have the ability and the skills to make positive changes in your life and my role is to work collaboratively with you to draw your attention to what might be impacting negatively on you. I will focus on your strengths and help you to process past experiences that might be impacting on you in the present.

The approaches that I integrate are person centred, psychodynamic, CBT and mindfulness based therapies. In our first meeting we will decide how best to work together depending on what changes you are wanting to make.

I will seek to understand you as an individual, and help you to do the same. 

The word 'psyche' originally comes from the Greek word for breath, life, soul. It is my belief that when we become disconnected from the core of who we actually are, we can experience psychological and emotional distress. We can become disconnected through early life experiences and needing to develop defences to survive and get through. We can become disconnected by feeling that we have to meet other people's expectations, or by living a life that does not connect us enough to ourselves.

I work in a way that hopes to reconnect people with themselves, through understanding and compassion. This leads to greater insight, compassion and the ability to make changes that can bring greater peace and contentment.

I qualified as an integrative counsellor in 2007 and I have worked with adults and teenagers within schools, charities and my own private practice. I am currently the director and manager of a counselling service within the community sector and supervise other counsellors, both in training and qualified.

Since qualifying I have completed further training including working with trauma, working creatively, with suicidal ideation, dissociation and addiction.

To book an appointment please contact me and if you would prefer to have a 15 minute telephone conversation before booking an appointment please send me a message so we can arrange a time.

During your first appointment I will be assessing to make sure that I am competent to work with the issues that you are bringing. It will also be an opportunity for you to learn more about me and the way that I work so that you can decide if I am the right person for you to work with. If either of us feels that we I am not the right therapist for you, I can support you in finding an alternative therapist. 

Appointments are £65 per session for individual counselling

I have availability for supervision online from Tuesday - Saturday and in person Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday

I qualified as an integrative counsellor in 2007. I have worked with young people within a secondary school setting and adults in private practice. I am director and manager of a community based counselling service and also see clients within my private practice. 

My core supervision model is Shohet and Hawkins Seven Eyed  Model. I see my role as supervisor to work collaboratively with you to aid understanding of your clients. I do this, not by positioning myself as an expert, and instead, using our relationship and your experiences of the client, as well as your personal and organisational context, to reflect on the relationship between you and your client. In doing this we can make sense of any transference and countertransference responses and also think theoretically about appropriate interventions based on your theoretical approach.

I started my supervision qualification through CPCAB in 2023 and now have spaces for supervisees. 

I am an Integrative therapist incorporating person centred, psychodynamic, CBT and mindfulness based therapies. My practice is non pathologising which means that I see distress as being a response to our history and current circumstances, and that we are are not 'disordered' by having certain experiences or responses. I believe absolutely that there is a spectrum of human emotions and ways that we experience ourselves and others that needs to be made sense of, and not labelled as individuals being ill and disordered.

I offer a 10-15 minute phone call to ensure we can work together before booking a first appointment.