Stephen Duffy

Appointments available Monday to Friday 8am-4pm

Hello. I hope you will find here all you need to help you make your decision about the most appropriate counsellor for your needs.

Do you just need to hear your thoughts said out loud with a kind accepting person who will receive you for who you are without judgement? or maybe you just need to be present with an empathic person and the words will come when they are ready.

Perhaps the following statements mean something to you:

Why do I keep feeling like this?

I don’t see the point, what’s it all been for?

I should be able to get on top of this.

There is no one I can tell because they just won’t understand. They’ll just try to fix me and I don’t know that it is fixable, it’s just me.

What if it doesn’t work, what then?

I feel so alone.

Life won’t ever be the same again.

I would like to believe I can trust someone with who I really am and feel safe.

I would like to be in touch with all of me and I know or have a sense that there is more to life than I am currently experiencing.

I'm not as in touch with my emotional world as I want to be.

I have a sense that my formative years have impacted who I am now in a limiting way and I want to be free, I want to fulfil the potential I know I have.

If they do and you are ready to explore whatever is going on for you, I’m ready to listen. I will offer you a kind, caring professional relationship through which we can examine what you choose to bring.

The belief that you are the expert in your own life is at the heart of the work I offer. I share with you the everyday reality of being human and all of the challenges and joys that go with it and  I know, sometimes it is tough.

I offer face to face sessions in Headingley.

I also offer online and telephone consultations. We can also have a mixture of these and face to face if that works for you.

I have special interests in the challenges that dealing with the realities of our limited existence present for us, often classified as part of bereavement counselling or existential work and working with young people and with the challenges faced by them in transitioning from child to adult.

I have a lot of experience of working with grief and loss and have helped clients dealing with the additional challenges of grief when that has been caused or linked to Covid-19.

It is regularly the case that an experience of loss is broader than the pain of not having the deceased person in your life anymore. I work with clients on exploring all that flows from their bereavement often including reflection on their own mortality and what that means for living in the now, the future and regrets about the past.

I also work with clients who are open to and curious about exploring the extent to which improving their emotional and psychological wellbeing can positively impact their physical wellbeing.

I have a varied work history having experience in the following other areas: Arts, Child Care, Commerce, Higher and Medical Education, Legal, The Police and Politics.

I have also been a primary carer for two children and combined that with part time working.

I am currently part way through training as a Journey Practitioner.

I offer a free initial half an hour telephone or online consultation during which you can ask any questions and can then decide if you want to work with me as your counsellor.

Then at our first full session we will agree how we are going to work together and agree a contract for that work.