Michael Whitmore

My practice hours are Friday mornings, in person or online, from my beautifully appointed therapy room in Cavendish Square, Oxford Circus, London.

I also run online small group 'Long COVID - Recovery Fundamentals' sessions.  These may be Friday afternoons or Saturday mornings.  Please enquire for more details.

Sometimes it's the behaviours of other's that bring people to therapy or an onset of thinking or doing things that weren't happening or being felt before. Sometimes it's just that people need some space to think and talk things over in an increasingly busy and complicated world.

My approach is based on REBT/CBT. REBT stands for Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy.  It is the founding type of CBT and it provides a philosophical approach to life. What this means is that it gives you a way of understanding what you're thinking and believing that you can take to any situation in life.

The ABC: Activation - Belief - Consequence

Fundamentally we come across something, or an event, in life that is Activating difficulty in life. It could be in our thoughts or something external to us, something from the past, current or future. It could be something internal or something external. This then creates an emotional Consequence or emotion that can be the way that we think, act, feel, including physical symptoms. Often what we don't know is that there's a Belief that we hold about the world that's connecting the event and creating the emotion.

REBT/CBT therapy helps to turn the focus on, and understand, how everything is connecting and how you control those connections. It provides an approach and the roadmap to navigate life's journey - together at first but once you're in the swing of it you'll be able to go it alone.

Although CBT/REBT is a guiding principle, my approach integrates other approaches such as quantum psychology, mindfulness, compassion, use of guided imagery, affirmations and other therapeutic approaches. Every person is different so each therapy session is designed with that person in mind.

We all have the resources within ourselves to be well and to live moments that matter. Sometimes it may not feel like this.

From time to time the things we were so sure we knew might seem to be crumbling away or things that we thought would pass have followed us around. Perhaps circumstances or ways of acting that you were so sure you can't or won't change are something that you want to try for.

It might be that what you dreamt of, or always thought you'd be or do, has not turned out in the way that you thought. Maybe it's things or other's around you that won't change, or are changing too much, that you're feeling angry or emotional about.

You might just know that you don't want to carry on acting or feeling the way that you do but figuring it out isn't easy.

One of the world's best kept secrets is that most people will feel like this either now or at some time in life but it doesn't often feel like that when it's being experienced. In fact it often feels like everyone else around us is doing fine. It can feel like it came out of nowhere. It's time to reach out, reach in and to find new ways of understanding the world that we form and the world that forms around us.

Mental Health matters, and therapy is a passion. I run a generic practice and my type of therapy applies to most kinds of emotional disturbance. I predominantly work with clients who have anxiety-based issues.  Sometimes people don't realise this is what they're experiencing. It covers a wide range of issues including a general, intense or specific experience of unrest or worry, anger, sleep, IBS, exhaustion, burnout, onset of new or exaggerated behaviours and my work also includes those dealing with problems connected to work. Having achieved myself full recovery from Long COVID after a 3 year journey, I also work with Long COVID and fatigue-related conditions.  I am a research leader in health and wellbeing and I also lecture in REBT CBT at the College of Cognitive Behavioural Therapies.

All sessions are £83.  If you book quoting BACP, I offer a 15% discount for the first session.  There's no obligation to continue after the first session.  The first session is a chance for you to check-out the therapy and the therapist, share your thoughts, provide preliminary assessment and for us to agree whether to move forwards or not. It lasts 50 minutes.