Benjamin Fleischer

I have availability Mon-Thurs 10.45am- 12.45pm and Fri 9.30am-12.30pm. 

You can find out more about me on my website. Below is a summary of my approach to therapy. 

 'Your relationship to people and events in your life always comes back to your relationship with yourself'. This is the credo from which I work, based on my learning and my own experience. 

What is a 'relationship with yourself?' How can you have a relationship with yourself, if relationship means connecting with 'another'? 

In life there are two realms we live in: the revealed and the concealed. The revealed are the areas of life which can be clearly identified and described. The concealed are the ones which seem less knowable. These are things going on beneath the surface of our lives , such as our upbringing, personality, culture, race, gender, sexuality etc. which affect the way we act and react deeply.  

Additionally, life often also throws difficult situations at us. Each hard experience we go through carries within it a choice to grow and learn- or to deny and escape. While facing adversity can be really challenging, there is often a 'potential energy' concealed behind our defences and fears which can help us rise to meet the challenge. 

Getting to know these concealed parts is a big part of developing a healthy 'relationship with yourself', and talking therapy is a great way of doing it. While talking about these things can sometimes be difficult, it can also give us a new sense of confidence and hope which can be really rewarding. 

My goal in my counselling practice is to help my clients, as part of dealing with whatever it is they bring, to develop a healthy relationship with themselves. Having gone through a form of mid-life crisis of my own, I feel that talking therapy has helped me be more true to myself. I know what it is like to hide, to cover up, to feel lost and out of control, and I also know what it is like to face a fear and come out the other side. Just as talking therapy has helped me relate better to myself, my aim is to help my clients learn to relate to their unique selves in a healthy way. 

Although not exclusively, my particular area of focus is male clients between 35-50, who are struggling with the mid-life years. Having been trained in both integrative humanistic counselling, as well as spiritual self-awareness from a Jewish Orthodox Torah perspective, I try to bridge the worlds of body and soul in my work, with a particular focus on understanding my clients unique process and personality. I am always keen to learn about new perspectives, and I have counselled people from a wide variety of backgrounds in my work for the NHS.

I work on a one-to-one basis with anxiety and depression, and associated conditions. Sessions are highly confidential, and my work is supervised by professional supervisors. I work within the ethical framework of the BACP.  

I offer my first session at half my normal fee. This session allows me to hear about the issue you are bringing, make an initial assessment, and give us both the opportunity to get to know each other a little and decide if it's a good therapeutic match.