Paula Battle

I see private practice clients on a Friday. Please contact me for current availability. 

I know that it can feel daunting to come to therapy. You might have some prior experience, or be considering it for the first time. Either way, the idea of trusting someone else to sit with you as you share your thoughts and feelings can be something that takes a while to be okay with. 

I work at all times with your wellbeing at the heart of my practice. My role is to be there with you while you decide which route to take. Together we can find a pace and a way of working that will help us to form a therapeutic relationship within which you have the space to do the emotional work necessary to move forward.

I value my role in creating space for you to bring your whole self to therapy, using the language and means of expression that feel most comfortable to you. 

I’m Paula, a 1-2-1 therapeutic counselling practitioner here to help you navigate your way through the challenges that can impact your mental health.

I am experienced in working with issues that manifest as anxiety and depression, self-harm, lack of confidence and self-esteem, identity, anger, relationship issues, panic attacks and a general feeling of ‘not being okay’.

I combine person-centred counselling (PCA) with elements of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and transactional analysis (TA) in my practice, working with you to discover a way of working that best suits your needs.

Our first session is a consultation or assessment session. We will focus here on starting to build the foundation from which we can work effectively together.  

Confidentiality is at the heart of all that we do, and our sessions will begin with the discussion of and signing of our working agreement. We will discuss the boundaries of this, agreeing on how and when we’re going to work.

This session also involves an assessment - I typically use CORE10 and am happy to incorporate others that you might already be familiar with, eg GAD7 or PHQ9.

If this is your first experience of counselling, we might use the time to discuss what it means to come to therapy and use the time to answer any questions or concerns that you might have. 

We could also choose to use this session to start to build a timeline of your life experiences to date. This is often, in my experience, a gentle way to give some focus to a first session.