James Poynting

I offer face to face sessions on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at Options Wellbeing in Westbourne or Wessex Health in Christchurch.

I also have flexible availability for online sessions throughout the week, please message me for more info on timings.

As a humanistic therapist I believe in the importance of healthy connection with ourselves and others as a way to achieve satisfaction and meaning in our lives. Exploring ourselves and our relationships can enable us to build a stronger sense of self that helps us to experience life more fully.

I work to help people feel more confident in themselves by supporting them to integrate their emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual aspects of themselves. By working together in the present I will help you to develop a greater self-awareness so that you can better understand yourself and your reactions to others. We will also explore how your experiences have shaped you and why this is so important for the person you are now.

I believe the body is a great tool to escape the confusion of the mind and, by learning to pay attention to sensations and the responses in your body, to different situations and people, we can start to understand what we want and need to enable us to make helpful choices for ourselves. Our western culture prioritises intellect and as a result we spend most of our time in our thoughts, which can be exhausting and stressful and can keep us distanced from how we really feel. Tuning into our body gives our brains a much needed rest, supports our nervous system and helps us access our emotions.

Before this can happen you must feel safe and comfortable enough to share your thoughts and feelings with me, which can take time. Trust is such an important element of any counselling relationship, which is why I work to make you feel accepted and understood.

I'm an integrative therapist which means I will draw on a variety of different theories and techniques that I believe are relevant to what you are experiencing and what works for you.

Underpinning the core of my practice is my belief that no one knows you better than yourself and therefore therapy is led by you and what you want and need. I'm here to listen to you, to support you, to help you better understand yourself and your relationships. This will enable you to make helpful decisions for yourself.

I help clients who would describe themselves as people-pleasers, perfectionists or procrastinators. Perhaps experiencing a general feeling of anxiety or carrying around a feeling that they are not good enough, who are often worried about getting things wrong or saying the wrong thing. These behaviours and feelings can be hard to deal with, especially alone. They thrive on isolation, silence and internal judgement, they often feel hard to share but the antidote to the root of these behaviours and feelings is empathy. Sharing them with someone who understands and can empathise with you without judgement is a key part of the process of transforming them by taking power away from the internal critic and instead increasing self-acceptance and the feeling that you are good enough.

My practice is trauma informed, which means I’m never sitting across from you thinking “What is wrong with you?” but instead I’m thinking about the survival strategies that you have adopted to keep you safe in response to what has happened in your life.

I draw on techniques and methods from humanistic theories such as Person centred, Gestalt, Transactional Analysis and AEDP as well as CBT techniques from behavioural theories. 

I offer face to face sessions on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at Options Wellbeing in Westbourne or Wessex Health in Christchurch.

I also have flexible availability for online sessions throughout the week, please message me for more info on timings.

As a humanistic therapist I believe in the importance of healthy connection with ourselves and others as a way to achieve satisfaction and meaning in our lives. Exploring ourselves and our relationships can enable us to build a stronger sense of self that helps us to experience life more fully.

I work to help people feel more confident in themselves by supporting them to integrate their emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual aspects of themselves. By working together in the present I will help you to develop a greater self-awareness so that you can better understand yourself and your reactions to others. We will also explore how your experiences have shaped you and why this is so important for the person you are now.  

I believe the body is a great tool to escape the confusion of the mind and, by learning to pay attention to sensations and the responses in your body, to different situations and people, we can start to understand what we want and need to enable us to make helpful choices for ourselves. Our western culture prioritises intellect and as a result we spend most of our time in our thoughts, which can be exhausting and stressful and can keep us distanced from how we really feel. Tuning into our body gives our brains a much needed rest, supports our nervous system and helps us access our emotions. 

Before this can happen you must feel safe and comfortable enough to share your thoughts and feelings with me, which can take time. Trust is such an important element of any counselling relationship, which is why I work to make you feel accepted and understood.

I'm an integrative therapist which means I will draw on a variety of different theories and techniques that I believe are relevant to what you are experiencing and what works for you.

Underpinning the core of my practice is my belief that no one knows you better than yourself and therefore therapy is led by you and what you want and need. I'm here to listen to you, to support you, to help you better understand yourself and your relationships. This will enable you to make helpful decisions for yourself. 

I help clients who would describe themselves as people-pleasers, perfectionists or procrastinators. Perhaps experiencing a general feeling of anxiety or carrying around a feeling that they are not good enough, who are often worried about getting things wrong or saying the wrong thing. These behaviours and feelings can be hard to deal with, especially alone. They thrive on isolation, silence and internal judgement, they often feel hard to share but the antidote to the root of these behaviours and feelings is empathy. Sharing them with someone who understands and can empathise with you without judgement is a key part of the process of transforming them by taking power away from the internal critic and instead increasing self-acceptance and the feeling that you are good enough.

My practice is trauma informed, which means I’m never sitting across from you thinking “What is wrong with you?” but instead I’m thinking about the survival strategies that you have adopted to keep you safe in response to what has happened in your life. 

I draw on techniques and methods from humanistic theories such as Person centred, Gestalt, Transactional Analysis and AEDP as well as CBT techniques from behavioural theories. 

I offer face to face sessions on Wednesdays in Salisbury at The Practice Rooms.

I also have flexible availability for online sessions throughout the week, please message me for more info.

As a humanistic therapist I believe in the importance of healthy connection with ourselves and others as a way to achieve satisfaction and meaning in our lives. Exploring ourselves and our relationships can enable us to build a stronger sense of self that helps us to experience life more fully.

I work to help people feel more confident in themselves by supporting them to integrate their emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual aspects of themselves. By working together in the present I will help you to develop a greater self-awareness so that you can better understand yourself and your reactions to others. We will also explore how your experiences have shaped you and why this is so important for the person you are now.

I believe the body is a great tool to escape the confusion of the mind and, by learning to pay attention to sensations and the responses in your body, to different situations and people, we can start to understand what we want and need to enable us to make helpful choices for ourselves. Our western culture prioritises intellect and as a result we spend most of our time in our thoughts, which can be exhausting and stressful and can keep us distanced from how we really feel. Tuning into our body gives our brains a much needed rest, supports our nervous system and helps us access our emotions.

Before this can happen you must feel safe and comfortable enough to share your thoughts and feelings with me, which can take time. Trust is such an important element of any counselling relationship, which is why I work to make you feel accepted and understood.

I'm an integrative therapist which means I will draw on a variety of different theories and techniques that I believe are relevant to what you are experiencing and what works for you.

Underpinning the core of my practice is my belief that no one knows you better than yourself and therefore therapy is led by you and what you want and need. I'm here to listen to you, to support you, to help you better understand yourself and your relationships. This will enable you to make helpful decisions for yourself.

I help clients who would describe themselves as people-pleasers, perfectionists or procrastinators. Perhaps experiencing a general feeling of anxiety or carrying around a feeling that they are not good enough, who are often worried about getting things wrong or saying the wrong thing. These behaviours and feelings can be hard to deal with, especially alone. They thrive on isolation, silence and internal judgement, they often feel hard to share but the antidote to the root of these behaviours and feelings is empathy. Sharing them with someone who understands and can empathise with you without judgement is a key part of the process of transforming them by taking power away from the internal critic and instead increasing self-acceptance and the feeling that you are good enough.

My practice is trauma informed, which means I’m never sitting across from you thinking “What is wrong with you?” but instead I’m thinking about the survival strategies that you have adopted to keep you safe in response to what has happened in your life.

I draw on techniques and methods from humanistic theories such as Person centred, Gestalt, Transactional Analysis and AEDP as well as CBT techniques from behavioural theories.