Eleanor Murphy

I currently have availability and welcome enquiries.

Hello and welcome, it's a pleasure to meet you.

You may have come to find me today having been struggling with distressing feelings and experiences; ongoing anxiety, panic, deep upset, stress, disconnection, loneliness, emotional shutdown, endlessly serving the needs of others, being mistaken as 'the strong one' and being lost in a world that doesn't seem to understand what you're going through (and perhaps you don't, either). You may be finding that you are acting or thinking in ways that worry, anger or distress you. Perhaps you have reached out to those around you to find this not helpful or enough, or even reached out to your GP only to find a frighteningly long waiting list for limited means of support. Maybe you've developed coping mechanisms which have gotten out of hand; over or under-eating, hardly leaving the house or hardly being home, over or under-sleeping, self-harming, pushing people away, distracting yourself by being 'on the go' non-stop, or becoming excessively absorbed by activities such as gaming or exercise, as just a few examples. Perhaps you've even tried other types of counselling in the past, but feel it didn't attend to the roots of your problems. I know you're trying your best to cope, but even so, you may feel like you're sinking right now.

My name is Eleanor Murphy, and together we can work on getting you back to the surface and beyond. I am a passionate adult psychodynamic counsellor currently taking on clients at my private practice in Hinckley town centre.​ I work with a diverse range of people and presenting problems, and am particularly drawn to supporting those experiencing anxiety, panic, lostness, low confidence, burnout, relational problems, and those in enmeshed, consuming and dependant relationships. Many of my clients feel that they are seen as strong, confident, or as the 'parental' one, and are exhausted by their own struggles and needs being overlooked and unattended to; perhaps you feel this way too.

Psychodynamic counselling has a long, rich history of alleviating distress, facilitating personal growth, increasing self-awareness and growing self-compassion. It is an in-depth form of counselling suited to discovering the roots of your problems and improving psychological wellbeing (where other therapeutic approaches may focus on surface symptoms only). Due to the depth of this work, it is not time limited and consistently takes place once weekly (in 50 minute sessions) for the duration of sessions. Psychodynamic therapy is shown by research to have high effectiveness with lasting, long-term benefits, and aims to facilitate you living your most full, authentic and unburdened life.

This form of therapy recognises the influence of a dynamic unconscious, that is, an unconscious part of our minds which guides our automatic behaviours, thoughts, feelings and perceptions, based on our past experiences. Accordingly, in addition to exploring your current struggles together, we place value on thinking about past experiences that informed unhelpful narratives about the world and yourself. These felt senses and ideas, many of which form in our early years, become part of our 'blueprint'; our unconscious way of perceiving and reacting to the world. It is in considering our own blueprints that we can come to know ourselves deeply, discover new perspectives, and gain autonomy and freedom in our lives.

Psychodynamic counselling invites you to talk about whatever feels important to you in the moment. It pays deep attention to what you bring, curious about language, symbolism and metaphor which may help us to understand your unconscious communication. All of our therapeutic work takes place solely within our 50-minute sessions, once per week, helping you to feel safe and secure within a predictable way of working together. There is no homework or exercises to undertake; all of our work takes place within sessions. The process is necessarily organic and individual to you.  

If it sounds like we could be a good match, I invite you to get in touch with me via email, text or telephone (please do be aware that I will not return missed calls where no voicemail or associated text is left as I am unable to confirm that it is safe and appropriate to do so from a confidentiality and risk perspective) and I will respond as soon as possible.

I warmly welcome an initial free of charge 15 minute introductory phone call so that we are able to get a sense of our combined availability and potential to be a good therapeutic fit. 

Following this, we may choose to arrange a consultation session where we have an opportunity to meet in person, where you can get a further sense of me and our space, and where I can come to understand a little more about your life and the experiences that have brought you to get in touch. This is an exploratory no-obligation meeting where we can get a feel for if sessions with me might be well suited and useful to you at this time. Consultation sessions are 50 minutes in length and are charged at my usual session rate of £60.00.