Patrick Keep

I'm available for private clients on Wednesdays from 10.00am and into the evening and on Thursday evenings. Currently Wednesday mornings are booked, but with a few intermittent gaps.

All my NHS work is by phone, since COVID. Clients find it very helpful for its flexibility, anonymity and the lack of fuss involved. Given a free choice in advance however, most clients dislike the phone (but it tends to help quickly and gently).

I offer face to face walking therapy (ie, we go for a walk and talk side by side); video therapy and phone therapy. I will do clinic work but prefer not too (mental distress is not an illness, in my book).

I tend to work with clients who have been through some stuff. At last count, all were over 35 ad have discovered that the strategies that have worked for years no longer seem to. 

Many people find that distressing things that have happened in the past and were thought to be buried, have come back to haunt them. For others a sudden turn of events has unseated them and they need help to settle to the reality of their situation.

For a few, mental distress has been a continual burden and they are looking for help once again to get a perspective on their place in the world.

Quite often, my clients have just "gritted their teeth and got on with it" in the way that they were brought up. Now something else has happened so that they are looking for help in finding an additional approach. The "just getting on with it" approach does work, but can be both painful, isolating and exhausting. Sharing the burden, for them can be as helpful as any new tactics. 

The first session after contact is free. Mostly this is for the new client to outline the causes of their distress and to chat through the modes of communication available. These sessions can usually be booked very quickly.

Clinical sessions take longer to arrange as I don't have a permanent arrangement for a room.