Karen Stevenson

I currently have a small amount of availability within my practice, either face to face at my office in Hampton village or online, as preferred, and work Monday to Friday.  However, my availability is subject to change, so do please contact me for more specific details of days or times.

I am a qualified psychotherapist based in Hampton village in the London Borough of Richmond, offering individual counselling, psychotherapy and art psychotherapy to adult clients. I provide a safe, non-judgemental and empathic space where we will work together to make sense of the difficulties and challenges you are experiencing, and I am able to work both online and face-to-face, depending on your preference.

You:

• May have been feeling overwhelmed and need some help untangling your feelings or seeing a different perspective

• May have a particular conflict or difficulty to resolve

• May be struggling with depression, anxiety, PTSD, addiction or be a survivor of serious childhood trauma

• Or may simply want the space to explore who you are and what you want from your life and relationships

Whether it is short-term support with a specific issue or something more long-term and open-ended, I work in a strongly relational way, adapting my approach to suit the specific needs of the individual. I believe everyone has the potential for growth and personal transformation, whatever has happened in a person’s life, and I aim to facilitate change by helping to bring limiting self-beliefs into awareness in order to challenge them, consider how these beliefs might be affecting present experience and illuminate possibilities for choice.

This is a space for you, and I tailor the work to your needs and what you want to achieve, but to give you an idea of what to expect from a session:

We might begin with a general check-in and reflection on how you are currently feeling at the start of the 50 minutes. 

You may have arrived with something pressing to work with, in which case we will focus the session around that.

At other times, you might not know what you want to discuss that week and it may be helpful to remain open to what might emerge.

As a core part of my approach is to help you pay attention to the story you tell about yourself and your life and begin noticing any patterns, sometimes the work may involve reflecting on your past experiences and relationships and how they have shaped you; or, conversely, you may wish to stay with what is happening for you in the present.

Likewise, some sessions might feel spontaneous and free-flowing or we might work in a more directive or structured way when that feels appropriate.

Sometimes I use bits of what is called ‘psychoeducation’, as it can be helpful to understand the reasons for the symptoms you are experiencing, especially with physiological symptoms, such as rapid heartbeat and shallow breathing.  

Plus, as a trained art therapist, registered with HCPC, I might encourage you to draw on your imagination and creativity to facilitate the process.  This is helpful because image-making (whether this is simply using a metaphor to reflect on something, responding to a postcard image  or creating your own) helps externalise experience, so that it becomes possible to reflect upon it. In this way art becomes a bridge between the person's inner world and outer reality, and also between client and therapist. Unconscious thoughts and feelings that surface through the artwork can be worked through together.

It is important to find the right therapist for you, so after an initial telephone or email conversation, I offer a first consultation and assessment for a reduced fee of £30. Then, if you decide that I am the right fit for your needs, sessions will usually take place on a weekly basis, at the same time each week, and last 50 minutes.