Benoit Bertrand-Delfau

Welcome! My name is Benoit and I am an Existential Psychotherapist. I practise in English and French.

I see clients in person on Monday, Wednesday evenings, Thursday and Friday. Sessions usually happen at the same time every week, last 50 minutes and take place in comfortable, purpose-designed therapy rooms in Central London W1 and EC1. I also have availability for Zoom sessions at other times by appointment.

I typically see clients weekly for a year or more but I also offer therapy over shorter 12 week periods.

I remember how difficult it was to find the right psychotherapist for me. Do not hesitate to drop me an email. My door is open!

Do you feel unsettled and lost, or at a turning point in your life? Do you find it difficult to be with other people? Are you troubled by your past? Do you act out in unhelpful ways despite your best resolutions? 

Psychotherapy enables you to explore these questions and others: who you are, how you are in the world, and the way forward.

I am a qualified Existential Psychotherapist. I am interested in working with adults who may experience issues around codependence, problematic use of alcohol or substances, childhood trauma, gender identity and sexuality. I also support people going through 12-steps programmes of recovery. 

My clients find me warm, insightful, informal and kind. I create a safe but challenging space for you to heal, grow and find meaning. I am LGBTQIA+, welcoming, and open to exploring all experiences and issues of identity and difference. 

Psychotherapy with me will offer you a trusted space and time that you may not find elsewhere in your life. Our sessions are based on a different kind of talking and listening which allow meanings and possibilities to come to awareness.

Together in partnership, we will explore your present lived experience, and how you currently see your past and hopes for the future. Through our work, you may learn new ways to live happily and creatively. You may come to feel more able to welcome change and uncertainty, be more truthful in who you are and develop more satisfying relationships.

Existential Psychotherapy asks: “Who am I, and how am I to live?” 

You may come to therapy with a specific issue in mind; however, our weekly meetings will probably reveal profound questions on what it means to exist for you. Existential Psychotherapy holds that these questions are not problems to be solved but quests to live and that distress arises when we forget to ask them ourselves. 

No two therapeutic journeys are the same. We tend to share the questions of life but our personal responses distinguish us. Existential Psychotherapy is akin to setting off for a life-changing adventure. I act as a fellow traveller in this journey: I provide a safe holding environment, I encourage, I pace and assist you in the exploration. I tailor the therapy to the needs of each client. For some that may be focusing on understanding themselves, for others on effecting change in their life, and often a combination of the two. 

Typically sessions are explorative, non-directive; we follow what comes up for you and work towards understanding rather than explanation. There will be no pre-determined plan or agenda, homework or questionnaires, but rather a freedom to discover what unfolds in your life. While fundamentally Existential in my ethos and practice, I may also draw on other therapeutic approaches depending on what you want and would benefit from. 

About me:

I am training at the School of Psychotherapy and Counselling at Regent’s University, holding a Diploma in Psychotherapy and Counselling (distinction). This course immersed me in the Psychoanalytic and Humanistic/Integrative traditions before I chose to specialise in Existential Psychotherapy with its basis in philosophy, phenomenology, and ethical discourse.

I work privately and volunteer with charities, noticeably the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Psychotherapy is my second career. I hold a MBA from HEC School of Management in Paris and held senior management positions in the beauty and fashion industry. 

I offer potential clients a free 30-minute confidential consultation over Zoom. This consultation is meant to give you a sense of me and how I work, as well as to ask any questions that you may have. It also gives me a sense of you and what you'd like help with and how we could work together. There is no engagement from both sides and you can choose not to carry on with the first session. 

If we progress together, I will send you a contract before the first session. This session differs from the ones following in that I gather all the important details about what's been happening for you and what you want for yourself, including a simple risk assessment, making sure you have all the pertinent information to make an informed decision about therapy. We will also discuss and review the contract. The first session lasts 50 minutes I charge at my regular fee.

Once complete, if you decide you want psychotherapy sessions, we’d then agree on a time for you to get started and sign the contract down.