Damien Melhem

Welcome! I specialise in traumatic loss, grief, depression, and existential crises. I offer discounted rates for grief therapy and Blue Light Card holders.

If you choose me as your therapist, I will support you on your healing journey. I provide a space where you can fully be yourself. A space that is open-minded, empathetic, and free from judgement or unsolicited advice. I will help you understand your feelings, what has happened to you, and where you want to go next.

It took me 20 years to start therapy. I knew I needed it in my 20s due to a difficult and traumatic childhood and teenage years. However, I believed I could handle it on my own by reading books, meditating, doing exercise, following spiritual teachers and confronting myself fearlessly. I have to be honest, by my mid-30s, I had managed to become happy with who I was, but it came at the cost of some bad decisions, conflicts with friends and family, feeling lost in my career, and a lot of time wasted. When I finally started therapy at the age of 40 I realised two things. First, I had a universe of unresolved issues inside me—pain, tangled emotions, and unfulfilled dreams—that were causing anxiety and unhealthy habits. Second, therapy is a massive shortcut in a finite life.

If you haven’t experienced deep trauma, you might be able to manage on your own and feel okay with who you are, the decisions you’ve made and with life itself. The only problem is that it might take years instead of months—years that you could have spent feeling better. At least, that was my experience. We are all different, and you have to decide what is best for yourself.

For the past two years, I have worked with the Bereavement Counselling Service South West, an NHS-funded charity, gaining extensive experience in supporting individuals through traumatic loss, grief, existential crises, childhood trauma, anxiety and depression.

I would like to share with you my own experience. Through therapy, I discovered that something almost magical happens when I share my difficult experiences with a therapist. It’s vastly different from merely listening to my thoughts and responding to them internally. When I talk to someone who listens fully, with empathy and without judgment, and whose sole intention is to understand me, it transforms the experience. When the therapist, after accepting me as I am, asks questions to clarify and untangle my emotions, it helps me to see clearly how I feel and to connect with my wounds in a way that opens the door to healing.

This is the kind of therapy I offer: a space where you can be your true self. I will support you in processing painful experiences, accompanying you on a healing journey to understand and accept what has happened and realise that you have the power to live a life worth living.

In our first session, I will explain how confidentiality works in therapy. We’ll talk about what brought you here, and you’ll get a sense of whether I’m the right therapist for you.

After that, we’ll review your progress every six sessions or so to see how the therapy is helping and decide on the next steps.