Graham Wise

Currently, I have one vacancy from June 2024

I shall have a vacancy from September 2024 

Hello, I’m a principal psychodynamic psychotherapist with 30 years’ of experience working within the NHS mental health and psychoanalytic psychotherapy services. I also see people privately and can be contacted for psychotherapy consultation and for longer-term, face-to-face treatment.

People often come to see me because they are unable to resolve or understand their difficulties like depression or anxiety on their own and may have become unwell. I help people to develop a better understanding of themselves, and to become aware of the inner obstacles and relationships that seem to be preventing the possibility of good mental health.

Feeling better or change in your mental health often comes from the insight found by working through the difficulties that can occur within our discussions as sessions progress, and I think of this as an example of us working towards developing a substantial sense of self, or good mental health.  

Central to psychodynamic psychotherapy is the recognition that our emotional life is a fundamental part of being human, and that we might all need help with thinking about our thoughts and feelings at an unconscious level during our lives. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is one of the few types of psychotherapy that shines a light on your unconscious, and with further reflection psychotherapy can help you to develop a substantial sense of self over time and diminish suffering if that is what’s required.

Psychodynamic treatment involves meeting with me on a weekly or more often basis for sessions that last fifty minutes. This reliable, confidential setting gives us the chance to connect with and understand what is happening at a deeper level, and so even very complex persistent and pervasive emotional and developmental difficulties can be faced. 

From my experience and training people tend to come to see me with feeling depressed, preoccupied, or anxious and may have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, treatment resistant depression, melancholia, and personality difficulties. This might mean that we may work more intensively over several sessions a week when required. I am also happy to meet with you if you are experiencing other difficulties and want to make sense of your feelings, relationships and position in the world.

I see trainee psychotherapists, counsellors, and clinical psychologists through their BPC, BACP or BPS accredited trainings. Currently I manage and clinically supervise the honorary psychotherapist NHS placements at Harrow Psychotherapy Service. I also teach and supervise psychiatrists training in medical psychoanalytic psychotherapy. 

I have worked in NHS mental health services since 1991. I'm a principal psychodynamic psychotherapist and clinical supervisor within CNWL NHS Mental Health Trust London. I manage and supervise the honorary psychotherapist placement programme for trainee psychotherapists and counsellors.  I also teach and supervise psychiatrists training in medical psychoanalytic psychotherapy. I have also worked as a psychotherapist in Berkshire NHS personality disorders service from 2005 - 2010, honorary psychotherapist at the NHS Isis Centre in Oxford 2011- 2013 and at the Tavistock Centre in London from 2007 - 2015. Specialist Psychological Services Oxford Health NHS Trust 2015-2020.