Anxiety and worry
When your mind will not settle and everything feels urgent.
Online Counselling and Therapy · Belfast
Online Counselling and Therapy in Belfast
Online counselling and therapy for Belfast, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Belfast, from the city centre and the Cathedral Quarter to the streets around the City Hall, with the same BACP-registered, confidential support as an in-person session, and no journey.
BACP registered member25+ years of experienceLived experience
ConfidentialA safe, private space
Person-centredThe therapy fits you
In and around Belfast
Counselling and Therapy for Belfast, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Belfast: from the city centre and the Cathedral Quarter to the Falls, the Shankill, east Belfast and the south of the city
- Known for
- The City Hall, the Titanic Quarter and the shipyard cranes
- Region
- Northern Ireland
- Local NHS / support route
- NHS psychological therapies (Northern Ireland)
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Belfast
What is going on for people in Belfast?
A lot of people in Belfast get as far as opening a search page and cannot finish the sentence. Not in crisis, not obviously unwell, just flat, short-tempered, sleeping poorly and drinking a little more on a Friday than they meant to. Students around Botanic and Stranmillis meet it in a first winter away from home. People who took a flat in the Titanic Quarter for the job meet it when the novelty thins and the evenings get long. And in a city where many families carry hurt from a difficult past, there is a strong habit of measuring your own trouble against someone else's and deciding it does not really count. That habit is the main reason people wait.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Belfast
Cathedral QuarterTitanic QuarterFallsShankilleast BelfastBotanicStranmillisOrmeauBallyhackamoreAndersonstownMaloneSydenham
Wherever you are in Belfast, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Belfast
Official figures for Belfast, for context rather than as a description of you.
In the Belfast council area, 21.3% of adults reported a high anxiety score (6 or above out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, in line with the Northern Ireland average of 19.0%. Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Personal well-being estimates by local authority (Year ending March 2023 (2022-23)).
In the Belfast council area, 12.2% of adults reported a low happiness score (4 or below out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, well above the Northern Ireland average of 8.2%. Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Personal well-being estimates by local authority (Year ending March 2023 (2022-23)).
In the Belfast council area, 8.6% of adults reported a low life satisfaction score (4 or below out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, well above the Northern Ireland average of 5.2%. Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Personal well-being estimates by local authority (Year ending March 2023 (2022-23)).
Reviewed June 2026.
What actually happens in counselling and therapy?
Counselling and therapy here is one steady starting point for whatever you are carrying, anxiety, low mood, addiction, relationships or the past, integrative and led by you, so we begin with what matters most and shape the work around you.
Because the work itself is the same wherever you live, the detail sits in one place rather than all of them: counselling and therapy in detail sets out the methods, session lengths and fees covers the practicalities, and professional standards and registration covers accountability.
What do I need for an online session?
Sessions run over a secure, encrypted video link, held to the same BACP confidentiality as meeting in person. After a free fifteen-minute call, you join from any private space on a phone, tablet or laptop.
This work is done online, by secure video, from Hove, which suits a first attempt at therapy well. You can take the free 15-minute consultation from your own kitchen without telling anyone you are going anywhere. An hour a week is the usual starting shape, at £80 / 60 min. Headphones and a shut door are enough if you share a place near Queen's University Belfast. Nothing is committed to past the next appointment.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What can counselling and therapy in Belfast help with?
Low mood and depression
For the flatness, exhaustion and loss of interest that drain the colour from things.
Addiction and habits
Alcohol, drugs, gambling or behaviours that have stopped feeling like a choice.
Relationships
Conflict, distance and trust, as a couple or on your own.
Trauma and the past
When something you have been through still shapes your present.
Life feeling stuck
For the big transitions, losses and crossroads that leave you unsure which way to turn.
Counselling and Therapy in Belfast
Why people in Belfast come for counselling and therapy
Counselling and therapy is the entry point, and it asks nothing of you at the door. No diagnosis, no label, no tidy account of what is wrong. You bring what is happening now, we work out together what it is costing you, and we look at what would make this month more bearable than the last. It is shorter than the deeper work: many people come weekly for somewhere between six and twenty sessions and stop when they have what they came for. That is a different job from relationship counselling, which starts from a partnership, and from psychotherapy, which goes back through your history. Alongside this you can ask your GP to refer you to talking therapies through Health and Social Care, and free support exists across the city: Lifeline on 0808 808 8000 around the clock, AWARE NI running groups for low mood, Inspire Wellbeing for wider wellbeing help.
A free, unhurried first step
Not sure if it is right for you? A free fifteen-minute call is a no-obligation way to talk it through.
Book a free 15-minute callFinding support in Belfast
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Belfast, your GP can refer you to talking therapies and counselling through Health and Social Care. You can find support through Lifeline, Northern Ireland's crisis helpline, free on 0808 808 8000.
Private sessions with me usually mean you can start sooner and stay with the same counsellor throughout; I am glad to work alongside any NHS or GP support you already have.
Other local and national support verified for this area includes:
If you need urgent help now
This is not a crisis service. If anyone is in immediate danger call 999. For urgent mental health support, call Lifeline free on 0808 808 8000. Lifeline is free on 0808 808 8000, the Samaritans are on 116 123, and you can text SHOUT to 85258.
Belfast questions
Online Counselling and Therapy in Belfast: common questions
I still cannot put words to what is wrong. Is that a reason not to book?
It is the ordinary reason people book. Most first sessions begin with something vague, and the work of the early weeks is putting words to it. You will not be asked to arrive with a summary, and there is no requirement to have a diagnosis or a name for what you are carrying.
How is this different from psychotherapy?
Counselling here stays close to the present and tends to run shorter, from a handful of sessions to a few months, focused on what is happening now. Psychotherapy is longer and goes further back, into early relationships and repeating patterns. Many people start here and only later decide they want the deeper piece.
How long is the wait, and what will it cost me?
There is normally no long queue for a private appointment, and the free 15-minute consultation can usually be arranged within days. After that it is £80 / 60 min, £100 / 90 min or £120 / 120 min. You pay per session, so a run of six can be reviewed as you go.
What can the health service offer me in Belfast alongside this?
Your GP is the way in and can refer you to talking therapies through Health and Social Care. Lifeline is free on 0808 808 8000 at any time of the day or night, AWARE NI runs support groups for depression, and Inspire Wellbeing offers mental health and wellbeing support across Northern Ireland.
I am at Queen's and go home in the summer. Can sessions continue?
They can, because the appointment travels with you. Students who move between term-time rooms in Botanic and a family house elsewhere keep the same weekly slot rather than stopping in June and starting again in October. Continuity matters more than the address you happen to be sitting in.
Do I need to know what is wrong before I start?
Not at all. Many people in Belfast come simply feeling stretched, low or unsettled without a name for it. Counselling gives you room to talk it through and make sense of things at your own pace, online by secure video from wherever you are in the city.
How quickly can I begin counselling in Belfast?
Most people start within a week. A free 15-minute consultation comes first, then online sessions by secure video from home anywhere in Belfast, from Ballyhackamore to the Falls. There is no waiting room and no journey across the city to the Cathedral Quarter or beyond.
What does counselling cost compared with getting help through the NHS in Belfast?
Sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, with 90 and 120-minute options at £100 and £120, plus a free 15-minute consultation. NHS talking therapies through your Belfast GP are free but can involve a wait, whereas private online counselling can usually begin much sooner.
Do you offer evening counselling sessions for people working in Belfast?
Yes. Evening appointments are available by secure video, so you can talk after work without heading into town or through Grand Central Station. Many Belfast clients find a quiet hour at home, whether they are students in Botanic or commuters coming off the Glider, easier than a daytime clinic.
Online Counselling and Therapy in Belfast, whenever you are ready
A free fifteen-minute call is the simplest place to start, no obligation, just a chance to see if we are the right fit.
Also available online across Northern Ireland: Lisburn, Newtownabbey, Bangor. See all of Northern Ireland.
People who come for counselling and therapy in Belfast often also look at anxiety counselling, depression counselling and psychotherapy.
There is more on this in my writing: how change actually sticks and where to start when you cannot name it.
Closer to the Sussex coast? The same counselling and therapy is available in person, in Brighton, or see every area I cover.