Recurring patterns
When the same difficulty keeps returning in different forms.
Online Psychotherapy · Edinburgh
Online Psychotherapy in Edinburgh
Online psychotherapy for Edinburgh, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Edinburgh, from the Old Town and New Town to the streets around the castle, 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 Edinburgh
Psychotherapy for Edinburgh, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Edinburgh: from the Old Town and New Town to Leith, Morningside and Portobello
- Known for
- The castle, Arthur's Seat and the Royal Mile
- Region
- Scotland
- Local NHS / support route
- NHS psychological therapies (Scotland)
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Edinburgh
What is going on for people in Edinburgh?
There is a version of Edinburgh success that looks complete from outside and feels borrowed from within. You did well at school, you did well at the University of Edinburgh, you have a serious job and a flat in Morningside or Corstorphine, and you have spent your adult life waiting to be found out. That is not modesty; it is a pattern, and it started long before any of the achievements did. People come to longer therapy when shorter work has taken the edge off and left the structure standing: the same fear of being seen, the same retreat when somebody gets close, the same shape recurring in every relationship.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Edinburgh
Old TownNew TownLeithMorningsidePortobelloStockbridgeBruntsfieldMarchmontCorstorphineNewington
Wherever you are in Edinburgh, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Edinburgh
Official figures for Edinburgh, for context rather than as a description of you.
In the City of Edinburgh, 9.3% of adults reported a low happiness score (4 or below out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, in line with the Scotland average of 9.1%. Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Personal well-being estimates by local authority (Year ending March 2023 (2022-23)).
In the City of Edinburgh, 30.1% of adults reported a high anxiety score (6 or above out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, compared with a Scotland average of 24.1%, a difference the survey's margin of error does not confirm. Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Personal well-being estimates by local authority (Year ending March 2023 (2022-23)).
In the City of Edinburgh, 4.0% of adults reported a low life satisfaction score (4 or below out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, compared with a Scotland average of 6.1%, a difference the survey's margin of error does not confirm. 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 psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy here goes a little deeper and usually a little longer than counselling, into the patterns, beliefs and early relationships that shape how you feel now, so change is understood at the root and holds.
What actually happens in the room is the same everywhere, so it is written up once: see the main psychotherapy page for the methods, how I work for fees and session lengths, and my credentials and registration if you want to check who you would be working with.
What happens in 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.
Open-ended therapy needs a hold that ordinary life cannot dislodge. Bradley is in Hove and there is no room in Edinburgh, so the hour is online and it stays put: through a promotion, a move across the city, a month when the whole place is overrun. There is no travel to negotiate at either end of it. Across a year or more of weekly sessions, that reliability is not a convenience but one of the conditions that makes the work possible.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What does psychotherapy help with?
Attachment and relationships
How early bonds still shape the way you connect now.
Identity and self-worth
Working with a harsh inner voice and a shaky sense of self.
The past in the present
When something unresolved keeps replaying beneath the surface.
Beyond symptom relief
Understanding the root, not just quieting the symptom.
Lasting change
Insight that holds, so change does not slip back.
Psychotherapy in Edinburgh
Why people in Edinburgh come for psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is slower and goes considerably further down. We work with early relationships, with attachment, and with what you concluded about yourself before you had the words to question it. Self-worth is usually at the centre, particularly the version that is entirely contingent on achievement, which a competitive city keeps rewarding right up until it stops working. We will look at recurring patterns in relationships, at what you do when somebody gets close, and at the identity you constructed in order to be acceptable. This is open-ended, weekly, and generally longer than a year. It is not the right response to an acute crisis: for that, Breathing Space is free on 0800 83 85 87, and a GP referral opens NHS psychological therapies, with NHS inform setting out the alternatives. It is the right response to something that keeps coming back.
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 Edinburgh
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Edinburgh, your GP can refer you to NHS psychological therapies, and you can find trusted self-help through NHS inform. You can find support through NHS inform; for confidential listening support, Breathing Space is free on 0800 83 85 87.
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 NHS 24 on 111 for urgent mental health support. Breathing Space is free on 0800 83 85 87, the Samaritans are on 116 123, and you can text SHOUT to 85258.
Edinburgh questions
Online Psychotherapy in Edinburgh: common questions
Would psychotherapy or counselling suit me better?
Counselling if there is a defined, current difficulty you want to work through. Psychotherapy if you have already done that and keep arriving at the same place by different routes. The free consultation is partly for deciding this, and we can change direction later if the first choice proves wrong.
How long is long-term, honestly?
More than a year in most cases, at one session a week, and some people continue for several. Nothing binds you, and people do stop earlier than that. But the changes that bring someone to this work tend to consolidate slowly, rather than arriving as one clean realisation.
What does weekly therapy cost across that time?
Each weekly hour is £80, paid session by session. Some weeks people take ninety minutes at £100 where more space is needed, and £120 buys two hours. There is no retainer and no block to purchase. That first 15-minute conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
Can the health service in Scotland provide open-ended therapy?
The route is your GP, who can refer you to NHS psychological therapies. These are typically time-limited and structured, and availability differs across services, so ask what your surgery can access. NHS inform describes the options, and Breathing Space, free on 0800 83 85 87, covers the hours when nothing else runs.
I feel like a fraud despite everything going well. Is that worth bringing?
It is one of the commonest reasons people begin this work. The gap between an outwardly successful life and a private conviction of not being good enough does not close by adding further achievements to the pile. It closes slowly, by understanding where the conviction came from.
What's the difference between counselling and psychotherapy for me?
Counselling tends to focus on a current difficulty over a shorter period, while psychotherapy explores longer-term patterns and their origins in more depth. Many Edinburgh clients begin with one and move towards the other as trust builds. We can talk through which fits you.
How soon could deeper psychotherapy start in Edinburgh?
We can usually begin within a week or two. After a free 15-minute consultation, we agree a regular weekly slot for longer-term work. Sessions run by secure video across Edinburgh, so there is no NHS Lothian referral to wait for and no clinic in the city to attend.
Is private psychotherapy worth it against NHS options in Edinburgh?
That is your call. Fees are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for two hours, with a free first consultation. NHS Lothian offers limited long-term psychotherapy and often a wait, so private online work gives Edinburgh clients depth, continuity and a start on their own timing.
Can the depth of psychotherapy really come across online in Edinburgh?
Yes. Longer-term work depends on trust and consistency far more than on sharing a room, and both build well over secure video. From your own space in Stockbridge, Leith or anywhere in Edinburgh, weekly sessions give the steady, private setting deeper therapy needs.
Online Psychotherapy in Edinburgh, 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 Scotland: Glasgow, Dunfermline, Falkirk. See all of Scotland.
Related work in Edinburgh: counselling and therapy, depression counselling and trauma counselling.
If you would like to read more first, I have written about dislocation and the modern world.
If you can reach the south coast, this work is also done face to face in Brighton — all in-person areas are listed here.