Stratford · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Psychotherapy for Stratford
Psychotherapy suits you when you have weathered a crisis before and the same thing keeps returning: relationships that end the same way, work you keep undermining, old feelings stirred up by every visit home. From Stratford we would meet weekly over secure video, for as many months as the work keeps earning its place, because the Hove room is 94 minutes away by car.
The practical facts for Stratford
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Stratford by car
- About 94 minutes with clear roads (70.7 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- Newham Talking Therapies, 020 8175 1770
- Fees
- £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90, £120 for 120. The first 15-minute call is free.
- Registration
- BACP registered member, no. 109340 (check the register); UKCP student member in advanced psychotherapy training.
A district that rebuilt itself, and people trying to
Stratford knows about starting over. After severe economic decline in the late 20th century, regeneration tied to the 2012 Olympics brought Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Westfield Stratford City and new university campuses, and the area is now east London's second business location after Canary Wharf. People arrive here for a fresh start: a first job in Stratford City, a postgraduate place at UCL East, a role at Here East, which says 6,500 people work and study on its site. A new postcode can change a great deal. What it seldom changes by itself is the pattern you brought along, the way you go quiet when you need something, or take on too much and then resent it. If you grew up in Stratford New Town or Maryland, you may carry a version shaped by a family and a district that both lived through hard years. Psychotherapy is the place for that older layer.
Longer work on what sits underneath
Shorter counselling usually stays with the present difficulty. Psychotherapy reaches further back and usually lasts longer, because the aim is to understand why something keeps recurring as well as getting through this particular round of it. We look at what you learned early about closeness, anger, needing people and being let down, and we notice when those old expectations surface in how you relate to me, then talk about them openly. Internal Family Systems is one approach I often bring in, getting to know the part of you that criticises and the part that keeps the peace. No fixed number of sessions is set in advance. A piece of work might take months or run beyond a year, and we review it regularly so it never drifts. On training, since it matters for longer work: My BACP membership is at registered level, and with UKCP I hold student membership while I train, a step short of UKCP registration. My counselling practice goes back over 25 years and includes my own recovery, so nothing in yours needs tidying up before you bring it.
Where long work often begins in Stratford
A fresh start that wasn't
You moved to Stratford City or East Village for a new chapter, and within a year the same loneliness or the same arguments had followed you there.
Postgraduate study, an old critic
Research or a master's at UCL East or UEL can wake an old inner voice, the one insisting that nothing you produce is quite good enough.
Growing up through the hard years
If your family lived in Stratford through the late 20th-century decline, some of what shaped you may be bound up with money, loss and making do.
Free courses between sessions
East London Recovery College runs free courses for adults in Newham, a useful companion to weekly psychotherapy, and Mind THNR offers community support as well.
Free and low-cost support for Stratford
Longer therapy with me can run alongside free help in Newham. Newham residents troubled chiefly by anxiety or a sinking mood can put themselves forward to Newham Talking Therapies without going through a GP. East London Recovery College offers free co-produced courses open to adults, carers, family and friends. When an evening feels unmanageable, the Newham Together Café is a crisis café you can go to, and community support comes from the local branch, Mind in Tower Hamlets, Newham and Redbridge.
- Free NHS talking therapyNewham Talking Therapies020 8175 1770Free NHS talking therapy for anxiety, low mood and related difficulties. You can refer yourself, with no GP referral needed.
- If drinking or drug use is part of itCGL Newham Rise (Newham Drug and Alcohol Service, adults)0800 652 3879Run by Change Grow Live (CGL). Free and confidential.
- Local organisationSamaritans of RedbridgeSamaritans branch, 24/7 listening service by phone.
For gambling, the National Gambling Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 8020 133 (NHS gambling support).
If someone at home is hurting, threatening or controlling you, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 2000 247.
If you need urgent help now
If you need help right now, please don't wait for a session.
Local drop-in crisis support: Newham Together Café (check opening times before you go).
What people in Stratford ask before starting
How is psychotherapy different from the counselling I could get free in Newham?
For anxiety or low mood, the NHS option in the borough is Newham Talking Therapies, which takes calls directly on 020 8175 1770. Psychotherapy with me is longer and open-ended, aimed at the patterns underneath a single episode. You might use both at different points. In the free consultation we can talk about which fits where you are now.
Can long-term psychotherapy really work over video from Stratford?
It can, provided the setting is steady: the same time each week, a door you can close, and headphones if you share a flat in Stratford City or live in student halls. Over months the screen fades into the background and the relationship between us carries the work. Later on, the work can include a longer face-to-face meeting in Hove, should you want one.
Would psychotherapy from E15 be a matter of months or years?
There is no set length. Some pieces of work run for several months and others for well over a year, and we check together every so often whether it is still useful. You can stop whenever you choose, and we plan an ending rather than letting it fade out. Weekly video keeps the rhythm going without a 94-minute drive each way.
I'm a postgraduate at UCL East. Is psychotherapy sensible while I'm studying?
It can be, if you can keep a regular weekly slot through term and the holidays. Postgraduate years often stir up perfectionism, family expectations or homesickness, which are good material for longer work. Your university's own student support can run alongside. We can plan around deadlines, and video works from your room provided nobody can overhear.
How much do sessions cost, and is the first call free?
Sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for 120 minutes, the same in person in Hove or by video. The first 15-minute call is free, with no obligation to book. There is no NHS referral needed to see me privately.
Start with a conversation about what keeps returning
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.