What Are Counselling & Psychotherapy?

Counselling and psychotherapy are both talking therapies ways of working through difficulty, confusion, or pain in a safe, supported relationship. While the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, psychotherapy tends to involve deeper exploration of longstanding patterns, early experiences, and the ways the past continues to shape the present. 

Counselling often focuses more on current concerns, life transitions, and practical emotional support.In practice, the boundary between them is fluid. What matters most is that the work meets you where you are.

Therapy isn't about being fixed. It's about being understood often for the first time in a way that actually reaches you.

Our Approach

At Place to Talk Therapies, we work integratively. Our team of counsellors don't follow a single rigid model instead, we draw from a range of well-evidenced approaches and tailor the work to you: your history, your nervous system, your pace.

At the heart of our practice is a relational, shame-aware, and somatic way of working. This means we pay attention not just to what you say, but to how you carry what you're going through in your body, your patterns, and the space between you and your therapist. Some of the frameworks we draw from include:

  • Person-Centred Therapy: rooted in unconditional positive regard, empathy, and the belief that you are the expert on your own experience
  • Internal Family Systems (IFS) / Parts Work: exploring the different parts of you that may be in conflict, and helping them find more ease
  • Somatic Awareness: bringing gentle attention to the body as a source of information and healing
  • Attachment Theory: understanding how early relational experiences shape the way you connect, protect yourself, and relate to others today
  • Trauma-Informed Practice: working with sensitivity to how trauma lives in the body and nervous system, not just in memory

This isn't therapy-by-formula. It's responsive, human, and grounded in what actually helps.

What to Expect

Sessions are 60 minutes and held weekly, either in person or online. There's no pressure to arrive knowing what you want to say. Many people begin simply by talking  and we find the thread from there.In your early sessions, your therapist will take time to understand what's brought you here, what you're hoping for, and whether you feel like a good fit together. 

The therapeutic relationship itself is central to the work  how you meet, how misattunements are repaired, and how trust builds over time all become part of the process. Progress in therapy rarely looks like a straight line. There may be sessions that feel quietly significant, and others that feel uncertain, both have value.

Who This Is For

People come to therapy for many different reasons. You might be navigating something specific, a loss, a relationship breakdown, a period of burnout, or you might carry a longer-standing sense that something isn't right, without quite being able to name it. We work with adults across a wide range of concerns, including:

  • Anxiety, stress, and overwhelm
  • Depression and low mood
  • Shame, self-worth, and identity
  • Trauma and complex PTSD
  • Relationship difficulties and attachment patterns
  • Life transitions and loss
  • Burnout, including in helping professionals
  • Feeling stuck, disconnected, or like you're performing a version of yourself

We also work with therapists and other helping professionals seeking personal therapy, people who spend their days holding space for others and need somewhere they, too, can be held.

Ready to Take a First Step?

Getting in touch can feel like the hardest part. You don't need to have it figured out before you reach out that's what we're here for.

To book an introductory call, CONTACT