Carole Critchlow – Humanistic Psychotherapeutic Counsellor

I am passionate about offering a warm, compassionate, supportive and accepting space for clients to explore their emotions and experiences, together with how they make sense of them.

I understand that you or your child may be dealing with difficult experiences, facing challenges, navigating life transitions, feeling overwhelmed, experiencing loss, or sensing something is not quite right. Reaching out for support can feel challenging, and I appreciate the steps you've already taken to find help. To navigate life's difficulties, we may need the support of a safe and accepting relationship with someone who doesn't provide all the answers but walks alongside us on our journey. I am here to offer a space where you or your child may feel supported, heard, and understood as we explore the paths ahead together. I am pleased you've taken the first step to seek support and would welcome the opportunity to meet and explore whether I could be the right person to accompany you or your child on this journey.

I believe each client is unique, as is the relationship between a therapist and client. Unlike other relationships, I will not offer advice or claim to have all the answers. Instead, I strive to provide a trusting, transparent relationship where clients may feel listened to, heard, acknowledged, understood, and empowered. I follow the client’s direction and pace, exploring whatever feels most helpful to them. Through this relationship, clients may connect with and explore their relationships, experiences, emotions, and parts of self, helping them make sense of these and discover resolutions that are meaningful to them.

My practice is principally informed by humanistic philosophy, which means I am interested in the unique nature of each individual, their experiences, and their personal interpretations. I am also influenced by Internal Family Systems, which supports understanding, healing and integration of different parts of the inner self, and Polyvagal Theory, which explains how our nervous system responds to stress and safety. I work relationally through talking therapy and creatively through mindfulness, grounding, body awareness, play, and art. I may also provide psychoeducation.

I offer sessions in-person and online. 

My pronouns are she/her.

I strive to create a warm and kind environment where I can support you in finding your way and to encourage you to express yourself freely in a safe space.

In our sessions you will have the opportunity to explore what is happening in your life, to understand yourself more clearly, and to find ways of dealing with the issues and difficulties you are facing. The experience of self-exploration often leads to feeling more in control and confident as you begin to discover who you are.

Experiences in our lives can leave us feeling helpless, confused or angry without knowing why. Perhaps you feel lost, frightened or out of control following a change in your life, or maybe you need to explore your childhood memories. At these times you may feel you need some professional help and support.

My background and training have focused primarily on Psychodynamic Counselling, - helping individuals to unravel, experience and understand their deep-rooted feelings to resolve them.

Whatever difficulty you are experiencing, counselling has the potential to offer you a place where you can be understood and heard, safe in the knowledge that your words and feelings will be treated with dignity and respect.

Offering online and telephonic sessions. My pronouns are she/her.

I believe that therapy is not a case of “one size fits all.”  I work intuitively with you as an individual, using a blend of approaches to find a way that works for you. 

I offer a safe and confidential space to explore your feelings and any challenges you might be facing, to listen to the emotions you may be experiencing and to support you to make the links between your past and your current way of thinking, behaviour and relationships. 

I believe we all have the wisdom inside of us to achieve a happy and fulfilling life, so I aim to empower people to tap into that wisdom to heal and grow within themselves. 

I have a passion for supporting people to reach the place they would like to be in their lives. My pronouns are she/her.

I work psychodynamically, which means that I’m happy to work with both the present and the past, noticing how the two weave themselves together. Often times, the things that happen to us early in life can continue to have rippling effects as we get older. While we might not be consciously aware of those ripples, they still impact on our day-to-day lives and relationships. I see therapy as the space to understand those impacts, much like putting puzzle pieces together. 

There is no right or wrong thing to bring into our sessions and there is no such thing as rambling! By holding an open space to talk about whatever is on your mind, we allow connections to make themselves clear. As such, I have no set agenda for what we should talk about each week but instead I will follow your lead and be a mirror for you when you need it.

I believe the therapeutic relationship is like any other, trust and rapport are necessary but they take time. One of the most important things for me is to provide a space for clients which is safe and inviting. You are the expert in your own experience and I trust that by working affirmatively with issues of gender and identity.  

My pronouns are she/her.

I understand how hard taking the first steps to get support can be, perhaps not knowing how talking about things might help or even if you are ready to let someone share your inner world. 

My aim is to nurture a space where you feel heard, with warmth and empathy.  We will work together with whatever you bring to our sessions, and I will be guided what you want to explore whilst supporting and encouraging you.  Therapy can be challenging and hard work but can be healing and rewarding too and can allow you to move forward in life; increasing your self-awareness, giving you a greater sense of self and helping you find more positive ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.

Within my practice, acceptance and understanding are key to our work as well as building a strong working relationship between ourselves.  I recognise that we all exist in different ways and my approach within our sessions will recognise that; whether working with you using creative methods or just sitting and talking, your sessions will be unique to you. 

I endeavour to practise with compassion, in a way that respects our differences, working to understand the impact of these on mental health and wellbeing. I have an affinity with the experience of feeling different; particularly when this feeling becomes overwhelming and affects our daily lives. I am a qualified humanistic counsellor with a background in working for Mind, advocating for neurodiverse children and their parents as well as transgender youth.

My pronouns are she/her.

I am a psychodynamically trained therapist which means I help to think about links between what may be happening in the present and how this is informed by the past - particularly childhood experiences. However, in my practice I also work from a person- centred base, as I am most interested in working with you as an individual, or as two individuals within a couple relationship, listening to your experiences and helping you to find positive ways forward. This will be different for everyone, and the process of therapy can be very helpful in offering a holding space to talk things through and explore new directions and possibilities.  

I am trained in systems theory and groups work, as well as relational ways of working and have used these widely in my work, both teaching and in practice. 

In my therapeutic work I draw from a wealth of life experiences both personal and professional, including working in the NHS, in a hospice and in the statutory and voluntary sector with people in different situations including homelessness, addiction, domestic abuse and mental health issues. I am an academic, qualified to Professorship level and an expert in bereavement and loss and the grieving process, including working extensively with child loss. 

I also have expertise in employment related issues, as well as working with relationship difficulties. I work with individuals, couples and more widely with organisations. 

I am experienced in working both online and in person and we can discuss what works best for you. 

My pronouns are she/her. 

What is coaching?

The aim of coaching is to make change happen, but the process often starts with working out what patterns, beliefs, or relationship dynamics may be holding you back. It’s about increasing your self-awareness so that you can act and behave from a place of conscious empowerment rather than going through life on autopilot, repeating the same mistakes and following the same life script.

We will explore how to move you closer to your goal(s) whether they be tangible, such as setting up your own business, leaving or starting a relationship, improving your financial situation or planning a trip of a lifetime,or less tangible, such as stronger leadership presence, more confidence at giving presentations, building assertiveness in your personal relationships, or improved mindset.

Your goals may also be more spiritual - finding your purpose, creating a more meaningful life, connecting with something ‘more than’ human.

The coach’s role is to support you in

1. Deepening self awareness,
2. Identifying and exploring choices, both those that are already known, and also
   those previously unexplored, that will surface during our coaching sessions,
3. Take action aligned with the path you want to take, closing the gap between
   where you are now, and where you want to be.

Being coached is a bit like creating a map of yourself, marking out patterns, exploring unchartered territories, discovering new terrain and ultimately identifying your true Self.

Through powerful questions, a good coach will create the environment for you to find your own answers or solutions.

What kind of life areas can coaching help with?

Coaching helps open us up to your potential, and what is possible for you. Who might you be if you were to drop the stories you have created about yourself and your capabilities?

What if you could start that business, leave that relationship, heal that connection, push for that promotion, set that boundary, love yourself more, take that trip.

Whereabouts do you hold yourself back? What self-sabotaging habits no longer serve you? How authentically are you living your life? Whereabouts are you dimming your light in order to let someone else shine? What kind of legacy do you want to leave?

How could you develop a more positive mindset? How might you heal a difficult relationship? What are your unique core values? How might you feel more motivated?

What is the difference between coaching and counselling?

Generally speaking, whereas counselling might focus on trying to understand the past and painful events, coaching will acknowledge these experiences but will use them to look at how they are impacting on the present, the here and now.

COACHING IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR THERAPY IF YOU ARE IN CRISIS.

Coaching can work on its own, as well as alongside counselling, or to maintain momentum after a period of counselling ends.

My pronouns are she/her.