Individual Psychotherapy in Nantwich, Cheshire & Online
Therapy for when you’re holding it all together and running out of room for yourself
Individual therapy
You're the one people lean on. You know how to keep things running at work, at home, in your relationships and for everyone who depends on you. From the outside, you're capable, dependable and competent. From the inside, you're tired in a way sleep doesn't seem to fix.
Maybe you can't switch off. You overthink conversations after they've happened, feel guilty when you rest, or automatically say yes and wonder afterwards why you're irritated. Perhaps you've spent so long thinking about what everybody else needs that you're not completely sure what you need anymore.
And because you're still functioning, part of you wonders whether this really warrants therapy at all. Maybe other people have it worse. Maybe you should just be able to sort yourself out.
You don't have to wait until you're falling apart. Sometimes something has simply felt off for a long time, and you're ready to understand it differently.
If any of that lands, this is the kind of work I love.
Who I most often work with
I see a lot of the conscientious, capable and over-responsible, the ones whose first thought when something goes wrong is what could I have done differently?
Often the work is around:
Anxiety that's tipped from "useful edge" into "the thing running my nervous system".
A relentless inner critic that won't let anything be good enough.
You say yes before you've had time to work out whether you actually want to — and then feel guilty when you try to say no. More on that here.
Burnout — not the dramatic kind, the slow grey kind.
A sense of having lost yourself somewhere along the way, to motherhood, to caring, to the career.
Difficulty resting, switching off, or even feeling allowed to.
You've become so used to thinking about what everybody else needs that you're not always sure what you need.
Patterns in relationships you can see clearly but can't seem to change.
Workaholic patterns and the overwhelm that goes with them.
You don't need to be in crisis to come. Most of my clients aren't. Many come because something has been quietly off for a long time and they're done ignoring it.
More on Therapy for anxiety and burnout here.
When you’ve spent years being easy to need
You’re the one who says yes. Not because you always want to, but because no seems to need a reason and you rarely have one ready. So you agree, and it’s fine, and then somewhere around Thursday there’s a flatness you don’t much like the look of, and underneath it something closer to resentment, which you then feel guilty about too, because they only asked.
Both sides of that are uncomfortable. Say yes and you end up depleted. Say no and you feel selfish. That’s not a failure of willpower; it’s a bind, and it’s a very common one.
There’s usually a quieter thing underneath it. After enough years of checking what everyone else needs, the question what do I want stops getting asked often enough to stay answerable. People often arrive here able to describe everyone else’s preferences in detail and genuinely stuck on their own.
That’s workable. It tends to start small — noticing a preference about a Saturday, an opinion you’d normally have kept to yourself — rather than with a grand declaration of boundaries. Understanding where something came from isn’t always enough to change it. That gap, between knowing and doing, is a lot of what this work is actually for.
How I work
My core training is in Integrative Transactional Analysis (TA), a warm, collaborative, practical approach. The simplest way to describe it: TA looks at how the patterns and beliefs we've picked up over time, often beginning early in life — to be good, to be liked, to be safe, to be useful — are still running the show in our adult lives, even when they've stopped serving us.
For my clients, that often means understanding why the inner critic is so loud, why you say yes before checking what you want, why rest brings guilt rather than relief, why high standards are non-negotiable or why knowing a pattern isn't always enough to change it.
Once we can see the pattern, we can start choosing differently. It isn't about blaming your parents — most parents are doing their best with what they had. It's about giving yourself permission to look honestly at what was and wasn't there, and what you've been carrying because of it.
What I'm like in the room
Warm. Down to earth. I'll offer you a hot drink when you arrive. I'll move at your pace. You'll find me gentle, curious and you'll find me willing to challenge you when I think it's in your interest. I'll feel angry on your behalf when something's been unjust. I'll share in the weight of what you're carrying. I'll properly celebrate your wins instead of nodding past them. I notice the child you once were sat inside the adult across from me, and I'm curious about both of you.
Issues I work with in individual therapy
Anxiety, overthinking and difficulty switching off
Burnout, overwhelm and feeling constantly “on”
People-pleasing, over-responsibility and difficulty putting yourself first
A harsh inner critic, low self-worth and perfectionism
Repeating relationship patterns
Low mood, loss of motivation or feeling unlike yourself
Identity changes, motherhood, career change, loss and other life transitions
What this work tends to open up
There's no fixed outcome I can promise you, but here's what this work often opens up over time:
More clarity — making sense of where the difficulty comes from, rather than just managing the symptom
A different relationship with the inner critic — noticing the pattern, so it has less of a grip
Room to breathe — space to rest, and to feel allowed to
A fuller sense of yourself — underneath the roles, the caring, the achieving
Steadier relationships — seeing the patterns you keep repeating, and having more choice about them
You don't need to know what the goal is yet
Some people arrive with something very specific they want to work on. Others simply know they're tired of feeling the way they do. Both are completely fine. We can work out together what would make therapy useful to you, and review that as we go.
Fees & Practicalities
Individual sessions are 50 minutes, £55 each. We can meet at The Psychotherapy Place in Nantwich, or online anywhere in the UK. We'll usually start with a free 15 minute introductory call so you can get a sense of me and ask anything you'd like to before booking.
Psychotherapy vs. Counselling: What's the Difference?
While both psychotherapy and counselling offer valuable support, they often differ in their depth and duration.
Counselling typically focuses on specific, immediate issues and may be shorter-term, aiming to help you cope with current challenges and develop practical strategies.
Psychotherapy often delves deeper into the underlying roots of persistent patterns, emotions, and behaviours. It explores how past experiences and unconscious processes might be influencing your present. Psychotherapy aims not just to alleviate symptoms, but to foster fundamental shifts in how you relate to yourself and the world.
Frequently Asked Questions
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You don't need to reach breaking point first. People often come because they're tired of overthinking, struggling to switch off, putting themselves last, feeling unlike themselves, or repeating patterns they understand but can't seem to change.
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That depends on what you're hoping for. Some clients work with me for 8–12 sessions on something specific. Others stay longer to work on deeper patterns. There's no rush; we'll talk about it as we go and we will review progress and goals regularly.
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We'll go where the work takes us. TA does pay attention to early patterns, but I won't push you somewhere you're not ready to go. What we explore is always your call.
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Please tell me. Knowing what didn't land last time is genuinely useful. Therapy is also about fit, the relationship between us matters more than the model I work in.
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That's absolutely fine. You don't need a neat explanation, a diagnosis or a list of goals. Part of the first few sessions can simply be making sense of what's been going on.
Get in touch.
If you're interested in Couples or Individual Therapy please fill out the contact form or email hello@thepsychotherapyplace.co.uk, and I'll be sure to get back to you.