West Therapy

Welcome. My name is Effy. I’m an MNCS Accredited therapist and counsellor. I also teach, train and supervise counsellors and therapists.

I offer a mixture of exploration, insight and challenge to help people figure out what the best version of their life looks like, and how they can go about living it.

An initial free-of-charge consultation is available if you are interested in thinking about whether you’d like to work with me.

You can get the ball rolling by contacting me: effywesttherapy@gmail.com. If you’re not sure what to say, tell me what you’re looking for and what you’ve tried so far.

My training and qualifications

I hold:

  • A masters degree in psychodynamic counselling
  • A 2-year diploma in integrative psychosexual therapy with couples and individuals
  • A diploma in group and individual clinical supervision
  • I am also EFT-trained (Emotionally-Focused therapy, an attachment-based model of couple therapy)

What do I offer?

In my work, I prioritise autonomy and authenticity, and I pay attention to the social and political dimensions of our experience.

I think that therapy is one (often pretty good) way of figuring out what we might want from life. It has the potential to help us build emotional robustness, so we can live more courageously and build satisfying connections. Good therapy should help us find ways of existing that take us beyond survival and towards vitality.

I believe that an analysis of marginalisation and power dynamics in our society is essential for ethical practice. I am committed to ongoing learning and development, both personally and professionally. I am particularly interested in gender, sexuality, race, histories of colonisation, carcerality, class, disability, and a number of other intersecting issues.

You might not be sure whether I work with the issues you want to bring. Please feel free to contact me — we can consider together whether I’m the right therapist for you. If I’m not, I can usually think of a trusted colleague or two who might be a better fit and I can put you in touch with them.

How do you work?

I am psychodynamically trained, though I draw on other approaches including attachment-focused models and behavioural techniques where appropriate. I am keen to demystify therapy, and I am happy to answer questions about my approach before our work begins, and during the process.