Lucy Duggan

Tuesdays

I'm a Gestalt psychotherapist, working with individuals and couples. The work is grounded in what's happening now - how you experience yourself and your relationships in the present moment. It's creative, experiential, and tends to get to the heart of things quite quickly.

I'm warm and I listen carefully, but I'll also challenge you when I think it's useful. Therapy isn't about making you feel comfortable all the time - sometimes the most helpful thing is to point out what you might be avoiding.

In my late teens and early twenties, I experienced serious psychiatric illness and spent time as an inpatient. I know what it's like to be genuinely unwell, to be frightened of your own mind, and to wonder if things will ever feel manageable again. That experience shapes how I practice. I understand what it takes to sit in a room and try to explain what's happening inside your head. I don't take that lightly.

People tend to appreciate that I'm straightforward without being blunt, empathetic without being soft, and that I have a sense of humour about the absurdity of being human. The work is serious, but it doesn't have to be relentlessly earnest.

This approach tends to work well if you:

-Want directness rather than endless validation

-Can tolerate being uncomfortable sometimes 

-Appreciate creativity in how we work together

-Want a therapist who understands mental health difficulties from personal experience, not just textbooks

Our initial meeting acts as a bit of a chemistry test so we can both get a sense of how well we might work together, and this is why I only change for that first session if we decide to continue on from there.

I work Tuesdays and Wednesdays and offer both online and face to face sessions.

"The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created--created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination." --John Schaar

I completed my Postgraduate Diploma in Psychotherapy at Gestalt Centre Wales, and my training in couples psychotherapy at The Centre for Relational Couples Therapy, and have received Fellowships from both The Wellcome Trust and the Churchill Memorial Trust for my contributions to the mental health field, over the past 15 years.

As an active as a mental health researcher, I have especial interest in post-partum maternal mental health, with recent research published in the British Medical Journal.

My decision to become a therapist was informed by my own recovery from the effects of traumatic childhood experiences.

No two client relationships are the same, and getting to know people in their uniqueness, as they get to know and understand more about themselves, is what keeps me in this work.

I am an accredited member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (Â鶹ԭ´´), and undergo regular clinical supervision and training.

Session fees: 50-minute individual £65 | 50-minute couples £95

What I can help with:

• Individuals
• Couples
• Improving relationships
• Improving mood
• Reducing anxiety
• Managing stress
• Enhancing self-awareness
• Modifying  behaviour patterns
• Managing life constructively
• Expanding possibilities for choice and action in life
• Leading a more fulfilling life
• Feeling stronger

We start with an initial consultation, which is 50-minutes long, to see if we feel like a good fit to go on working together.

Individual sessions are £65

Couples sessions are £95