Jake Russell

I currently have availability for new clients. Please get in touch for more information.

About me

I am a qualified integrative psychotherapist which means my training combined, or integrated, several schools of thought in psychotherapy; mainly the psychodynamic and humanistic theories of psychology.

Theoretical background

Psychodynamic theory says our minds are largely made up of unconscious forces or patterns/templates, acquired early in life, that drive our behaviour鈥攁nd by bringing these patterns to light we can begin to change.

Humanistic theory suggests human beings naturally seek to realise their inherent potential and to do so we (simply) need to find or create the right conditions to flourish.

My particular training also includes neurosomatic psychotherapy which looks at how the brain and body give rise to the mind and how the mind shapes the brain and body in turn. 

The importance of relationships

What underpins all of these theories, though, is the primary importance of relationships.

It鈥檚 through our early relationships, with our parents or those who looked after us when we were young, that we acquire the unconscious mental patterns/templates that drive our behaviour and form our sense of self. It鈥檚 in how we relate to others now that we鈥檒l either be recreating the right conditions to flourish or contributing to the dysfunction. And all of this is codified in the neural circuitry of the brain.

For (one common) example, a person might find it hard to express their feelings or say what they really think or want, tending to please or appease others instead. This is what I mean by a 鈥減attern,鈥� and until it鈥檚 examined it remains an unconscious or automatic way of being and relating to others.

However, since our patterns are acquired in relationships, it鈥檚 also in relationships - in learning how to relate in new ways - that we change.

What you can expect from the therapy relationship

When you come to psychotherapy, we鈥檒l be working together to identify your unconscious patterns, perhaps for the first time in your life, to then understand them, decodify them, discover their original purpose, and to see how they鈥檙e impacting you now.

And since psychotherapy is yet another relationship, you can鈥檛 help but bring your unconscious patterns with you into it. And that鈥檚 a good thing. Therapy (as I see and practise it) couldn鈥檛 work unless you did.

Unlike most other relationships however, what鈥檚 unique about the therapy relationship is we allow your patterns to play out as they naturally will but we don鈥檛 ignore them. My role is to gently, but clearly, point them out as I see them, helping to bring them into your awareness, so that we can talk about them, so that you can understand them and see in real time how you鈥檙e almost certainly, albeit inadvertently, contributing to what isn鈥檛 working in your life.

With time, you鈥檒l hopefully start to notice how the automatic grip these patterns have over you begins to reduce, allowing space for new, healthier ways of being to emerge. My role here is to support you in this process of development.

All of this can sometimes feel confronting, uncomfortable or confusing, sometimes liberating and soothing, but always the intention is for it to be healing. And what you鈥檒l hopefully begin to find is that who you largely are, beneath the acquired patterns, is already, deeply, ok and whole. Whole doesn鈥檛 mean 鈥減erfect鈥� (in the 鈥減erfectionistic鈥� sense of the word), it means knowing yourself as a whole, complex, conflicted person equally capable of goodness as you are of mistakes, getting neither too inflated or deflated with either, but more and more, feeling that you鈥檙e living your own life. With time, you鈥檒l begin to learn who you truly are in all your wonderful, ordinary humanity.

What you can expect from the first session(s)

In the first session we'll usually focus on what's bringing you to therapy in the first place, the main issue you're coming for, and what you'd like from therapy. I also like to begin taking a detailed history of your life so that I can start to get to know who you are as a person, the facts of your life that you bring with you and how these may connect to your reason for coming. 

This is all so that I can clearly understand what you're looking for, that we have a clear direction of travel from the start, and, crucially, to make sure I'm the right therapist for you. Likewise, it gives you a chance to see how you feel with me, what it's like working with me.

This can often take more than one session and I think it's an essential step. I think of it as an introductory / assessment consultation phase where we can both assess how we feel together and whether we're a good fit to continue. 

I offer one-to-one sessions in East Dulwich/Peckham Rye; and on Zoom.

My credentials

2016-2017: 1 year Certificate in Psychotherapy & Counselling at Regent's University

2021-2023: 2 year PGDip in Neurosomatic Psychotherapy at NAOS Institute

2024-2025: 2 year PGDip in Advanced Clinical Practise in Psychotherapy & Counselling at The Minster Centre

I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (M麻豆原创) and I am working towards senior accreditation with the 麻豆原创. I adhere to the 麻豆原创's ethical framework for good practise.