Maloney Liu

Main clinic hours:

• Monday: Afternoon and early evening
• Tuesday and Wednesday: Afternoon and evening
• Thursday: Some fortnightly work possible; please inquire
  
• Friday and Saturday: Late morning and afternoon

Some additional availability for short-term weekly therapy/coaching and single-session therapy/coaching.

Please visit my website's FAQ section for the latest availability.

Many of us millennials grew up before people talked much about mental, emotional, and relational fitness (and in some cultures, it's still not talked about). We've had caregivers, teachers, and bosses with their own unhealed wounds, limiting their ability to support our development and model healthy life skills.

Add in societal norms that overvalue intellectual and economic achievements, various forms of systemic and culturally sanctioned oppression, lack of awareness of neurodiversity . . . Is it any wonder that many of us are left with a kind of psychological malnutrition, some wonky beliefs, and a lot of shame and guilt and mean voices in our head?

I'm Mel, an English-Chinese bilingual therapist and coach with a trauma-informed, LGBTQIA+-affirming (including asexuality) and neurodiversity-affirming practice. It's never too late to reap the benefits of a consistently safe, growth-fostering environment, address unmet psychological needs, and develop the core human skills we all need to thrive.

We can review and edit the stories you tell yourself and distinguish between values you inherited and values that are truly yours. We can work with the brain you’ve got, not against it. We can break generational cycles and survival strategies that have outlived their usefulness and build a better future.

Where would you like to start?

I specialise in complex, relational, and generational trauma. You may have had an emotionally inhibited or chaotic upbringing and endured volatile relationships where you walked on eggshells. You may recognise yourself in terms like adult children of emotionally immature parents and childhood emotional neglect, or even narcissistic abuse and coercive control. You may be suffering from chronic depression or anxiety, self-doubt, perfectionism, people-pleasing, difficulty identifying and regulating your emotions, intimacy issues, a sense of worth that's tied to achievements, etc.

Complex trauma is multi-faceted; healing will be too.

My approach is pluralistic: collaborative, integrative, rooted in humanistic and person-centred values. We'll discuss what you want from therapy, and together we'll decide how to get there, knowing that we've got many modalities to draw upon and that I'll meet you where you are.

Modalities I integrate and/or am informed by include:

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Bowen Family Systems Theory
• Internal Family Systems (IFS)
  
• Motivational Interviewing
• Positive Psychology and Coaching
• Psychodynamic Therapy
• Relational Life Therapy (RLT)
• Schema Therapy
• Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
• Trauma-Informed Stabilisation Treatment (TIST)

Trained in Hong Kong and the UK, bilingual in Chinese (廣東話) and in English, I bring a multicultural, systemic perspective to my work, informed also by my multidisciplinary education, professional experience in the tech and creative industries, and lived experience of complex trauma and recovery.

Our work together can address psychological wounds on cognitive, emotional, behavioural and somatic levels, while recognising cultural and structural factors at play as well. I also understand the overlap between trauma and autism and ADHD.

My clients appreciate my sturdiness, playfulness, and psychoeducation with relatable (and sometimes funny!) analogies. Therapy can be more enjoyable than you may think. We're here to reclaim joy too.

Prior to our first session, I'll invite you to a free, 20-minute consultation on Zoom. This initial consultation is a chance for me to get a sense of what brings you to therapy and see whether/how I can help, and for you to get a sense of what I'm like and ask any questions that will help you decide whether to book your first session with me.

Our first session, charged at the usual fee, will give you an idea of how I listen, give and receive feedback, help you connect the dots, and identify possible areas to work on. This will be one of two sessions in which I gather, in as organic a way as possible, information about your current lifestyle, upbringing, significant life events, support networks, etc. that will inform our treatment plan. To help with assessment, I will also ask that you fill in a number of questionnaires before the session.

Appointment length and fee structure

Standard appointments are an hour long (55 minutes of session time plus a 5-minute buffer for going up to the therapy room and settling in), charged between ?95 to ?130 depending on your income and when we work:

• Weekday: ?95 if your income is up to ?47k*; ?130 if it is ?90k+; ?110 if it is somewhere in between
  
• Weeknight (5pm onwards) or weekend: ?110 if your income is under ?90k; ?130 if it is ?90k+
  

Extended appointments, such as 1.5-hour ones, are charged pro rata, e.g. ?95 x 1.5 = ?142.50. Fortnightly appointments are only available as extended appointments.

These fees enable me to maintain a consistently high level of service with an optimal workload, engage in more relevant training and supervision than the minimum required, offer concessions to those in need, and run a sustainable Central London-based practice in a wheelchair accessible, air-conditioned office with medical-grade air purification. Visit my website for photos and more information about my office – it's a lovely therapeutic space!

*Why ?47k? That's the median annual earnings for full-time employees in London in 2024.