Psychotherapy and Counselling
I offer psychotherapy and counselling for adults aged 18 and over in Esher, Surrey (including Weybridge, Cobham and Walton-on-Thames), and online.
People come to therapy for many different reasons. Sometimes there is a clear difficulty, such as anxiety, grief, relationship problems or a significant change in life. At other times, there may be a less defined sense that something feels unsettled, repetitive or difficult to understand.
How I work
My approach is integrative, relational and phenomenological.
I draw on psychodynamic, humanistic and neurobiological perspectives, while holding the therapeutic relationship as central to the work. I am interested in how you experience your life rather than applying fixed interpretations or assuming that similar circumstances mean the same thing for different people.
We work collaboratively, allowing the direction and pace of therapy to develop in response to what becomes important. I also hold in mind the wider context of your life – including relationships, family, work, culture, migration, health, identity and the social environments in which you live – and how these may shape your experience.
Explore the areas I work with here.
Working together
Therapy can take different forms depending on what you are looking for.
I offer short-term counselling, which may focus on a particular difficulty, transition or period of life, as well as longer-term, open-ended psychotherapy, allowing greater time to explore experiences and patterns in more depth.
We can think together about what form and length of therapy may feel most appropriate for you.
Training and clinical practice
I am currently completing an MSc in Integrative Psychotherapy at the Metanoia Institute.
Alongside my private practice, I work clinically within an NHS GP surgery, providing counselling and psychotherapy to people experiencing a wide range of emotional, relational and health-related difficulties.
My clinical work is supported by regular supervision and guided by professional and ethical standards. I am a trainee member of the UKCP.
Sessions
Sessions last 50 minutes and take place weekly.
Current availability: I have limited availability for reduced-fee psychotherapy online and in Esher.
I offer:
- In-person psychotherapy and counselling in Esher, Surrey
- Online psychotherapy and counselling via Google Meet
Getting started
If you are considering psychotherapy or counselling, you may find it helpful to read more about fees, sessions and frequently asked questions.
If you would like to explore whether working together may feel right for you, you are welcome to arrange a free 15-minute initial conversation.
You can get in touch using the blue button in the top menu, by emailing me at olga@opentochange.uk, or by sending a text message to 07874 165416.
What we may explore
The areas below reflect some of the experiences I work with and are not exhaustive.
Emotional and relational difficulties
Therapy may offer space to explore anxiety, overwhelm, low mood, grief and loss, trauma, loneliness, low self-esteem or difficulties understanding and expressing emotions.
It can also help us consider what happens within your relationships—whether you are experiencing conflict, distance, uncertainty, repeated relational patterns, difficulty trusting others or a sense that your needs are often overlooked.
Sometimes there is no single identifiable problem, but a broader feeling of being stuck, disconnected from yourself or caught in patterns that are difficult to understand.
Culture, identity and belonging
Moving between countries or cultures can affect our experience of identity, relationships and belonging in complex ways. It may involve adapting to unfamiliar expectations, holding different cultural influences, grieving what has been left behind or developing a changing relationship with the idea of home.
I work with migrants, expatriates, international clients and third-culture adults who may wish to explore relocation, cultural adjustment, identity or the experience of living between different cultural worlds.
I approach these experiences with curiosity rather than assumptions, recognising that culture, migration and belonging hold different meanings for each person.
Work, money and identity
Work and money can carry emotional, relational and personal meanings that extend far beyond practical circumstances.
Therapy may offer space to explore career changes, professional pressure, burnout, questions of achievement or direction, and the ways work can become connected with identity, belonging and relationships.
It can also include exploring your relationship with money, the place it holds in your life, and how it may appear within family expectations, partnerships, decisions, changing circumstances or different cultural contexts.
These themes may become particularly significant during periods of transition, such as relocation, separation, returning to work, changing careers or rethinking what success and security mean to you.
Health, the body and ways of coping
Psychotherapy can offer space to explore the emotional and psychological impact of chronic pain, illness, medical diagnoses or changes in health and physical capacity.
Changes in health may affect relationships, identity, plans for the future and the way you experience your body. Therapy can provide a place to explore what living with these changes has come to mean for you.
This work may also include complex relationships with food and the body, binge eating, emotional eating, compulsive or addictive behaviours, and other ways of coping that may have become distressing or limiting.