Michelle Strange

I am a psychotherapeutic counsellor, couples therapist and clinical supervisor, and have worked in Barnsbury Therapy Rooms since 2012. I’m warm, thoughtful, calm and curious, most importantly offering you space and safety to talk.

I work with individual clients and couples, and will welcome you whatever your gender identification, ethnicity, sexuality, faith or cultural background. I also have a particular specialism in mindfulness. You are also welcome if you feel unsure about whether your challenges are significant enough to go to therapy at all, or are criticising yourself for not having resolved things on your own.

I’m an accredited member of the BACP, a member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy and NCPS, and am a qualified clinical supervisor. My approach to therapeutic work is humanistic, relational and mindfulness-based. I do not use a couch, make diagnoses (or make assumptions if you already have one), and I won’t judge you or tell you what to do.

If we continue with regular sessions after an initial meeting, we will listen to what feels painful or overwhelming, and attend to it. We will explore how you meet difficulties in your life and in relationships, look at whether other responses or ways of communicating might feel more helpful. Sometimes we will look at past events, patterns and relationships to understand the present. As our work continues, you may begin to draw upon your own resources, as an individual or as a couple, with wider and different dialogues becoming available. A sense of well-being can become more readily accessible for you, alone or in relationships.

Depending on what has brought you, we may agree to work for a shorter or longer initial period. Where I think it helpful, I may offer to incorporate mindfulness or other experiential practices into our work, but I will not insist. All therapeutic work arises out of a collaborative and equal relationship between myself and clients.

I have had 35 years of experience of working with clients who are experiencing difficulty and distress in their lives. In addition to my private practice I have worked with clients in bereavement agencies, in University Counselling services and the NHS, and have taught meditation classes to the general public.I have supervised the work and run training workshops for counsellors at an agency, and continue to supervise in private practice.

I lived in several places and countries, before settling in North London. I am a mother. Before embarking upon therapy work I had a long career as a barrister in private practice, specialising in criminal defence, human rights and mental health law. My decision to re-train was inspired by my own very positive experience of being a client in long-term therapy, and my work is underpinned and supported by my own meditation practice.

For further information about how I work, and how counselling may help you, please visit my website www.michellestrange.co.uk.