Rate Lesley Papper

I am an Integrative Psychotherapeutic Counsellor and a registered member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists. I have spent most of my working life in the health and social care sector in therapeutic settings where mental health support played a significant part of my role. I have worked in a variety of settings.

I offer a warm, accepting, and confidential space to individuals wishing to explore therapy. We are all unique and respond to life’s challenges in different ways. Sometimes, when these challenges become too hard, we may turn to coping strategies that can be to the detriment of our own well-being. Even when we know this to be true, it can be tough breaking free of negative patterns of behaviour that essentially have been helping us to manage. However, I firmly believe that we possess both the inherent drive and the resources to find a way through these difficulties using alternative healthier strategies.

I understand the urgency of wanting to effect change sooner rather than later, and I commit to working with your immediate concerns and your longer-term goals in collaboration with you. If you have a specific challenge that you are seeking to resolve, fathom, or move on from, together we may decide to look at where and when the difficulty originated in order to better understand your emotional world and your thoughts and behaviours in the past as well as in the here and now. It can be of great value to dedicate some time to exploring your unique lived experience, I will support you on this journey.

I encourage self-acceptance, and self-care, as a foundation. Within the healing unit of the therapeutic relationship, I invite clients to take stock of their lives and look upon themselves with kindness. I offer a safe space where past and present experiences, and current concerns, can be expressed and explored with the aim of taking positive steps towards a happier future.

I have worked with clients living with grief, low mood, depression, addiction, eating disorders, anxiety, and survivors of sexual violence. I have also worked with clients with hidden disabilities, and physical disabilities, as well as have experience with clients living with the long-term fall-out of ADHD, and dyslexia in terms of disrupted education and unmet needs.

I offer short-term or longer-term therapy and work at your pace and with your agenda. My emphasis is on helping you to build resilience and structure, with the aim of bringing about lasting therapeutic change.