HomePsychologyIndividual therapy
You have been managing it alone, in a country that is also new.
The underlying work: mood, anxiety, self-esteem, fear. One hour a week, in English, that is only about you.
I structure your case, we look at how the pieces relate to each other, and then we move on to the method.
What we work on
- Working in English. Therapy runs on precision, and precision is the first thing you lose in a second language. Sessions are in English, so you can give me the vague version, the embarrassing version, and the one you have not found words for yet.
- The way you speak to yourself. Moving from a running commentary that punishes you to one that actually looks at what happened. It is the part of this you have most say over, and the part that tends to move first.
- Understanding what holds it up. What you brought with you, what the move added, and what keeps the thing going now. Understanding that is what lets you let go of it gradually, and tell apart which part is your responsibility and which is not.
- Challenges where you actually are. Not the leap you think you should be able to make. The specific, slightly uncomfortable thing that is genuinely available to you this week.
Asking for help is not the same as having failed
Most people arrive at therapy once they have hit their limit and cannot go on, convinced they should have managed it alone. That is not how it works. Nobody expects to recover from a sprained ankle by willpower, and the mind is no different: some things are easier to see with someone in front of you who has seen them many times before.
Living abroad adds its own layer. The friends who would have noticed are several time zones away and getting the short, cheerful version of your life. No doctor here has your history. The people around you are new enough that you are still being careful with them. So things that would have been aired in somebody's kitchen at home get carried in silence instead.
And you do not have to be at the bottom of anything to come. It is usually easier to work on something while parts of your life are still holding than once everything has gone.
What actually changes
Not a different personality. A week in which fewer things get decided for you.
- You stop reading every difficult day as evidence that moving here was a mistake.
- The commentary in your head after something goes wrong gets shorter, and less certain about you.
- You go back to things you had quietly dropped, in an order you chose rather than one you were pushed into.
- You have somewhere to put the parts you do not say to your family back home.
Who it is for
If something has been going on for a while — low mood, anxiety, a fear that organises your day, the way you speak to yourself — and being far from everyone you would normally lean on has made it heavier rather than easier to ignore.
- What is actually going on, said out loud in your own language instead of translated first.
- How you talk to yourself when something goes wrong, which abroad happens several times a day.
- What belongs to the move and what you brought with you: they need different work.
- Challenges the size of your real week, not the size you think you ought to manage.
Who it is not for
It is not a self-help plan with the same steps for everyone, and it is not a method for no longer feeling fear or anxiety. I do not promise a number of sessions or a date by which this will be over.
When it makes sense to get in touch. When you have been going round the same thing for months, when what you used to do to cope has stopped working, or when you have run out of your own ideas.
Areas covered
- Anxiety
- Low mood
- Self-esteem and identity
- Social life
- Fear
- Work stress
The first consultation is free.Book the free consultation →
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a referral or a diagnosis to start?
No. This is private practice: you book directly, with no referral, no waiting list and no paperwork with the Spanish public system. If you need an invoice for an insurer or an employer, I can write one.
Who would I be talking to?
A psychologist and neuropsychologist registered in Spain, number M-39091, working in English or in Spanish depending on which one you think in. Everything said in a session is covered by professional confidentiality.
I am not sure this is bad enough to justify therapy.
That is one of the most common things people say in a first consultation, and it is not a threshold anyone can measure from the outside. The free first consultation is there for exactly this: you tell me what is going on, and I tell you honestly whether it is something to work on or something to leave alone.
How long does this go on for?
There is no fixed number of sessions and I will not invent one to make the decision easier. We agree at the start what you want to be different, look at it as we go, and stop when stopping makes sense.