Integrative & Transpersonal Psychotherapist in Camberwell, south London
I’m an integrative and transpersonal psychotherapist in Camberwell, south London, offering face-to-face and online psychotherapy and counselling.
People come to therapy for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes something has happened. A relationship has broken down, life has changed unexpectedly, or an old way of coping no longer works. Sometimes there is anxiety, sadness, anger, confusion or a sense of being stuck. And sometimes there is simply the feeling that something in life needs to be understood more deeply.
I offer a warm, confidential space in which we can explore what is happening for you, how you came to be where you are, and what you might need now.
I work relationally and openly. You will encounter me as a person, not a blank screen. I will listen carefully, but I may also reflect, question, wonder with you and offer another perspective. Therapy, for me, is something we do together.
About me
Before becoming a psychotherapist, my background was in communications and marketing in politics, local government and mental health.
My own experience of psychotherapy followed a personal crisis and ultimately led me to change vocation.
I have lived what some might call a less beaten path. I am warm, open-minded, pretty unshockable, and interested in people in all their complexity.
I have a longstanding interest in holistic approaches to health and wellbeing, including herbal traditions, and I value curiosity about the many different ways we understand health and healing.
I regard it as a privilege to accompany another person as they come to understand themselves more deeply and move towards a life that feels increasingly their own.
I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and am listed with the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN).
Psychotherapy or counselling?
Some people come with a particular issue they want to explore over a relatively short period. Others find that the work opens into a deeper exploration of longstanding patterns, relationships and their sense of self.
We don’t have to decide at the beginning exactly how long therapy will last.
Sessions are usually weekly, and we can review the work together as it develops.
How I work
I am an integrative psychotherapist, which means I draw on a number of therapeutic traditions rather than trying to fit you into one model.
My training includes person-centred, psychodynamic, existential, cognitive behavioural and transpersonal approaches. I am also an advocate of Identity Oriented Psychotrauma Therapy (IOPT), which pays particular attention to our authentic needs and desires and to the ways we may have learned to put the needs, expectations or realities of others before our own.
Above all, I am interested in you: your particular history, relationships, culture, inner world and experience of being alive.
I don’t believe therapy is simply about identifying what is “wrong” with somebody and correcting it. Distress often makes more sense when we understand the circumstances, relationships and adaptations from which it arose.
Understanding can then create choice.
Who I work with
I work with adults experiencing a wide range of difficulties, including:
- relationship and family difficulties
- anxiety, depression and periods of emotional distress
- life crises and major transitions
- bereavement, grief and loss
- emotional or physical abuse and domestic violence
- difficulties with identity, belonging or self-worth
- experiences of racism, difference, othering and oppression
- questions of faith, spirituality and meaning
- feeling caught between what your head tells you and what you feel
- a sense that you have lost touch with yourself
You do not need to arrive knowing exactly what the problem is. Part of the work can be discovering what is actually troubling you.
I welcome people of diverse sexualities, gender identities and relationship structures. This includes kink and consensual non-monogamy. My approach is curious and non-pathologising, without assuming what an experience means or where exploration should lead.
Culture, race and belonging
We don’t develop in isolation.
Family, culture, race, gender, community and the wider society in which we live can all shape how we understand ourselves and what we believe we are allowed to be.
Experiences of being different or “othered” may begin within our earliest relationships and be repeated later in families, workplaces, intimate relationships and society.
These parts of experience are welcome in my consulting room. They do not have to be translated into something more comfortable or familiar before we can talk about them.
Spirituality, meaning and unusual experiences
For some people, spirituality is an important part of life. For others it isn’t. I am comfortable with both.
My transpersonal training allows room for questions of meaning, spiritual awakening, altered states and experiences that do not always fit neatly within conventional psychological language.
Where appropriate, I also work with people who want to understand and integrate significant experiences arising through plant medicines.
These perspectives are available when they are relevant to you; they do not have to be part of the work.
Location
My practice is in Camberwell, south London, within easy reach of Elephant & Castle, London Bridge, the City and central London.
I offer both face-to-face and online sessions.
During periods when I am away, sessions are offered online.
Fees and availability
Sessions are 50 minutes.
Tuesday to Thursday, 12 noon–7pm
£65 per session
I currently have limited availability for a small number of new weekly clients.
Getting started
You are welcome to contact me to arrange a brief initial telephone conversation.
This gives us an opportunity to talk a little about what brings you to therapy, what you are looking for, and whether working together feels right.
Telephone: 07733 114487
Email: info@gillpelage.co.uk