Susanna Hailstone Walker

Hello, and thanks for looking at my profile.  I'm an experienced and fully qualified counsellor and psychotherapist, specialising in adult and older adult mental health. Whether on a short term or an open ended basis, I work with individuals to help understand and resolve a wide range of emotional difficulties including depression and anxiety; abuse and bereavement; phobias and compulsive behaviours; and problems with relationships.  I practice psychodynamically, which means helping people to work through particularly complex and often unexplored issues, problems or fears.  In psychodynamic counselling and psychotherapy, past experiences are as important as present ones.  Our early lives – especially our childhood and relationships with parents and family – shape our personalities, our way of thinking and behaving, and how we relate to other people.  And sometimes those thoughts, feelings and patterns which start early can become the cause of problems later on. If you think that I might be able to help you, the first step would be a brief telephone conversation free of charge.  We'd then follow this by meeting up for an initial consultation either in my calm, safe space Balham or else online.  The idea here would be to talk about what has brought you for therapy, to begin thinking about what counselling or psychotherapy might be like for you, and to decide how you and I might work together.  This could be on a focused short-term basis typically 12-24 sessions or on a longer term basis, depending on your needs and means.    As well as private practice, I work as a psychotherapist in the NHS and have a particular interest in trauma and burnout/work related stress, as well as in psychiatric diagnoses such as personality disorders.  I hold an MSc in Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy, am a registered member of the BPC and  BACP and adhere to their code of ethics, I have regular supervision and believe in the importance of enhancing my training and knowledge base.