WLM Highbury Counselling Centre (HCC)

Affordable Counselling and Psychotherapy 

WLM Highbury Counselling Centre offers an affordable Counselling and Psychotherapy service for adults, a confidential and non-judgemental space to speak with a trained professional.

More specifically, the WLM HCC clinic offers longer-term (one year) Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic and Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling to people who are looking to speak about a wide range of emotional issues, such as anxiety, depression, loss, and other distressing life events.

Some clients come to deal with a very specific issue that is creating emotional distress in their present lives, others want to understand a troubling past experience or change the quality of their relationships with their family and friends. We help our clients understand and change emotional patterns so they can look forward to a better future.

Our clinic does not operate on a symptom-based and symptom-reduction model; such therapies (like CBT, psycho-education, and Mindfulness) can be accessed through primary care and statutory services and may be more helpful for people looking for more structured interventions and in some cases for those dealing with an acute crisis.

In contrast to the symptom-focused modalities, the Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic and Integrative therapies offered at WLM HCC aim to help each client explore the roots and nature of their concerns, within the context of their life, and unique individual personal history. 

Having Psychotherapy at HCC will be different for each person, and particular to their engagement with the therapeutic process and the relationship with their therapist.

The therapy contracts offered at WLM HCC involve weekly sessions with the same therapist, lasting up to one year. This is a commitment on the side of the therapist and WLM HCC, while each client can choose to end the work earlier and when they decide it is suitable for them to do so.

The majority of the people we work with tend to make use of the full year offered, and in some cases, there is the possibility to extend the contract further, depending on what is deemed suitable for each case, and considering the internal resources of the service at that time.

Our team

The therapists who work with WLM HCC do so on an honorary basis and as part of their professional clinical training. Our therapists are in the latter stages of well-regarded post-graduate and doctoral clinical training. We also have a few qualified Psychotherapists and Counsellors with our team, some of whom may be undergoing further professional development courses.

All WLM HCC Counsellors and Psychotherapists, whether in-training or qualified, are registered with the professional accrediting body (such as UKCP, BACP, BPS, BPC, NCS) affiliated with their course/qualification and receive regular in-house supervision.

All our WLM HCC supervisors are Psychodynamic Psychotherapists and Psychoanalysts, who are Registered/Accredited with the UKCP, the BACP, and/or the BPC and the BAPPS.

Joanne Tan, Service Manager is a BACP Accredited Psychodynamic Therapist.

Dr Kalli Nikolopoulou, Head of Counselling is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist, HCPC registered, and currently undertaking further post-graduate training in Psychoanalysis.

Read about our Honorary Clinical Placements.

Group Psychotherapy

In addition to individual psychotherapy, WLM HCC offers an open-ended psychotherapy group, which is facilitated by a qualified and experienced Psychotherapist. The psychotherapy group may be better suited for people who want to focus primarily on the dynamics of their interpersonal relationships.

Please click here for more information on Group Psychotherapy.

Fees and practicalities

WLM HCC does not receive any external/statutory funding for its services and we rely exclusively on the fees received from the clinic to sustain our operations. This allows us greater flexibility in relation to the offer of longer-term psychotherapies and entails an ongoing commitment on the side of the client and the therapist for the weekly sessions, and the continuity of the therapeutic work during the period that the client chooses to engage with our service. 

We work with people of diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds and we operate on a sliding-scale scheme, in order to make our service accessible to people who are not otherwise able to afford professional Counselling and Psychotherapy services.

Your fee will be agreed with you at your initial assessment appointment, and we aim to match our fees to our clients’ financial circumstances. The minimum fee for people with limited financial resources is set at £15 per weekly therapy session. 

Contact

For any inquiries relating to the WLM HCC clinic you can email us at [email protected] or call us at 020 3148 5331.

For any clinical concerns you may have relating to your therapy with WLM HCC you can contact the Head of Counselling directly at [email protected]

See more about:

Self-referrals

Group psychotherapy

Honorary Clinical Placements