Colette Safhill, BACP

Colette Safhill is a person-centred counsellor with 20 years' experience. She works in a non-judgemental way and focuses on what each person brings to sessions. Her approach aims to create space for people to say what matters and to feel heard.

Colette trained at the University of Essex and holds BACP accreditation, which appears on her professional record. She has completed post-qualifying training in a range of therapies and topics, and those additional studies inform how she tailors sessions.

Her work covers stress, anxiety, addictions, depression and trauma and abuse. She also supports people dealing with relationship strains, grief, intimacy-related issues and eating or sleeping difficulties. Career concerns, self-esteem, anger and coping with life changes are part of her caseload too.

Additional areas she focuses on include abandonment, adoption and foster care matters, attachment issues, ageing and geriatric concerns, and caregiver stress. She also addresses topics such as body image, chronic pain or illness, codependency, communication problems and dissociation.

Colette uses a mix of client-centred therapy alongside approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, EMDR and the Gottman Method when these fit a person's needs. She offers sessions in English and accepts international clients. To begin, people follow the site process to match and schedule with her.

How Colette’s approaches work online

Colette practises person-centred work that keeps the client's perspective central. This approach focuses on understanding each person's experience, listening without judgement and building a trusting working relationship. It helps when someone needs space to talk through feelings and make sense of personal challenges.

She also uses cognitive behavioural therapy, which looks at how thoughts, feelings and behaviours interact. CBT is practical and goal-focused, and can be helpful for anxiety, low mood and unhelpful patterns. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, is another approach she has trained in; it is often used for processing traumatic memories and reducing their emotional impact.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss options, try techniques that fit the client's goals, and adjust the plan as they learn what helps. Clients play an active role in deciding what feels useful and what to focus on next.

Practical benefits of online work include easier fitting of sessions into daily life and more options for connecting when travel is difficult. The biography notes she is qualified to offer online and phone work as well as in-person sessions. Confirm the current session formats and scheduling details with the service before booking so arrangements match your needs.