Michelle Robinson-Hayes, BACP

Michelle Robinson-Hayes offers support for stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, relationship and intimacy concerns, grief and loss, addictions, trauma and abuse, parenting strains, sleep and eating difficulties, ADHD, bipolar and work-related pressure. She also addresses issues around career change, compassion fatigue and coping with life transitions. Michelle works with people who identify as LGBT and those facing challenges linked to adoption, attachment or carer stress. Michelle uses straightforward, practical conversations to help people make sense of their situation. She combines a person-focused, client-centred style with tools from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and mindfulness. Hypnotherapy and motivational interviewing are also part of her toolkit when they suit a person’s goals. Michelle trained and practised as a psychotherapeutic counsellor and hypnotherapist and holds BACP accreditation. She founded The Listening Tree to offer more affordable counselling and hypnotherapy locally, and has run that practice for over eight years. Across her work she has provided more than 1,000 hours of counselling and 500 hours of hypnotherapy. Before founding her practice she spent many years in senior management roles in corporate settings. That background informs her coaching style and makes her comfortable supporting career concerns and workplace stress. She has delivered training and mentoring to students and staff and supervises other counsellors. Her approach is collaborative and goal-focused. Sessions tend to combine listening with practical steps and reflective tools you can use between meetings. People who want a plain-speaking, experienced counsellor often find this approach useful.

Approaches you might use in online sessions

Client-Centred Therapy focuses on listening and understanding your experience without judgement. The counsellor follows your lead and helps you find your own solutions, which can be useful for stress, low self-esteem and major life changes.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, looks at the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviour. It uses simple, practical exercises to shift unhelpful patterns and can help with anxiety, depression, sleep and mood management.

Mindfulness Therapy teaches ways to pay attention to the present moment and to respond more calmly to difficult feelings. It can be helpful for worry, stress and managing strong emotions.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences and day-to-day realities and then try techniques together to see what helps. This collaborative process means methods can be adjusted as you learn what fits.

Check the available session options before booking, as formats are not listed in the biography. Online sessions can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life - for example by removing travel time, allowing shorter check-ins during a lunch break, or offering a quieter way to speak when schedules are tight. Registered or accredited professionals often use these practical benefits to help people maintain steady progress.