Stephen Little, UKCP Accredited Psychotherapist

Stephen Little

Croydon CR0
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Stephen Little, UKCP Accredited Psychotherapist

Stephen Little

Croydon CR0
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My Approach

My approach is Gestalt, which means that I will work actively with you to explore your awareness of what's needed and possible in your life.

As a Gestalt practitioner I understand that growth emerges from increasing awareness, acceptance, creative exploration, and taking action in supportive relationships. Judging, directing or controlling rarely nurture growth or creativity. For these reasons I won’t tell you what to do. At the same time, I won’t just sit and listen and nod! I will always try to respond to you usefully.

Gestalt is a Humanistic-Existential approach to therapy. ‘Humanistic’ means I will relate to you as a person, and meet you as a person, rather than diagnose you as a set of symptoms, or treat you as a problem to be solved. ‘Existential’ means also that I acknowledge those aspects of human experience that can’t be changed and which can also give our lives greater meaning as we find more mature and creative ways to respond rather then getting stuck in reacting against them (or avoiding them). I will focus with you on how you can best create satisfaction, and find both meaning and purpose, in your current circumstances.

About Me

If you're looking for a friendly, professional psychotherapeutic counsellor who also specialises in bereavement, grief, loss, and spirituality then please contact me to arrange a free 50 minute introductory session in Hackney (Fridays) or Croydon (Saturdays). After meeting me you can decide if I'm the right person to talk to.

You can also visit my website at https://www.stephenlittle.co.uk for more information.

I work with

  • Individuals

Special Interests

Like all UKCP registered psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors I can work with a wide range of issues, but here are some areas in which I have a special interest or additional experience.

Bereavement can be a bewildering experience that can leave you feeling lost, alone, shattered, stuck, numb, no longer yourself, and fearful of being a burden to others. Meanwhile, well-meaning friends and relatives might be encouraging you to 'move on' and 'put it behind you' and might not seem to really want to understand what you’re going through so that you might feel like you have to pretend or hide your feelings. As well as the death, and the way the person died, there might be aspects of your relationship with that person which need to be grieved, and celebrated, too. By exploring your experience with me you can begin to find ways of responding to your bereavement that you can feel happier about. This might include making sense of your loss, understanding your thoughts, feelings and behaviour in context, identifying what you (don’t) need or want to do, and committing to look after yourself in a kind and understanding way. The death of a friend or relative can be more difficult to come to terms with when that have died as a result of abusing a substance or by suicide. It can be perplexing not understanding why someone would persist in such harmful behaviour or was so unreachable in their pain. Anger, judgment, shame and blame can make grieving even more challenging and might leave you feeling all the more frightened of your thoughts and feelings and prone to unhelpful self-accusation. As an experienced bereavement counsellor I offer you a safe and non-judgmental relationship in which to explore all this at a pace that feels right for you. Other types of loss and change can be also be as challenging as bereavement. This applies to any significant loss, for example of a job or career, romantic relationship, friendship, health, status, expectations of the future, or creative inspiration. Even loss of illusions can be a very unwelcome experience when those illusions have served an important purpose in our life. We are desiring beings and losing what we desire can lead to grief, and to anger, and to shame. You might be carrying a deep-seated feeling of disappointment that is colouring your whole experience. Simply starting where you are by exploring with me how you're affected by loss and change, and how you can best support yourself, can lead to new understandings about what is - and isn't - important, needed or desirable in your life right now.
Non-ordinary experiences, including near-death experience for instance, can be both transformative and highly disruptive. It can take time and patience to work through the significance of such experiences and integrate them. Your sense of who you are, how you live, who you can trust, what you know, what you value and what you need might be thrown into question. Existing relationships and other long-term commitments might become more complicated as a result of such experiences. In my experience, all the great religious and wisdom traditions emerge from direct experience of that which is most real. For this reason, the fruit of all religious and spiritual experience is both relational and practical and includes greater openness to, and capacity for, compassion and wisdom rather than judgement and control. I am open to working with people of all religious and spiritual traditions, and none, to explore questions of 'who am I?' and 'how should I be in the world?' and 'what do I serve?' This includes those who feel something fundamental is lacking in their lives at the moment, who are questioning their place in a particular faith tradition, and those who have had non-ordinary experiences, including through spiritual practices, near-death experience, shared-death experience and (non-traumatic) out of body experience.

Types of Therapies Offered

  • Humanistic Psychotherapeutic Counsellor

Types of sessions

  • Face to Face - Long Term
  • Face to Face - Short Term
  • Online Therapy
  • Telephone Therapy

Croydon Office

Care to Listen
58 Ashburton Road
Croydon CR0 6AN
United Kingdom (UK)

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Cost:

£60

Concession:

£45

Hackney Office

Space to be You
1st Floor, Mare Street Wing
St Joseph's Hospice Hackney
Hackney
United Kingdom

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Cost:

£65

Concession:

£50/£55

UKCP College

  • Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy College (HIPC)
Stephen Little

Stephen Little

Croydon CR0
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