About me
Becoming the therapist I am has been shaped as much by my own experience of therapy as by formal training and professional roles. I know that beginning counselling or psychotherapy can feel exposing, uncertain, or hard to justify, and I hold that knowledge with care.
My own therapeutic journey included six years of intensive Jungian analysis, with multiple sessions per week. That experience continues to inform how I work: my respect for depth, for complexity and for the way change unfolds through relationship rather than instruction.
About my working style
I work as a counsellor, psychotherapist, coach and supervisor, using an integrative, relational approach rather than a single school or manualised method. My work draws on psychodynamic, humanistic and cognitive traditions, alongside coaching frameworks, developmental psychology and contemporary neuroscience.
Rather than focusing on techniques or symptom management, I am interested in understanding patterns over time — how ways of coping, relating, and making sense of the world have developed and how they now shape experience. The work is collaborative and responsive, shaped around the person or couple in front of me rather than around a predetermined model. At the heart of this approach is the therapeutic relationship itself: a steady, thoughtful connection in which understanding deepens and meaningful change can be allowed to emerge.
About what it’s like to work with me
Working with me is active, collaborative and grounded. I am present in the room — a thinking, listening, and sometimes challenging partner — and I bring both professional expertise and human presence to the work. I share appropriately, respond in real time and often combine the reflective space of therapy with the practical orientation of coaching, helping you engage with yourself and your relationships more fully.
I pay close attention — to what is said, what is avoided and what emerges over time. Sessions are reflective rather than prescriptive, though I am active and intervening when it helps. I am not interested in quick fixes but neither am I passive. People often describe the work as containing, intellectually engaging and deeply real — particularly if they value depth, nuance and being taken seriously as a thinking, feeling person.
About my professional experience
Over the years, I have worked in a wide variety of settings with people at very different stages of life and under very different kinds of pressure. This breadth has strongly influenced how I think about distress, adaptation and resilience.
My experience includes:
- psychotherapy services within NHS Psychological Treatments at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge
- counselling students at the University of Cambridge
- working with male and female young offenders in a Home Office secure unit
- facitilitating change for children and young people in primary and secondary school settings
- groupwork with ADHD boys and girls in special education contexts
- therapeutic work with young women in severe welfare need
- group and individual supervision within organisations such as the Cogwheel Trust, Choices and further education colleges
- mentoring and supervision, both in person and remotely for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.
Alongside this, I have a particular interest and experience in working with adults who receive a later-life diagnosis of ADHD, and with women with ADHD or AuDHD who are frequently underdiagnosed or misunderstood.
I am also the founder of Attention Allies: Therapists for ADHD, a network of experienced clinicians offering counselling, psychotherapy and coaching to adults with ADHD.
About the way my work developed
My therapeutic work did not begin in a clinic. I originally trained and worked as a professional performing musician, composer and educator. Coaching and mentoring roles within the arts were my first sustained experiences of working closely with people around identity, performance, anxiety and meaning.
Over time, this work shifted. I volunteered for several years with helplines such as the Samaritans, which deepened my interest in sitting with people in moments of intensity and vulnerability — both face to face and remotely by telephone and early email platforms.
This background continues to shape my work today, particularly my comfort with complexity, uncertainty and non-linear change and my respect for creativity as a psychological resource rather than a distraction from “real” work.
About my training and accreditation
I hold graduate and postgraduate qualifications in counselling and psychotherapy from the University of Cambridge. My undergraduate degree included developmental psychology, and I also hold a supervision qualification and a diploma in hypnotherapy.
I have been an accredited counsellor and psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) since 2005 and appear on the BACP Accredited Register. I am also a registered member of the General Psychotherapy Council (GPsyC) and the General Hypnotherapy Register (GHR). I work in accordance with the ethical frameworks of these bodies.
About my writing and past media connections
Alongside my clinical practice, I have written for publications including Therapy Today and Glamour and consulted for broadcast media such as Channel 4 and BBC Three – contributing to programmes like C4's Porn on the Brain. These experiences allowed me to explore cultural and psychological dimensions of intimacy and relationships — perspectives that continue to inform my work today.
I also authored a book, Turned On: Intimacy in a Pornised Society (2010), which reflects an earlier exploration of modern porn-influenced intimacy and digital culture. This earlier work remains part of the foundation of my understanding of 21st century relational and sexual dynamics.
I remain actively engaged in professional networks with other therapists, locally and nationally, valuing dialogue, collaboration and the exchange of ideas that enrich my clinical work.
About me outside the therapy room
When I’m not working I’m passionate about music and visual art, the natural world, motorsport and motorcycling — interests that continue to feed my thinking about creativity, embodiment and risk, both in life and in therapy.
Get In Touch
You are welcome to contact me but please be aware that my practice is often very busy. I review potential work carefully to ensure a good clinical fit.
To arrange an initial session or for further information, you can contact me via duncan@therapy-space.co.uk by using the contact form below, or by text or phone on 07871 257 457
Please note that responses may take several days but I aim to respond to all professional enquiries within a week.