Laura West

Laura West is a counsellor and psychotherapist with 19 years of health-care experience. She brings practical calm to people facing stress, anxiety, depression, grief and low self-esteem. Many seek her help during life changes such as separation and divorce. She is a member of the National Counselling Society and holds NCPS credentials. Before moving into counselling Laura worked for 17 years as a Registered General Nurse in the NHS. She took specialist nursing roles, including work as a Macmillan Breast Cancer Specialist Practitioner, where supporting patients through treatment deepened her interest in emotional care. Her clinical style blends humanistic, client-centred values with psychodynamic ideas. She also draws on cognitive behavioural techniques and solution-focused tools when they suit a person’s goals. Sessions aim to be practical and clear, with simple steps you can try between meetings. Laura says therapy is a collaborative process. She listens first, helps people name what matters most, and then agrees goals and actions together. This straightforward approach is helpful for people who want change but feel stuck or overwhelmed. People come to her for help with grief, coping with illness and chronic pain, loneliness, communication problems, and issues around abandonment and narcissism. She supports work on life purpose and social anxiety too. If you want to explore a path forward after a major life change, she will work with you to find steady, manageable steps.

Approaches that guide online conversations

Client-Centred Therapy places the person at the heart of each session, focusing on listening and understanding what matters most to the individual and helping them find their own solutions. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) looks at how thoughts, feelings and behaviours link together and teaches practical skills to change unhelpful patterns and reduce anxiety or low mood. Psychodynamic ideas pay attention to past experiences and recurring patterns to help people understand why they react in certain ways and make different choices. Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will listen to your concerns, discuss options and agree together which methods to try. That collaborative planning means approaches can change as goals shift or new priorities emerge. Please confirm the current session options before booking, as formats are not specified in the biography. Online therapy can make it easier to fit therapy into busy routines, cut travel time, and allow brief check-ins when a full session is not suitable. It can also suit people who prefer working from a quieter place or need a shorter, practical session during a break. Registered or accredited professionals can adapt exercises, homework and conversation to work well at a distance, helping progress without needing to attend in person.