Peter Britton

Appointments on Wednesdays and Thursdays with current availability. Face to face, on-line or telephone sessions. 

Registered and Accredited since 2005. A wide range of experience including school counselling, NHS primary care, working with the homeless and private practice. However, therapy is not just about qualifications and experience but more importantly about what occurs as a result of being heard, not judged and treated with empathy and compassion. Also, we can become our own worst enemies by failing to apply these qualities to ourselves. Developing self-compassion is a key element.  

We start by deciding how we will work together as a team to achieve positive change. Making sure what you want matches what I can provide is essential to avoid misunderstandings. I prefer to identify specific goals but when this is not possible we can work in a different way. My main theoretical approach is Transactional Analysis but I draw from a number of others. I work openly and am always willing to discuss how I feel the work is progressing. There are no hidden agendas and any theory used avoids jargon or medical terminology. 

Short-Term Therapy

Short term-work is mostly solution-focussed and often connected to dealing with an acute crisis such as a loss or emotional breakdown. Length of therapy usually ranges from 4-12 sessions . 

Long-Term Therapy

This is more in depth and involves the following stages:

Establishing a good working alliance

Looking at what is not working in your life and deciding on how you would like to change this

Gently exploring the inner thoughts and feelings involved in what is not working 

Identifying and dealing with self criticism

Talking about experiences from childhood to see if we can identify the origins of negative patterns and unhelpful beliefs 

Developing  self-awareness to provide more choice in avoiding repetition of errors

Strengthening self-care and support from others. Establishing effective personal boundaries

Measuring positive change and acknowledging success!

Larger goals are self discovery, finding meaning and purpose in life and becoming authentic and autonomous. 

My private practice for face to face work is located about a mile outside the centre of Maidstone in a newly built Community Centre. The therapy room is modern, comfortable and quiet and there is a convenient waiting area. Parking and disabled access are available and it is on a local bus route.

I see clients for both both short and long term work and offer general counselling with specialities of anger management, working with adolescents and short-term solution-focussed therapy. 

The first session involves practical issues of how we will work together, information gathering and defining what issues are to be dealt with. I prefer to work with specific goals for but when these are difficult to define, just being listened to with empathy,  compassion and without judgement can be therapeutic in itself.