Amy Purnell

My availability is varied, including day times, evenings and weekends.

I offer the option of either face-to-face sessions in Glasgow, and/or Online.

For our Face-to-Face sessions these are at an office in Glasgow city centre.

The office is a short walk from train and subway stations, as well as close to many bus routes. There is on-street parking. Whilst the building does have a lift, there are several smaller sets of stairs leading to the office which unfortunately means it is not wheelchair accessible.

For our Online sessions I use Zoom.

I will send you the link ahead via email of the session. We all have technical issues time 鈥� to help minimise the chance of any issues I鈥檇 encourage you to ensure your device is charged or plugged in, you are connected to a good internet connection and you set yourself up somewhere that you won鈥檛 be interrupted, that you feel able to speak without anyone overhearing and that you feel comfortable.

I want to make therapy as accessible as possible 鈥� to do this I have small percentage of my weekly sessions that I can offer at a reduced price. If this is something you are interested in please state 鈥渞eferred by Harold鈥� with no further explanation about your financial circumstances.

If you are reading this, you may have recently thought 鈥渓ife is hard鈥�no-one prepared me for this鈥� or something similar. You鈥檙e possibly feeling stressed, anxious, depressed, panicked, overwhelmed 鈥� or all the above.

You don鈥檛 feel like yourself, you鈥檙e feeling exhausted, on edge, numb, like the things you used to enjoy just aren鈥檛 cutting it anymore, potentially burnt out. You鈥檙e retreating from the world a little bit, spending more time by yourself, and when you are around people you feel lonely and unseen.

You might be starting to realise the extent and impact of the things you鈥檝e experienced within your life, going through big life stressors, like loss, bereavements, work stress or a build-up of things that I call a 鈥榣ife trifle鈥� where gradually layers of things we go through start to affect us.

Any of this feel familiar?

If so, therapy can be incredibly helpful because it鈥檚 a space that is solely yours to talk about how you are feeling without someone saying 鈥渕e too! This is what happened to me鈥�. You can be properly seen and heard. 

I work with clients dealing with (but not limited to) low mood, anxiety, stress, bereavement, grief, self-esteem issues, identity issues (gender, sexuality and relationships), life transitions, trauma and unmet childhood needs.

I can help you find the language and ways to describe how you are feeling, notice patterns of behaviour/emotions/feelings, notice what is happening now and how this may relate to your past experiences, and gain ways to help address and manage what is going on, or make changes. Or even having the space to talk might feel beneficial within itself.

Everyone is different and we can work together to help to figure out what will be useful for you.

I鈥檒l be honest therapy is hard work鈥�it feels important to say that from the get-go鈥�but you鈥檙e not alone, I鈥檓 here to support you.

I have a friendly, approachable and authentic approach 鈥� that means I talk like a real person, not all clinical, or using jargon. I use metaphors to help explain why we operate the way we do so you can start to understand what is going on for you a little better. People often ask in sessions, if they can swear, yes you can, you don鈥檛 need my permission.

I am a trauma informed, queer friendly, affirmative therapist with experience of working with clients with gender, sexual and relationship diversity. I am experienced in working with clients who are medically diagnosed, or self-diagnosed as neurodivergent.

I am clinically trained in CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), with a strong background in professional background in Person Centred Therapy, with additional trainings in approaches such as CFT (Compassion Focused Therapy). I have an undergraduate degree in Psychology, and a postgraduate degree in Psychological and Psychiatric Anthropology. This means I tend to draw on different approaches, depending on what you, the client brings to sessions 鈥� such as being able to draw upon the role of culture, society and psychological model for how we come to be as we are today.

I have over 10 years鈥� experience supporting young people and adults with their mental health concerns by volunteering and working in a variety of charity counselling services and helplines. 

Finding a therapist to start working with can be difficult - scrolling through directories and websites, trying to get a sense of people from their photos and written descriptions, figuring out if they are someone you will feel able to talk about really hard, personal stuff.

I get it. This is why I offer a free, 15 minutes, 'wee chat' aka consultation over Zoom.

It gives both you and I the chance to see if it feels like a good fit for us to work together, as well as to ask any questions you might.