Mansion House Counselling Practice

Know Thyself

Therapy is an effective way of dealing with personal problems. It provides a safe environment in which to talk things over and explore your feelings in a non-judgmental setting, often impossible to find elsewhere.

Therapy works by helping you understand how your life experiences are affecting you in the present, influencing the way that you think, and the way that you relate to yourself and others.

It's not easy. We do not tell you what to do. We aim to give you choices. To explore options that you may not have considered.

Our approach is called Psychodynamic, which simply means that we work together. We are not limited by any one theory or technique. Instead we work with any and every technique that is relevant to the situation.

We are professionally qualified and experienced therapists offering help for a wide range of problems and issues. Our consulting room is conveniently situated 100 yards from Mansion House tube station.

Everything discussed with your therapist is confidential. If you are willing to be honest with yourself and prepared to work, you can change your life.

Reasons for coming to therapy:

What next?

To arrange an Initial Consultation call us on 020 7760 7541 or email us at [email protected]. Sessions are charged at £70 per session. Payment is by either cash or cheque at the end of each session. Concessions are available and can be discussed with your therapist.

All enquiries are treated in confidence. You will find further information on counselling, psychotherapy and our practice in the following pages which we hope you will find useful.

Points to ponder before the first meeting

Points to ponder after the first meeting

Location

Mansion House Counselling Practice is located near Mansion House tube station on Queen Victoria Street in The City, providing Counselling and Psychotherapy in Central London within easy reach of Westminster (Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey), Whitechapel (Royal London Hospital), Embankment (The South Bank Centre, The Royal National Theatre, The Hayward Gallery), Victoria, Sloane Square and Chelsea.

About Us

Mansion House Counselling Practice is part of a collective of experienced and qualified Counsellors and Psychotherapists in The City and Central London. We all share a common sacred respect for the human spirit in all it's forms.

Useful Websites

Latest Article: The Shadow

“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us” - Hermann Hesse (born 2nd July 1877, died 9th August 1962)


From infancy and through childhood and adolescence we pick up from our parents / carers both conscious and unconscious messages about what is acceptable in terms of our body, our feelings and our behaviour. All that is unacceptable is suppressed and repressed and becomes part of our shadow. We not only take in and repress what is unacceptable, we also internalise our carers’ attitudes to these unwanted qualities and characteristics of ourselves. The harsher the attitude, which may have been expressed by withdrawal of love, rejection, physical / emotional / sexual abuse, the more hostile we are to these facets of our shadow. At worst, the shadow becomes entwined with abandonment anxiety so that its emergence can really feel like a matter of life or death.

The assimilation of the shadow, leads to self-acceptance and self-forgiveness. Grievance and blame give way to the taking of responsibility and attempts at sorting out what belongs to whom. A fierce conscience, which tends to be punitive to the self and others, can relax and personal values can be set in counterpoint to collective morality.

As individual attention is habitually focused on the persona (social role / mask), the deeper neglected aspects of the personality continually sabotage the individual’s conscious intentions. In order to account for these frustrations, while also avoiding their true source, the shadow is conveniently projected onto other people, resulting in what can often be perceived as threatening and unfriendly circumstances.

The first sign of shadow projection appears as a strong emotional reaction to anyone or anything in the environment. It feels impulsive and automatic, more like an unconscious reflex than a conscious, intentional response. It is this very tendency which serves as the prime indicator that the shadow is in play. By becoming aware of the people to whom the persona is positively or negatively attracted, in addition to the outwardly focused perceptions which accompany such attraction, it is possible to recognise the shadow.

The contents of projection are the secret characteristics which the persona refuses to acknowledge. And ending this externalisation of the personal contents of consciousness is what Jung’s former mentor, Freud, was pointing to when he proclaimed, “where id was, there ego shall be”.