Face to Face counselling available Friday mornings and afternoons
in city centre location. Just ask for details.
Alison Mattu
Help & support when you need it most
Alison Mattu - Psychotherapist & CounsellorI’m an Edinburgh based private counselling psychotherapist, offering online and telephone sessions at present with limited face to face availability for anyone who could use some support with their mental health and emotional wellbeing. My role as I view it, is to help people find meaning, and to feel safe, happier, and more confident in coping with their lives. I’m welcoming and inclusive to everyone.
I’ve helped hundreds of people explore personal issues, feel better about themselves and move on from low mood, feeling stuck in their lives, powerlessness, grief and emotional pain helping them to express themselves and reconnect to what’s really important.
Everyone’s mental health matters; taking time to explore issues with a compassionate, experienced professional can be life changing. Telephone and online works just as well as face to face and often people share how much they prefer it for convenience and comfort.
If you have any questions or would like to find out if we are good therapeutic fit, then please get in touch via email, text or a free initial fifteen-minute call (requires booking).
Confidential, and easy to book service.My Services & How I Can Help
Anxiety
You’ll know it can be crippling. It can appear out of nowhere, leaving you in a state of panic, feeling afraid and vulnerable. Anxiety can increase heart rate, cause tension, dizziness and feelings of helplessness.
I work in an emotion-focused way which helps people understand their own relationship with anxiety. Relaxation is one of the best ways to help reduce anxiety. Awareness and confidence are key factors which can be achieved through talking therapies.
Low self-esteem
If you lack confidence, suffer from low mood and feel worthless much of the time, it might be an indication you have low self-esteem. It’s difficult to rate yourself highly and you may spend time overthinking your flaws whilst comparing yourself to others.
In counselling, we take a closer look at your negative feelings and thoughts together. We learn new, more helpful ways of thinking about ourselves.
Difficult relationships
You may experience upset at the end of a relationship or have a manipulating or controlling partner. It might be a parent-child power struggle that’s hard to cope with. It may be your marriage that has broken down.
All relationships take a degree of work and in counselling, the work we do together is based upon your experience within the dynamic of any relationship.
Focusing primarily on your feelings, affectations and behaviours, we will explore what feels important for you to regain a sense of comfort within the relationship.
Sexual issues (addiction/identity)
You may be habitually using sex sites or pornography, or cheating on a partner. You may suffer from physical or emotional aspects regarding sex. Or you be LGBT and troubled by an element of your sexuality.
In a confidential environment, I can help by exploring feelings, habits and processes you might be experiencing around sex. A deeper insight into behaviour and possibilities, with new ways of coping exist and can be learned.
Loss & Grief
Losing a person of significance in our lives can be devastating. We may feel lots of different emotions – sadness, anger, hurt, despair, even relief and/or guilt.
Effective grief therapy can help with the task of rebuilding our lives after such tragedy. Having someone understand exactly where we are at - it can change from moment to moment, day to day – allows our healing process to begin.
Depression
It's a darkness that some find hard to describe. A debilitating feeling of being unable to function well in the ‘outside’ world. A feeling that there is no point to anything and that you might be better off dead. It's hard to face depression alone.
I sit with you and your depression. Through talking, sharing, looking at how it is for you as an individual, things can begin to shift in a positive, brighter way.