Joanna Cottrell , BACP

Joanna Cottrell is a counsellor who focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety and low self-esteem. She supports those facing career and relationship difficulties as well as depression and motivation problems. Joanna aims to make it easier to take the first steps towards change by offering calm, practical support.

She creates a welcoming space where clients can speak openly about thoughts and feelings. Sessions are non-judgemental and paced to suit each person. Joanna encourages small, achievable steps so progress feels manageable rather than overwhelming.

Her approach draws on client-centred work that keeps the person’s experience at the heart of sessions. She also uses cognitive behavioural techniques to identify unhelpful thinking patterns and to build skills that reduce stress and anxiety. Motivational interviewing helps when people struggle to find the energy or direction to change behaviours.

Joanna has eight years of professional experience and holds membership of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, BACP. She has worked with a wide range of concerns including trauma and abuse, grief, intimacy-related issues, addictions and ADHD. Her additional focus areas include attachment difficulties, body image and coping with chronic illness.

In therapy she helps people set clear goals and checks progress regularly. Practical tools, short exercises and conversational reflection are common parts of sessions. Joanna supports clients who want focused, collaborative work to understand themselves better and to make steady changes.

All sessions are offered in English and delivered from the United Kingdom.

Approaches and online support that fit your life

Client-centred therapy focuses on the person's experience. The therapist listens closely and follows the client’s lead to build trust and clarify what matters most. This approach helps when someone needs a steady, understanding space to talk through problems.

Cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts, feelings and actions interact. It uses short practical exercises to spot unhelpful thinking and to try different behaviours that reduce stress and low mood. CBT is often useful for anxiety, depression and sleep or eating concerns.

Motivational interviewing helps when a person feels stuck or unsure about change. It uses gentle conversation to explore ambivalence and to identify personal reasons for taking small steps forward.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Joanna will discuss options and decide together what feels most helpful based on the client's goals, needs and preferences. This collaborative process means the plan can be adjusted as progress is made.

Online therapy is offered via video calls, phone sessions, live chat or text-based messaging to give flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can fit into a break at work, chat is useful for brief check-ins and messaging supports ongoing reflection between meetings. These options make it easier to maintain regular sessions and to choose the format that suits day-to-day life.