Karen Spilsbury , NCPS

Karen Spilsbury is a counsellor with eight years of professional experience in the United Kingdom. She is registered as NCPS and draws on that background to support people managing stress, anxiety and addictions. She is also experienced in helping people cope with trauma, abuse, low self-esteem and major life changes.

Karen believes clients know their own stories and brings a respectful, person-led style to sessions. She listens for strengths and practical resources the client already has. Conversations focus on small, doable steps rather than overwhelming plans.

Her work often includes talking through difficult feelings and building everyday skills to manage them. She uses straightforward techniques from approaches such as acceptance and commitment therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and client-centred methods. She also offers elements of dialectical behaviour work and hypnotherapy where appropriate.

People come to Karen for help with relationship and attachment concerns, issues around abandonment or commitment, and patterns like codependency or avoidance. She also supports those dealing with substance problems, domestic violence aftermath, dissociation and overlapping mental health conditions.

Sessions aim to be practical and paced to the client. Karen helps people set clear goals, practise coping strategies and notice progress. She encourages gentle self-compassion alongside practical change.

Approaches online and how they can help

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, then commit to values-based actions. It can be useful for anxiety, stress and life changes where getting clear on priorities matters.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) focuses on spotting unhelpful thought patterns and testing them with practical experiments. It is often chosen for anxiety, low mood and for learning concrete coping strategies.

Client-Centred Therapy places the person and their experience at the heart of sessions, with the counsellor offering empathy and non-judgemental listening to help clients find their own solutions.

Finding the right approach is part of therapy. The therapist will work with the client to identify which methods fit their goals and preferences. That choice is made together and can change over time as needs shift.

Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to give practical flexibility. Video calls are close to face-to-face contact, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is low, live chat suits brief check-ins and messaging is useful for ongoing reflections between sessions. This variety helps people fit counselling around work, family and daily life.