About

About Susie Bates

You may be asking yourself why things feel harder than they seem to for others, or why familiar patterns keep showing up in your relationships, your confidence, or your emotional life. This work is for people who want to understand themselves more clearly, without being pushed into a fixed way of working or a neat explanation.

 

My approach is grounded in solid professional training and ongoing learning, which allows the work to be flexible rather than formulaic. I work pluralistically, drawing on different therapeutic approaches so sessions can adapt to how you think, feel and process things, rather than asking you to fit a particular model. You might be wondering whether counselling can work if you don’t think in straight lines, or if traditional approaches haven’t quite fitted you before.

At the heart of how I work is a person-centred belief that people already hold insight and wisdom about their own lives. Counselling isn’t about being told what to do or rushed towards solutions. It’s about having the space to make sense of your experiences, understand yourself more deeply, and make choices that feel right for you. Many people come wondering, Where do I even start? or What if I don’t have the right words? You don’t need to arrive with answers.

I work in a neurodivergence-affirming way, informed by both professional understanding and lived experience. Receiving a later ADHD diagnosis gave me a deeper awareness of how neurodivergence can shape self-esteem, identity and relationships, and how looking back on your life through this lens can bring clarity alongside grief or confusion. You may be questioning past experiences, wondering what might have been different, or trying to understand yourself in a new way. There’s no expectation here to simplify or resolve this quickly.

Alongside talking therapy, I also bring my background as a fully qualified yoga teacher into the work when it feels helpful. This might include gentle grounding, breathing or visualisation to support a busy or tired nervous system. Some people ask whether therapy has to stay purely conversational, or whether it can help when emotions feel too big or hard to put into words. These approaches are always optional and led by what feels supportive for you.

I support people with a wide range of experiences, including anxiety, low mood, self-esteem difficulties, trauma, childhood abuse, relationship challenges and bereavement. Often people wonder whether their difficulties are “enough” to bring to counselling, or whether they’re making too much of things. If something is affecting your life or your sense of yourself, it’s enough to be here.

Above all, I aim to offer a steady, respectful space where you don’t have to mask, perform or explain yourself neatly. A space where your differences are taken seriously, your experiences are understood, and the work moves at a pace that supports you rather than pushes you. If you’ve been asking yourself whether there’s somewhere you can be met as you are, this is the intention behind this work.