Rate Maria Galani

My name is Maria and I am a registered MBACP counsellor. I hold Graduate membership with the British Psychological Society. I am member of the Counselling Psychology Division, and working towards the Doctorate in Counselling Psychology.

I provide an empathic, non-judgemental space where you can open up and feel seen and heard for who you truly are. Our therapeutic sessions will be tailored to meet your unique needs, based on a shared understanding of your concerns and problems. We will work collaboratively and I can help you live more fully, drawing from your internal resources and abilities.

As an existential- integrative therapist, I am drawing on the approaches that best suit the issues the clients bring into the therapy room. I offer both short-term and long term therapy for adults.

In existential therapy, emotional and psychological difficulties are viewed as inner conflict caused by an individual's confrontation with the givens of existence. Rather than delve into the past, the existential approach looks at the here and now, exploring the human condition as a whole and what it means for an individual.

Whilst focusing on the existential approach, I can also work in an integrative approach, which means that I draw on the approaches that best suit the issues the clients bring in to the room. Therefore, I can work with other various psychological approaches including Person-Centred Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Psychodynamic Therapy. I have a special interest in working with the Transactional analysis model, to help clients manage their relationships in a healthier way and understand their own mechanisms and how that plays out in their relationships. My approach as a whole, is tailored to the individual client.

Training, qualifications & experience

Experience:

I started working in mental health in 2009, and since then I have gained extensive experience in various settings including NHS Primary Care (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies IAPT Services), Employee Assistance Programmes in international and national level,as well as charitable and private agencies. I have delivered trauma therapy work to private corporate organisations, and ran well-being groups in the UK and Greece.

I have worked with young people, adults and groups with a wide range of difficulties, from feelings of depression and anxiety, low self-esteem, difficult relationships and workplace problems to cultural difficulties and diagnosed mental health conditions.

I have a special interest in work place bullying and conflict at workplaces and helping clients to identify healthy ways of managing the feelings that come out of that process.

Qualifications:

- Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology&Psychotherapy- New School of Psychotherapy&Counselling/Middlesex University (completion date Expected (December 2025)

*Have completed the 2 year Postgraduate diploma level studies in Counselling&Psychotherapy)

- M.Sc. Child& Adolescent Mental Health (King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology& Neuroscience- 2013)

- B.Sc.(Hons) Psychology (National&Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece- 2011)