McLay Psychotherapy Counselling Service

McLay Psychotherapy Counselling Service I'm Andrew, a person-centred psychotherapist and BACP member. Together, we will explore issues, concerns and emotions in a safe, confidential space.

Let's embark on a journey of self-discovery and healing, and to a deeper understanding of yourself.

Sometimes the hardest part to explain is this quiet sense of unease — the feeling that you’re always bracing, even when ...
05/01/2026

Sometimes the hardest part to explain is this quiet sense of unease — the feeling that you’re always bracing, even when nothing is “wrong.”

🌿This isn’t weakness🌿.
It’s often a nervous system that learned to stay alert for a long time.

When safety wasn’t consistent earlier in life, your body adapted. It learned vigilance, overthinking, people-pleasing, or emotional withdrawal — not because something was wrong with you, but because it helped you cope.

✨Therapy offers something different✨.
A steady, attuned relationship where your system can slowly learn: I don’t have to stay on guard here.

You don’t have to force calm.
You’re allowed to learn it — gently, over time.

If this resonates, you’re welcome to explore support with us.

03/01/2026

You don’t have to end the year strong.
You just have to end it with yourself.

“What’s one gentle intention you’re taking into the new year?”

Your healing didn’t happen in loud moments — it happened in the small ones you didn’t give yourself credit for💚.🍃Take a ...
30/12/2025

Your healing didn’t happen in loud moments — it happened in the small ones you didn’t give yourself credit for💚.

🍃Take a breath.
🌻You made it.

“What’s one thing you’re grateful to yourself for this year?”

Stress builds slowly — until one day the bucket overflows.Therapy helps you release, process, and understand what fills ...
30/12/2025

Stress builds slowly — until one day the bucket overflows.

Therapy helps you release, process, and understand what fills that bucket so you can carry life with less strain and more clarity.

You’re not meant to hold everything on your own.

“What fills your stress bucket the fastest?”

You were never meant to prove your worth.👉Not through achievement.👉Not through being “easy to love.”👉Not through carryin...
28/12/2025

You were never meant to prove your worth.
👉Not through achievement.
👉Not through being “easy to love.”
👉Not through carrying more than your share.

🥀Somewhere along the way, many of us learned that love came with conditions — that rest had to be earned, that saying no was selfish, that being enough depended on what we did for others.

But your worth was never a reward.
It was always a given✨.

🌼Healing often begins when we stop trying to deserve compassion and start allowing it — from others, and from ourselves.

🌻You are allowed to take up space.
🌻You are allowed to exist without explanation.
🌻You are already enough.

💬 What’s one belief about worth you’re learning to let go of?

🌻December can make you reflect on the year — the losses, the lessons, the growth you didn’t ask for but still walked thr...
26/12/2025

🌻December can make you reflect on the year — the losses, the lessons, the growth you didn’t ask for but still walked through.

💚You’ve survived quiet battles no one saw.
💚You’ve rebuilt parts of yourself you were scared to face.

And you deserve to acknowledge that strength.
You’re allowed to be proud of the person you’re becoming🌻.

“What’s one thing you survived this year?”

Your reactions aren’t personality flaws — they’re survival responses.With time and support, your brain can learn safety ...
24/12/2025

Your reactions aren’t personality flaws — they’re survival responses.
With time and support, your brain can learn safety again.

Therapy doesn’t erase trauma; it rewires how trauma lives in the body.

“Which one spoke to you the most?”

Not every invitation, expectation, or tradition is meant to be carried.December often asks us to stretch ourselves thin ...
20/12/2025

Not every invitation, expectation, or tradition is meant to be carried.
December often asks us to stretch ourselves thin — but you’re allowed to say no, to rest, or to choose softer ways of showing up✨.

Setting boundaries isn’t cold.
It’s care — for your heart, your energy, and your healing🌿.

“What’s one boundary your December self needs?”


16/12/2025

Small choices. Big shifts.
You’re healing more than you realise.

Comments below 👇
“Which small act are you choosing today?”

🌿Trauma doesn’t just live in memories — it lives in the body, the breath, the way you brace for things that never come.🌻...
15/12/2025

🌿Trauma doesn’t just live in memories — it lives in the body, the breath, the way you brace for things that never come.

🌻But with the right support, your nervous system can learn safety again.

✨Healing isn’t erasing the past.
It’s learning that you’re no longer living in it.

And you deserve to live in a world that feels gentler, kinder, and safer — inside and out💚.

“What’s one thing that helps you feel safe in your body?”

Not every invitation, expectation, or tradition is meant to be carried.December often asks us to stretch ourselves thin ...
14/12/2025

Not every invitation, expectation, or tradition is meant to be carried.
December often asks us to stretch ourselves thin — but you’re allowed to say no, to rest, or to choose softer ways of showing up.

Setting boundaries isn’t cold.
It’s care — for your heart, your energy, and your healing.

“What’s one boundary your December self needs?”

🌿December can bring up emotions you didn’t expect — grief you thought had softened… loneliness you can’t explain… a quie...
10/12/2025

🌿December can bring up emotions you didn’t expect — grief you thought had softened… loneliness you can’t explain… a quiet sadness that feels out of place next to everyone else’s celebration.

If this season feels heavy for you, please know this:
Your reaction is not wrong — it’s honest.
Your emotions are not a burden — they’re signals from a heart that remembers.

For many people, December stirs old stories:
💚unmet needs
💚painful holidays from the past
💚pressure to “be okay”
💚fractured family relationships
💚memories of people who are no longer here

Your nervous system holds these moments — not as failures, but as reminders of how deeply you’ve felt, loved, survived, and grown.

You don’t need to “push through” or be festive for anyone.

"Healing is not about pretending your heart doesn’t hurt.
Healing is giving yourself permission to feel what’s real."

And if this season is asking you to slow down, soften, or simply breathe…
please listen.

Your healing journey is allowed to look different from others.

At McLay Psychotherapy and Counselling Service, you are met with warmth, safety, and understanding — especially during seasons when the world expects you to smile.

You’re doing your best with what your heart holds.
And that is enough. 🌿

“What emotion is alive in you this December?”

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