About James
James Costigan is a BACP counsellor with nine years' experience helping people who feel overwhelmed by stress and anxiety. He offers a calm, non-judgemental space where clients can slow down and begin to make sense of what they are feeling.
He often works with men who have carried pressures in silence, but he welcomes anyone who wants clearer thinking and steadier responses to life. He focuses on building self-awareness and emotional understanding.
Background and approach
Sessions aim to help people spot patterns that cause distress and to find simpler ways to manage day-to-day challenges. Practical conversation is combined with reflection so clients can make small, sustainable changes. James draws on client-centred work to place the person’s experience at the heart of therapy.
He uses cognitive behavioural ideas to help reframe unhelpful thoughts and habits. Mindfulness techniques are introduced where they help reduce reactivity and increase calm. He also brings experience of corporate life to support career and work-related stress.
People come for help with relationship troubles, addictions, low self-esteem, anger, grief over change, and intimacy or identity questions. James describes therapy as a collaborative process that moves at each client’s pace. Sessions are offered online in a variety of formats to suit different needs.
James aims to help people make clearer choices, feel less overwhelmed, and build steady confidence over time.
How his approaches work online
Client-Centred Therapy focuses on the person’s own experience. The therapist listens closely and follows what matters most to the client, helping them discover their own solutions and grow confidence in making choices. This approach is useful for people who need a steady, accepting space to talk things through.Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts, feelings and actions link together. James uses simple CBT techniques to identify unhelpful thinking and to try practical behavioural changes that reduce anxiety and stress. This can help with panic, low mood and compulsive behaviours.
Mindfulness Therapy introduces attention and breathing practices to reduce emotional reactivity. Brief exercises help people notice thoughts without immediately acting on them and can be brought into everyday routines to lower tension.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. James will discuss options and tailor methods to a client's needs, goals and preferences. The decision about which techniques to use is made together and can change as therapy progresses.
Online sessions make it easier to fit therapy around life. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when visual contact helps. Phone sessions suit people who prefer not to be on camera or who need a simpler check-in. Live chat and text messaging offer short, flexible ways to keep momentum between sessions or to share thoughts in writing. These formats give choice and practical flexibility for different situations.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Paranoia
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 9 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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