About Madeleine
Madeleine Heffernan is a counsellor based in the United Kingdom who helps people with stress, anxiety and related concerns. She offers practical, compassionate support for problems such as relationship strain, family conflict, trauma and abuse, low mood, addictions and grief. Madeleine works in plain language and aims to make early steps feel manageable for people who are worried or overwhelmed.
Madeleine draws on a mix of approaches to match a person's needs.
Background and approach
She uses psychodynamic ideas to look at how past experiences shape current patterns, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviours. Emotionally-Focused Therapy and attachment-based ideas guide work on close relationships and emotional connection. Mindfulness techniques and compassion-focused ideas are used to build gentler self-talk and coping skills.
Sessions can include listening, reflective exploration and practical tasks to try between meetings. She may suggest short exercises, observations or conversational tools to help people notice patterns and make small changes. The style is collaborative and paced to what each person can manage.
Madeleine has eight years of experience and is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, BACP. She offers sessions by video call, phone, live chat or text messaging, and communicates by message daily between 08:30 and 20:30. International clients are not accepted.
To begin, people choose the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and then schedule sessions according to the therapist's available times. Madeleine aims to support clients in finding practical ways to cope and move forward.
Approaches that translate well to online therapy
Attachment-based work focuses on how close relationships affect feelings and behaviour. Online sessions can use this approach to help people understand their attachment patterns and to practice new ways of relating in everyday life. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) helps identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviours and then tries practical alternatives. CBT tools such as thought records, behavioural experiments and short between-session tasks adapt easily to video or messaging formats and suit issues like anxiety and low mood. Emotionally-Focused Therapy concentrates on emotions and patterns in close relationships and helps people express and shift core feelings; this can be done through guided conversations and exercises during online video sessions.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences and practical needs, then suggest methods to try together. Sessions may combine approaches so techniques match the person's immediate concerns and longer term aims.
Online therapy offers flexibility for different schedules and needs. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions need less bandwidth, live chat can be useful for short check-ins, and text messaging supports ongoing reflection between appointments. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, caregiving or travel while keeping the focus on progress and practical skills.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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