About Michael
Michael Harland is a counsellor who helps people who feel overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, low mood or life changes. He works with individuals on issues such as trauma, self‑esteem, addiction and relationship concerns. Michael uses talking and reflection to help clients connect with their feelings and understand what sits beneath their patterns of behaviour.
He favours depth-focused work that pays attention to emotion rather than only thought. That means sessions often look at early experiences, attachment, and repetitive patterns that keep problems going.
Background and approach
Michael also draws on mindfulness to help people notice their present experience without judgement. He is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, BACP, and has five years of practice experience. His background includes supporting people with a wide range of concerns such as ADHD, grief, chronic illness, body image and sexual culture issues including BDSM and kink.
He also works with those facing parenting pressures, career changes and compassion fatigue. Michael is clear about when depth work may not be appropriate. He does not recommend it for people currently in severe crisis or who have experienced non-drug-induced psychosis.
In those situations, approaches that strengthen coping skills can be preferable. Sessions are offered in English, and he is available to people in the United Kingdom as well as international clients. He aims to create calm, honest conversations where feelings can be named and examined so change becomes possible.
Approaches that focus on feeling and awareness
Michael uses Psychodynamic Therapy to help people trace recurring emotional patterns back to earlier experiences and attachment. This approach looks at how past relationships shape current reactions and can be useful for long-standing issues such as self‑esteem, abandonment or attachment concerns.He also draws on Mindfulness Therapy to help people notice thoughts, sensations and emotions without immediate reaction. Mindfulness techniques are helpful for managing anxiety, stress and difficulties with sleep or concentration by training attention and reducing reactivity.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss your needs, goals and preferences and decide together which way of working suits you best. It is common to combine elements of both approaches depending on what feels most helpful.
Online work is offered via video calls, phone sessions, live chat or text-based messaging to give practical flexibility. Video calls are useful for in-depth discussion and non-verbal cues, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, and chat or messaging suits brief check-ins or people who prefer writing. These options help fit therapy around work, travel or family commitments and make regular contact easier to maintain.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 5 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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