About Michael
Michael Purvis is a counsellor who focuses on anxiety and related stress. He works with people who feel overwhelmed by panic, phobias, obsessive thoughts, workplace strain or loss of direction. He aims to help clients regain steadiness and move towards practical goals in life and work.
He uses a mix of straightforward talking and structured techniques. Sessions look at thoughts, feelings and learned patterns that keep problems going. He also supports people wanting coaching-style help for career, health or life-balance goals.
Background and approach
Michael draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to help people notice thoughts without being driven by them. He also uses attachment-based ideas to understand relationship patterns and a client-centred stance to keep the work grounded in the person’s experience.
With three years of practice and membership of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, he offers a calm, practical approach. Conversations are paced to each person, with space for exploring emotion and also planning steps forward. People who are feeling stuck by anxiety, low mood or major life change may find his approach helpful.
He encourages small experiments between sessions so clients can test new ways of coping. The aim is clearer thinking, steadier mood and more workable routines.
Therapeutic approaches and online delivery
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice uncomfortable thoughts and feelings and then take actions that match their values. It is useful for anxiety, avoidance and moving towards meaningful goals. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and testing them with practical strategies and experiments. It often helps with panic, phobias, obsessive thoughts and low mood.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with each person about what they want to achieve and will recommend methods that fit those aims. Decisions are made together and can change as progress is tracked.
Online therapy is offered by video call, phone, live chat or text messaging to give flexibility. Video sessions let people use visual cues and a fuller conversation. Phone calls are useful when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and messaging suit quick check-ins, shorter sessions or people who find writing easier. These formats make it simpler to fit therapy around work, family and daily life.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Blended family issues
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 3 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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