About Polly
Polly Thelwall is a counsellor and psychotherapist who helps people manage anxiety and stress. She offers a calm listening presence and aims to make it easier to talk about difficult feelings. Polly recognises that each person knows their life best and she works together with clients to find what helps them move forward.
Polly uses deep listening and careful questioning to reflect parts of a person that can be hard to acknowledge.
Background and approach
She pays attention to how past events shape current patterns and to the different parts of a person’s experience. This approach can help with worries about relationships, self-esteem, and the impact of trauma or abuse. Her background includes eight years of mental health and creative work alongside clinical practice.
She is registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy - BACP. That combination of experience informs a thoughtful, flexible way of working. Sessions are shaped to each individual.
Polly draws on psychodynamic ideas alongside relational, transpersonal and somatic perspectives when they suit the client. She often uses a parts-based model to notice how different experiences influence thoughts, feelings and behaviour. People come to Polly for help with a wide range of concerns, including relationship difficulties, patterns of avoidance or dependency, body image, chronic illness and coping after separation.
Her style is patient, steady and focused on helping clients find balance and practical ways to live differently.
Psychodynamic work and flexible online sessions
Polly uses psychodynamic therapy to look at how past experiences shape current worries and relationship patterns. This approach helps uncover repeating patterns, understand emotional responses, and make different choices in daily life.She also draws on relational and somatic ideas to attend to how feelings show up in the body and in interactions with others. These perspectives can help when anxiety shows as physical tension or when repeating relationship patterns cause distress. The therapist works in a parts-based way to identify different voices or aspects within a person and to help them be heard and integrated.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Polly will discuss options with each person and tailor the work to their goals, needs and preferences. Together they decide whether to focus on past patterns, present symptoms, body-based work, or a mix of these.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to suit different needs. Video is useful for longer therapy work and face-to-face interaction, phone can be easier when bandwidth is low, and chat or messaging suits brief check-ins or those who prefer writing. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, caregiving and daily life while keeping continuity over time.
Questions people ask
What kinds of problems does Polly help with?
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What professional credential does she hold and where is she based?
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Which session formats does she offer online?
How are sessions paid for and what do they cost?
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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