About Sharon
Sharon McHugh is a counsellor with seven years' practical experience supporting people who carry anxiety and the effects of earlier trauma. She focuses on helping clients understand how difficult childhoods or early adult experiences shaped their coping habits. Sessions are led by the client and shaped around what they want to work on.
Sharon creates a calm, non-judgemental space where people can talk openly and think about what they feel.
Background and approach
She begins by discussing goals and making a simple plan together. That first conversation sets out what each person hopes to get from counselling. Her approach is open and empathetic.
Sharon listens closely and will ask questions to help uncover patterns and meaning. This can make it easier to see how past experiences affect current thoughts and relationships. Sharon has worked in independent practice and in external agencies.
She has particular experience with anxiety, trauma, grief, low self-esteem and coping with life changes. She also supports people facing addiction, work-related compassion fatigue and issues such as panic attacks or social anxiety. Her methods draw on client-centred principles, cognitive behavioural techniques and solution-focused ideas, alongside hypnotherapy when appropriate.
Together the therapist and client choose which approaches best fit each person's needs and goals. Sessions are offered in English and take place online using video, phone, live chat or text-based messaging. Sharon aims to help people build lasting understanding and practical steps they can use day to day.
Approaches that help online
Sharon draws on client-centred work, cognitive behavioural techniques and dialectical behaviour ideas to help people make change. Client-centred therapy focuses on listening and following the client's lead so they feel heard and understood. Cognitive behavioural therapy looks at how thoughts and behaviours affect feelings and offers practical strategies to change unhelpful patterns. Dialectical behaviour therapy provides skills for managing intense emotions and improving distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness.Finding the right approach is part of the process. Sharon will discuss goals and preferences in early sessions and together decide which methods to try. This collaborative way of working means plans can be adjusted as progress is made and new priorities emerge.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to work that fit into busy lives. Video calls make it possible to have face-to-face conversation without travelling. Phone sessions can be quicker check-ins or suit lower bandwidth. Live chat and text messaging allow shorter, more frequent contact and can help people keep a record of ideas and actions between sessions. These options make it easier to attend sessions from different places and at different times while still working on clear goals.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Career difficulties
- Codependency
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- First responder issues
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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