With over 30 years of experience, we’re a trusted private counselling and psychotherapy practice based in Plymouth.
Since 1994, we’ve provided compassionate, personalised support to individuals, couples, and businesses across Devon and Cornwall.
04/12/2025
Finding Calm in a Busy Holiday Season 🎄
The holiday season can be full of lovely moments, but it can also feel overwhelming.
More plans, more people, more decisions and very little space for yourself.
If you are feeling stretched, remember that it is completely normal.
Even small pauses can make a difference.
A quiet walk, a cup of tea in peace, a moment to breathe before the next thing.
Counselling can offer that same kind of space. A place to slow down, reflect and take care of your wellbeing during a busy time of year.
You deserve calm as much as anyone else.
📍 Personal Relationship Counselling Plymouth
28/11/2025
Change Often Starts Quietly 🌱
People sometimes think change has to be dramatic.
In reality, it often begins with something small… a shift in perspective, a new thought, a moment of clarity.
Hope does not always arrive as a big leap.
Sometimes it is a gentle realisation that things can feel different, or that you do not have to stay stuck where you are.
Counselling can help you notice those quieter moments of change and build on them.
Small steps can become real progress over time.
📍 Personal Relationship Counselling Plymouth
25/11/2025
Not every step forward has to be big.
Sometimes the smallest moments make the biggest difference.
A quiet morning walk.
Sending a message you have been avoiding.
Choosing to rest instead of pushing through.
Asking for help when you need it.
Psychology shows that noticing small wins boosts motivation and increases feelings of wellbeing. It reminds the brain that progress is happening, even on slow days.
If you are working on yourself or your relationship, celebrate the little things. They add up more than you think.
📍 Personal Relationship Counselling Plymouth
19/11/2025
When You Don’t Know Why You Feel This Way 💭
Sometimes we wake up low, tense or overwhelmed and cannot quite put our finger on why. Nothing big has happened, yet everything feels heavier than it should.
Psychology calls this emotional load. It is the quiet build up of worries, decisions and pressures we absorb without noticing. Over time, it can leave us flat, irritable or disconnected from ourselves and others.
Talking things through can help untangle that build up. Often it is not one big issue. It is lots of smaller things that need space to be understood.
If you are feeling this way, you are not alone. It does not mean anything is wrong with you. It simply means you have been carrying more than you realise.
📍 Personal Relationship Counselling Plymouth
30/10/2025
The Rest We Don’t Talk About 🌿
We know we need sleep. But what about emotional rest?
Life moves fast, messages, deadlines, decisions, constant noise. Even when we stop, our minds keep going. Over time, that mental overload can leave us feeling detached or low without really knowing why.
Emotional rest means giving yourself permission to pause, not to fix or achieve, just to be.
To breathe, notice, reflect, and reconnect.
Counselling can help you find that space again, a quieter pace where your thoughts can finally catch up.
📍 Personal Relationship Counselling Plymouth
22/10/2025
We’re often our own harshest critics.
That quiet voice that says “you should be doing better” or “why can’t you handle this?” can slowly wear us down.
Psychologists call this the inner critic and research shows that practising self-compassion instead can reduce stress, boost resilience, and even improve motivation.
Self-compassion isn’t about ignoring mistakes; it’s about treating yourself with the same patience and understanding you’d offer a friend.
Sometimes, counselling helps you recognise that voice and learn how to soften it.
15/10/2025
The Pressure to Be Happy ☀️
We often assume happiness comes from getting what we want but psychology shows that much of our happiness depends on our expectations.
When we expect life, relationships, or even ourselves to always feel positive, we set an impossible standard that leaves us feeling disappointed.
Researchers call this the expectation gap, the space between how things are and how we think they should be. The wider that gap, the harder it is to feel content.
Counselling can help close that gap by exploring what truly matters to you, finding balance between hope and acceptance and learning to experience calm and satisfaction even when life isn’t perfect.
📍 Personal Relationship Counselling Plymouth
10/10/2025
Guided by the BACP Ethical Framework 🌿
We work within the BACP Ethical Framework, which sets the professional standards for counsellors across the UK.
It shapes everything we do, from how we protect your privacy to how we make ethical decisions and continue our professional development.
It’s our way of ensuring every session is grounded in safety, respect and integrity.
Stepping outside, even for a short walk in nature is one of the easiest ways to help your mind calm down. Studies show that spending just 20 minutes connecting with nature can lower cortisol.
Of course, walking doesn’t have to be long or strenuous. A gentle stroll along the coast, through a green park, or up a wooded path can help you reset, shift perspective and reduce tension.
📍 Plymouth’s surroundings (from the coast to Dartmoor) are perfect for this kind of breathing space.
26/09/2025
When physical desires don’t match. 💭
What happens when one partner sees physical intimacy as essential and the other doesn’t?
It can lead to frustration, pressure, or even looking outside the relationship.
The truth is, it’s rarely about who’s “right” or “wrong” it’s about needs not being heard.
Counselling offers a space to talk openly about desire, boundaries and connection without blame.
If this feels familiar, you’re not alone and support is available.
📍 Personal Relationship Counselling Plymouth
19/09/2025
Communication and Reconnection 🌿
Sometimes we talk, but don’t really hear each other. Over time, that can leave us feeling distant or misunderstood.
Counselling can be a space to pause, slow down, and find better ways of listening and responding. Even small shifts in communication can bring back trust, closeness, and connection.
📍We're based locally in Looe Street, Plymouth, where you can chat to us in person, when you feel the time is right for you.
24/07/2024
HIDDEN STORIES
In this book, "The Myth of Normal", Gabor Maté suggests that there are often "hidden stories" behind our difficulty or inability to say no. And he suggests that they come from " limiting core beliefs about ourselves", what transactional analysts call "Scripts" we learn in childhood, and live out afterwards. He suggests that the following are examples of familiar stories;
1. Saying no means I can't handle something. It's a sign of weakness. I have to be strong.
2. I have to be "good" to deserve being loved. If I say no, I'm not lovable.
3. I'm responsible for how other people feel & what they experience. I mustn't disappoint anyone.
4. I'm not worthy unless I'm doing something useful.
5. If people knew how I really felt, they wouldn't like me.
6. If I turned down my friend / spouse / colleague / parent / neighbour, I would feel deservedly guilty.
7. It's selfish to say no.
8. It's not loving to have anger.
Maybe we forget that they 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 stories - we think and act as if they're true!!!
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Contact The Practice
Send a message to Personal & Relationship Counselling.:
Established in 1994, we are a small private practice of Counsellors and Psychotherapists, offering individual & couples counselling, supervision, training & workshops.
Most people, at some time in their lives experience difficulties that are hard to understand or come to terms with, and at times like this it can be helpful to talk issues over with a trained counsellor. Our practitioners are experienced and well qualified, with a wide range of different experiences and specialities, such as;
Marital and Relationship Issues • Stress and Anxiety • Depression • Self Esteem and Confidence Difficulties • Eating Disorders • Drug & Alcohol Addiction • Difficulties with Intimacy and Sexual Problems • (CBT) Cognitive Behavioural Therapy • Bereavement and Loss • Bipolar Disorder • OCD • Long Term Health Conditions • Childbirth • (PND) Post Natal Depression • Anger Management • Physical and Sexual Abuse
We are all trained in generic counselling and offer;
CBT – Clients are taught ways to change thoughts and expectations, with the use of relaxation techniques.
Humanistic – Encourages people to take responsibility for their thoughts and actions. Emphasis on self-development and achieving one’s potential.
Integrative – Where several distinct models of counselling and psychotherapy are used together.
Relational – Where a therapist prioritises their clients ways of relating to others as central to understanding themselves.
Transactional Analysis – Helps clients understand how they interact with others, a central concept is the notion of having a Life Script.
Psychodynamic Therapy– Stresses the importance of the unconscious and past experience in shaping current behaviour.
Please take a look at our website for further information and to view our Counsellors profiles www.plymouthcounselling.com
