Colleen Downey
Experienced psychodynamic counsellor for adults
About Colleen
Colleen Downey draws on six years of clinical experience to offer psychodynamic counselling in the United Kingdom. She greets each person with a calm, respectful manner and encourages them to tell their story in their own words. Colleen believes most people already hold strengths that help them change.
She aims to support and empower clients as they move toward clearer goals and steadier wellbeing. Her work centres on understanding how past relationships and life events shape current feelings and patterns.
Background and approach
Conversations look at how thoughts, memories and relationships influence mood, stress responses and behaviour. This style can be useful when worries, low mood or recurring relationship patterns feel hard to shift. Colleen frequently helps people dealing with anxiety, depression, stress and grief.
She also addresses trauma and abuse, eating and food-related concerns, intimacy problems and parenting stress. Additional focuses include attention difficulties, mood disorders and obsessive patterns. Sessions may explore attachment, control and communication problems, guilt and shame, or the impact of caregiving and compassion fatigue.
She also works with people coping with separation, hoarding or avoidant personality traits. The aim is to make sense of difficult experiences and find practical ways forward. Colleen offers sessions in English and accepts international clients.
Appointments are available in several online formats to fit different needs. Prospective clients are encouraged to start with a short matching process and then arrange sessions according to availability.
What Colleen works with
How Colleen works
Listed by Colleen among the ways they work.
Sessions & fees
How psychodynamic work translates to online therapy
Psychodynamic therapy looks at how early relationships and past experiences shape current feelings and reactions. In sessions this often means noticing repeated patterns in emotions, relationships or behaviour and making sense of where they come from. This can help with anxiety, depression, grief and relationship difficulties.Therapy here focuses on the relationship between client and counsellor as a way to understand wider patterns. Colleen will work together with each person to find what feels most useful and to tailor the pace and focus. Deciding which approach fits best is part of the process and will be reviewed as therapy progresses.
Offering video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging gives practical flexibility. Video calls are useful for face-to-face conversation and non-verbal cues. Phone sessions need less bandwidth and can be easier during a busy day. Live chat and messaging suit shorter check-ins or times when writing helps people think things through. These options make it easier to access consistent support around work, caring duties or travel.
| Session length | Typically 50 minutes |
|---|---|
| Client ages | Adults, 18 and over |
| Fees | Subscription via BetterHelp, cancel anytime |
| Insurance | Not billed directly |
Questions people ask
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Areas of focus
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Intimacy-related issues
- Jealousy
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 6 years
- Registered with
- BACP
- Languages
- English
