Gemma Pattison
Calm, practical counselling with an open, listening approach
About Gemma
Gemma Pattison is a counsellor based in the United Kingdom with eight years of professional experience. She is registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, BACP, and has supported people facing stress, anxiety and low mood. Gemma also helps with relationship and intimacy concerns, grief, trauma and abuse, and a range of life changes that can feel overwhelming.
She believes each person knows their own story and brings strengths into sessions.
Background and approach
Gemma uses a person-centred approach so people can speak freely and be heard without judgement. This gives space to make sense of difficult feelings and to find small, practical steps forward. Gemma adapts her work by drawing on other methods when useful, such as cognitive behavioural techniques and mindfulness.
She uses motivational interviewing to help people weigh options and decide on change. Attachment-based ideas are also used to look at how past relationships shape present patterns. Sessions can focus on everyday problems like sleep, eating, parenting pressures, career stress and caring responsibilities, as well as conditions such as depression, bipolar, ADHD and addiction concerns.
Gemma is comfortable discussing sexuality and kink as part of a person's life and difficulties, and she pays attention to body image and identity issues. She offers online contact through video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging. Gemma aims to respond actively to messages and to help people build coping skills they can use between sessions.
What Gemma works with
How Gemma works
Listed by Gemma among the ways they work.
Listed by Gemma among the ways they work.
Listed by Gemma among the ways they work.
Listed by Gemma among the ways they work.
Listed by Gemma among the ways they work.
Listed by Gemma among the ways they work.
Sessions & fees
How Gemma’s approaches work online
Gemma uses a person-centred way of working that puts the person’s experience first. That means sessions focus on listening, understanding and helping people make sense of feelings that are hard to cope with. It can be helpful for anxiety, low mood and relationship concerns.She also draws on cognitive behavioural therapy, which looks at the link between thoughts, feelings and actions. CBT offers straightforward tools to test unhelpful thinking and try small behavioural changes, useful for worry, sleep problems and managing mood. Attachment-based ideas help if someone wants to understand how early relationships affect current patterns and closeness in relationships.
Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. Gemma will talk with each person about their goals, preferences and what feels most useful. She adapts methods over time so therapy stays practical and focused on real-life steps.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video suits deeper conversations, phone can be easier when bandwidth is limited, and messages or chat work well for brief check-ins or ongoing support between calls. These options help fit therapy around work, family and daily life while letting people try different formats to see what helps best.
| Session length | Typically 50 minutes |
|---|---|
| Client ages | Adults, 18 and over |
| Fees | Subscription via BetterHelp, cancel anytime |
| Insurance | Not billed directly |
Questions people ask
What concerns does Gemma specialise in?
How would she work with me in sessions?
What is her professional background?
Where is Gemma based and what credential does she hold?
Can I work with her if I live outside the UK?
Which session formats are available?
How are sessions priced?
What do I need to do to begin?
Areas of focus
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counselling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 8 years
- Registered with
- BACP
- Languages
- English
