Michael Wilkes-Spellman
Therapist focusing on practical, person-led care
About Michael
Michael Wilkes-Spellman helps people facing stress, anxiety, relationship pain, grief, low mood and difficulties with intimacy. He also supports those dealing with trauma, anger, career strain, compassion fatigue and major life changes. Michael holds NCPS, which stands for National Counselling Society, and brings 13 years of experience to his practice.
He uses a straightforward, tailored style in sessions. Conversations focus on what matters to the individual and on practical ways to reduce distress.
Background and approach
Sessions are calm and directed, with attention to how thoughts and behaviours keep problems going. Michael trained in an integrated approach and draws mainly on client-centred work and cognitive behavioural techniques. Client-centred therapy means the session is led by the person's needs and experience.
Cognitive behavioural work looks at patterns of thinking and action and how changing them can ease symptoms. He also uses mindfulness and motivational interviewing when these fit a person's goals. Mindfulness helps people learn to notice thoughts and feelings without getting swept up in them.
Motivational interviewing helps people identify what they want to change and build commitment to those steps. Michael offers appointments on weekday evenings and works part time as a counsellor. He aims to make sessions practical and relevant, helping people find steady ways to cope and move forward.
What Michael works with
How Michael works
Listed by Michael among the ways they work.
Listed by Michael among the ways they work.
Listed by Michael among the ways they work.
Listed by Michael among the ways they work.
Listed by Michael among the ways they work.
Listed by Michael among the ways they work.
Sessions & fees
How his approaches work online
Michael commonly draws on client-centred work and cognitive behavioural therapy when meeting people online. Client-centred therapy means conversations are guided by the person's concerns and experiences, with the counsellor offering empathy and gentle direction. This approach helps when someone needs space to be heard and to make sense of their feelings.Cognitive behavioural therapy focuses on the links between thoughts, feelings and actions and on small, practical changes that reduce distress. Online CBT sessions may include checking how thoughts influence mood, testing unhelpful beliefs and building new behaviours that help with anxiety, low mood or stress.
Finding the right approach is a shared process. Michael will talk with each person about their goals and preferences, and adapt methods as therapy progresses to find what fits best. That collaborative planning helps set clear steps and realistic tasks between sessions.
Online options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat or text-based messaging. Video calls are helpful for face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions work when a lower bandwidth option is needed or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text-based messaging suit shorter check-ins, brief coaching-style support or a way to keep momentum between longer appointments. These choices make therapy more flexible and easier to fit around work and daily life.
| 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
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counselling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 13 years
- Registered with
- NCPS
- Languages
- English
