Shirley Banton
Compassionate client-centred counselling
About Shirley
Shirley Banton brings 11 years of therapeutic experience to her practice. She works from a client-centred perspective that lets people set the pace. Shirley aims to create a calm, respectful space where clients can be heard and begin to untangle difficult feelings.
Her sessions focus on helping people who feel overwhelmed, stuck, or emotionally exhausted. She supports those dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, and problems with self-esteem or relationships.
Background and approach
Shirley also helps with practical life challenges such as career stress, grief, addictions and the strain of major life changes. Shirley uses a blend of approaches rather than a single method. She draws on cognitive behavioural ideas to help people change unhelpful thinking and behaviour.
She also uses psychodynamic and mindfulness-informed ways of working to understand patterns and build present-moment coping skills. Shirley has a background that includes many years in further and higher education, which informs her understanding of burnout and identity pressure. She brings that experience into conversations about work, study and life transitions.
Sessions are offered online, which can make it easier to fit therapy around busy lives. Shirley aims to work collaboratively to identify realistic goals and small, practical steps forward. Her style is steady, honest and non-judgemental.
What Shirley works with
How Shirley works
Listed by Shirley among the ways they work.
Listed by Shirley among the ways they work.
Listed by Shirley among the ways they work.
Listed by Shirley among the ways they work.
Listed by Shirley among the ways they work.
Listed by Shirley among the ways they work.
Sessions & fees
How Shirley's approaches work online
Shirley uses client-centred therapy to create a warm, accepting space where clients set the agenda. This approach helps when someone needs to feel heard and understood before making changes.She also draws on cognitive behavioural therapy, which focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and trying small experiments to shift feelings and behaviour. CBT is often useful for anxiety, low mood and practical day-to-day problems.
Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Shirley will discuss goals, try methods that fit the client, and adjust the plan as needed. The process is collaborative and paced to the person's needs and preferences.
Online therapy offers a range of practical benefits. Video calls let people see body language and maintain a therapy rhythm similar to face-to-face sessions. Phone sessions are useful when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text-based messaging can suit shorter check-ins, ongoing reflections between sessions, or flexible scheduling. Registered or accredited professionals can use these formats to make therapy easier to access and fit into 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
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 11 years
- Registered with
- BACP
- Languages
- English
