Victoria Porteous
Personable counsellor who challenges with warmth
About Victoria
Victoria Porteous uses a conversational, person-centred style that aims to feel like a real conversation rather than a clinical interrogation. She draws on her own experience of grief, addiction tendencies and therapy to connect with people and make sessions feel relatable. Victoria brings warmth and occasional humour to sessions while also gently challenging unhelpful patterns of thought.
She has worked in counselling and coaching for 11 years and holds NCPS, which is noted as her credential.
Background and approach
Her background includes running counselling services for a Government-backed trauma charity during the COVID period, where she mainly supported people with complex trauma. She has also worked with charity referrals from medical and government agencies and with personal clients in individual and workplace settings. Victoria helps people with stress, anxiety, trauma and low self-esteem.
She also supports those facing relationship or family conflict, addiction and struggles with purpose or motivation. Her additional focus areas include estrangement, blended family dynamics, attachment issues and intimacy-related concerns, including kink and alternative sex culture. Her approach draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Attachment-Based Therapy, Client-Centred Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Emotionally-Focused Therapy.
She personalises methods to each person, mixing practical techniques with conversational reflection and occasional respectful challenge. Outside of counselling, Victoria has been a radio contributor on mental health and social equality topics and has received positive feedback from a range of clients including business leaders and athletes.
She also has training as a Menopause Healthcare Professional and describes her work as tailored, direct and aimed at helping people make lasting change.
What Victoria works with
How Victoria works
Listed by Victoria among the ways they work.
Listed by Victoria among the ways they work.
Listed by Victoria among the ways they work.
Listed by Victoria among the ways they work.
Listed by Victoria among the ways they work.
Listed by Victoria among the ways they work.
Sessions & fees
Therapeutic approaches and online delivery
Victoria commonly uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Attachment-Based Therapy, and she often works in a client-centred way. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice their thoughts and choose actions that match their values rather than getting stuck in avoidance, which can help with anxiety, addiction and life changes. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at patterns formed in close relationships and helps people understand and shift those patterns to improve connection and trust.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose which methods to use based on their goals, preferences and what feels helpful in early sessions. That may mean blending ACT ideas with attachment-focused conversations and client-centred listening to create a tailored plan.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video calls suit deeper conversations when seeing faces matters. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in fits a break at work. Live chat and messaging are useful for ongoing reflection, brief check-ins and people who prefer writing to speaking. These options help people fit therapy around work, family and 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
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- 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
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 11 years
- Registered with
- NCPS
- Languages
- English
