Polly Thelwall, BACP

Polly Thelwall is a counsellor and psychotherapist with eight years of professional experience who supports people seeking meaningful change and personal growth. She works with each person as a whole, listening closely and asking questions that help reveal parts of experience that are hard to name. Polly believes that healing is possible and that therapy can be the start of a different way of living; she treats clients as the experts on their own lives while offering reflections and perspectives that help make difficulties clearer.

Trained in psychodynamic therapy, Polly explores how early relationships and life history shape current patterns of feeling and relating. She also integrates relational, transpersonal, and somatic perspectives and uses a parts-based model to attend to the many aspects of a person’s life. This flexible approach helps identify inner resources, clear blockages, and support reconnection to a more grounded sense of self.

Polly works with a broad range of concerns, from complex trauma to more modest day-to-day struggles, with particular focus on stress, anxiety, relationships, family issues, trauma and abuse, and self-esteem. She holds the BACP credential - the UK professional association for counsellors and psychotherapists - and brings many years of additional experience working in mental health and creative contexts.

Psychodynamic and Relational Work in Online Therapy

Polly draws on psychodynamic therapy to help clients explore how past experiences and early relationships influence current feelings, patterns, and relationships. This approach focuses on understanding unconscious patterns and emotional history so clients gain insight into recurring difficulties and attachment concerns. She also uses relational and somatic-informed methods - the relational perspective emphasizes the therapeutic relationship as a place to experience different ways of relating, while somatic-informed work attends to bodily sensations and how they connect to emotion and trauma.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic process. Polly works collaboratively with clients to identify which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences, adapting the work over time as understanding deepens and priorities change. This collaborative stance helps ensure therapy feels relevant and manageable.

Online therapy with Polly is offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility for different lifestyles and needs. These options make it easier to access consistent support, fit sessions around work and family life, and maintain therapeutic momentum even when in-person meetings are not possible. Licensed professionals and therapists can tailor each format to support processing, reflection, and practical coping strategies.