Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy, Counselling in Covent Garden in Central London
Michele Julien michele@psy-practice.co.uk and
Sophia Berouka sophia@psy-practice.co.uk
Hearing you in your absolute singularity is at the forefront of our confidential, non-judgmental “talking cure” therapy with Michele Julien or Sophia Berouka at PSY-Practice.
Consultation with us begins in a small way with an invitation to speak about what does not work in life, symptoms or patterns of behaviour that repeat, and which feel like impasses in life.
Because at some stages in our lives, we may all encounter moments of stress, or worry, that impact our emotional life. It is a realisation that something does not work in our lives and that some change is vital.
The space of a session is one in which it is possible for a psychotherapist or psychoanalyst to listen very carefully to what is being said, to elicit and begin to hear something of the many threads of our lives, traces of speech and experiences of suffering that affect each singular person as symptoms, in mind and body. Our experience and orientation teaches us that symptoms will not go away, or cannot be employed less painfully, until we have articulated then grasped something about their logic, function and complex cause.
Anxiety and depression, for instance, do not dissipate until you can hear traces of what they want to say. Through therapeutic dialogue and attentive listening, we can begin to extract something of how a fabric of identity has been constructed, and in response to what. This process makes it possible to explore and challenge, if you so wish, what underlies the more self-evident truths of your life.
Talking cure therapy with us is offered in confidence and at one's own pace, and is an occasion to articulate things that it may not have felt possible to say to anyone else before. It is only as we begin to speak that what has remained unconscious or is at the far-reaches of our awareness, begins to join in the conversation such that painful investment of symptoms may be loosened.
Therapy at PSY-Practice is confidential and non-judgmental - people consult us for issues like anxiety, depression, relationship and sexual problems, anger and bereavement - indeed for the whole gamut of worries, symptoms and sometimes psychiatric diagnoses - or for problems dealing with the rites of passage in life. While talking to friends, family or loved ones can be part of building relationships, talking about personal issues, anxiety or depression to a trained psychotherapist - one who listens carefully and without judgment - gives an occasion to begin to identify causes and reasons for that which ails us.
On our own, it can prove difficult to move on or to change our relationship to life, especially when there is a sense of impasse, generalised depression or ongoing feelings of anxiety. Realising that certain problems, patterns of behaviour or types of relationship repeat in our lives - reasons for which we may have scant understanding as some aspects of emotional life are unconscious and take a little time to elicit - may lead us to contact a professional.
The source of suffering may reflect for some a purely personal or relationship difficulty. For others it may also relate to a wider unease over our place and reference points in a world changing ever faster culturally and politically. But how to effect personal change still eludes us.
Engaging in “talking cure” therapy, especially one oriented by psychoanalysis, helps you reconnect with yourself, your body and the world, in a way that brings vitality back to life.
Covent Garden-based psychoanalysts Michele Julien michele@psy-practice.co.uk and Sophia Berouka sophia@psy-practice.co.uk both have substantial experience working in psychoanalyst / counsellor / psychotherapist practices and in counselling and psychotherapy services in the NHS, universities, employee assistance programmes and in private practice. The psychoanalysis and therapy offered is non-judgmental and confidential, and an initial consultation will begin a therapeutic talking cure journey that allows for deeper understanding and an occasion to intervene for change.
Symptoms that present themselves...
The space of a session is one in which it is possible for a therapist or psychoanalyst to listen very carefully to what is being said, to elicit and begin to hear something of the many threads of our lives, traces of speech and experiences of suffering that affect each singular person as symptoms, in mind and body. Our experience and orientation teaches us that symptoms will not go away, or cannot be employed less painfully, until we have grasped something about their logic, function and complex cause.
It is by engaging with the impasses that our symptoms present - gradually elaborating with the words most familiar to us - that a path to negotiate our singular difficulties can open up.
It becomes possible from this process to extract the dictums and axioms by which we live our lives, often without conscious awareness. There arises something of how the fabric of each singular identity has been constructed, making it possible to explore what underlies the more self-evident truths of our lives. And then to effect change - if we so wish.
Issues we address...
Some of the issues we work with at PSY-Practice Central London include stress, anxiety, depression, relationship and sexual issues, anger, bereavement, identity concerns, together with managing psychiatric diagnoses. However each person in analysis brings an entanglement of worries to be treated with the utmost singularity. As psychoanalysts, our counselling and psychotherapy work is informed and thereby enriched by the theoretical and clinical rigour of also working in the Lacanian tradition of psychoanalysis. Lacanian training is lengthy, requiring many years of personal analysis, supervision and on-going theoretical and clinical formation.
Consequently, we are highly skilled, experienced psychoanalysts, who also offer psychotherapy and counselling for those who prefer brief treatments.
We can offer prompt consultation for those interested in the therapeutic benefits of such a “talking cure”.
The Covent Garden practice is easily accessible to Soho, Holborn, Westminster, Marylebone, St James’s, Belgravia, Marylebone, Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury, Aldwych, King’s Cross and the Southbank.
Our practice location in Shelton Street, WC2H 9JQ is just a few minutes’ walk from Covent Garden station on the Piccadilly Line, and 8 minutes’ walk from Tottenham Court Road station on the Northern, Central and the Elizabeth Lines.
To contact us individually to discuss an initial consultation, please click here: michele@psy-practice.co.uk, sophia@psy-practice.co.uk. Or message us via our email contact form.
How Does Therapy Begin?
Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy and Counselling
After an initial consultation, a number of preliminary sessions may be offered to give you time to gauge for yourself whether you wish to continue to work with either Michele Julien or Sophia Berouka at PSY-Practice. We will discuss with you an appropriate fee, together with the frequency of sessions envisaged. The duration of a treatment depends entirely on individual preference and how far each person wishes to go with the pathways that open up.
For an initial consultation, please send a message via our email contact form specifying a therapist if you have a preference. Or contact us at our individual psy-practice email addresses michele@psy-practice.co.uk, sophia@psy-practice.co.uk. If you prefer, please call and leave a message on our contact phone number 07812 472 286.
"The psychoanalytic clinic consists in the discernment of things that matter;
they will be enormous once one becomes aware of them."
Jacques Lacan, 1977
"[In analysis], we start from the symptom causing suffering.
There tends to be a reduction of the symptom
by way of its meaning, its history, its logic.
It can then be written otherwise, [...]"
Eric Laurent, 2016
Forthcoming Programme - London Society of the NLS of Psychoanalysis
WAP (World Association of Psychoanalysis) Congress, 22nd-25th February 2024 [Online]
« Everyone is Mad »
Seminar towards the NLS Congress "Clinic of the Gaze", 23rd March 2024 with Dosia Avdelidi, Bogdan Wolf and Aino-Marjatta-Maki.
NLS Congress "Clinic of the Gaze", Dublin, 11th-12th May 2024.
Practice Location
- Centrally based in Covent Garden, a few minutes from Covent Garden underground station and 8 minutes from Tottenham Ct Road and Holborn stations.
PSY-Practice is highly accessible to those working or residing in Soho, Westminster, Covent Garden, St James’s, Belgravia, Marylebone Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, and the Southbank.
