Identity counselling

Counselling with a particular focus on identity — the sense of who you are, where you belong, and how you want to live.

When identity becomes a question

For much of the time, our sense of who we are stays quietly in the background. Then something brings it forward. A change of circumstances, a relationship, a move between countries or cultures, a coming-out, a diagnosis, or simply a growing feeling that the way you've been living doesn't fit any more.

That can be disorienting even when nothing is obviously wrong. You might feel unmoored, or as though you're performing a version of yourself that isn't quite true. Identity counselling makes room for that — not to arrive at a tidy label, but to understand your experience more clearly and to feel more at home in it.

What we might explore

• Gender and sexuality, and coming to know or express them more fully
• Cultural, family and religious background, and living between different worlds
• Neurodivergence — including making sense of a late recognition or diagnosis
• Life transitions that unsettle your sense of self: migration, parenthood, career change, the end of a relationship, midlife, menopause
• Feeling that your life doesn't fit conventional expectations
• The quiet question underneath many others — "who am I, really, and how do I want to live?"

How I work with identity

My background is in anthropology as well as counselling, so I pay close attention to how culture, relationships and context shape a sense of self. We are never just individuals in isolation; we become who we are among other people, inside particular histories and expectations. That lens can be especially helpful when identity is bound up with belonging, migration, or living between cultures.

The work is collaborative and unhurried. I start from your experience as you actually live it, rather than fitting you into a theory. This is an affirmative space: the aim is never to question or change who you are, but to give you room to explore and inhabit it.

Practical details

Sessions are £80 for 50 minutes, with a limited number of concession places at £65. Available online across the UK and as walk-and-talk sessions in Edinburgh, in English and Italian.

A note on what I can and can't offer: I work with adults experiencing mild to moderate difficulties. As a counsellor I don't provide diagnoses or prescribe medication, and some situations need specialist or multidisciplinary care instead. If you're unsure whether this is the right fit, just ask — we can think it through together. More detail in the questions on the main page.

Related: gender & sexuality counselling · therapy in Italian · polyamory & non-monogamy counselling.