Steve Smalec, BACP

Steve uses evidence-based therapeutic techniques that focus on practical change and understanding patterns. One common approach helps people recognise unhelpful thinking and behaviour patterns, then practises alternative ways of responding to low mood and anxiety. This can help with everyday symptoms like worry or low motivation. Another approach concentrates on processing past difficult experiences and the feelings they left behind. It supports people to make sense of trauma or abuse and to reduce the ways those experiences influence current relationships and self-esteem. Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk through options, consider the client’s goals and preferences, and agree a plan that can be adjusted as therapy progresses. Clients take an active role in choosing what feels most useful. Online formats make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life. Video calls let you see and hear each other when that matters. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can be simpler to join. Live chat or text messaging suits shorter check-ins, flexible scheduling and moments when writing feels easier than speaking.