Clarity & compassion
Based in Glasgow, I work with clients both at a Shawlands office and remotely, using a secure and convenient platform for videoconferencing, payment and booking.
If you are experiencing any kind of distress, low mood or impaired functioning, I may be able to help you to reduce symptoms, improve coping methods, and address the root causes.
I am a fully qualified psychotherapist with a background in nondual spirituality
(free initial 15-min consultation available)
My skillset and approach
I am trained in an integrative approach informed by the principles and techniques of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), compassion-focussed therapy and person-centred therapy. I learned my craft at The Centre of Therapy & Counselling Studies in Glasgow, Scotland, and I am a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
But therapy isn’t just about specialist techniques and tools; it’s grounded, whether one realises it or not, in one’s fundamental standpoint or outlook on life.
Life is made unbearable by rigid, alienating views about the nature & qualities of oneself, others and the world–like separate items on a shelf that all have labels stuck to them. You might think you are ‘bad’, ‘lazy’ or ‘weak’, for example. You might see others as a source of validation or criticism. You might think the world is ‘dangerous’ or ‘indifferent’ or ‘confusing’. With rigid, emotionally triggering views like this, it feels necessary to live in a certain way, pursuing ‘good’ feelings and avoiding ‘bad’ ones. One kind of objective in therapy can be to help the client to let go of the ‘unhelpful’ views that hinder functioning and replace them with ‘helpful’ views like, “I am capable” and “the world is full of opportunity”.
A different kind of objective in therapy is to create experiences of seeing that neither the ‘helpful’ nor the ‘unhelpful’ labels need to be clung to for a sense of understanding and security. They aren’t real, and we have freedom to respond to each moment with a fresh, wide-open perspective. In this kind of open receptiveness, therapist and client encounter themselves as well as each other, without a sense of one trying to ‘fix’ the other, even though we are playing the roles of therapist and client with all its protocols. Compassion brings people together without a sense of one person being the superior helper and the other person being the inferior one in need of help. My hope is that we can both live freely and happily.
I charge £50 (around $65 USD) per 50-minute individual session and am qualified to offer group therapy by special request.
(free initial 15-min consultation available)
Gordon Blair Therapies 