Lee Whelan, BACP

Counsellor and BACP member Lee Whelan has five years' experience working with adults on issues such as addiction, anxiety, depression and relationship concerns. He practises in the United Kingdom and supports clients who want practical ways to manage stress, grief, self-esteem and parenting pressures.

Lee draws on an extensive background in substance misuse services and related support roles. He has worked in health education and the justice system, and with adults and young people in direct clinical settings. Those roles inform how he approaches problems now and give him a broad sense of common patterns people face.

In sessions Lee keeps things straightforward. He talks through problems, helps identify unhelpful thinking and works with clients to try new ways of responding. He uses ideas from attachment-based work to look at patterns that began in early relationships. He also uses client-centred ways of listening and cognitive behavioural techniques for managing mood and anxiety.

Lee places particular focus on issues around addiction, eating and body-image concerns, relationship and intimacy difficulties, and trauma and abuse. He also supports people dealing with anger, bipolar mood issues, dissociation and the stresses of family life and blended family situations.

Clients can expect practical conversations about change rather than abstract theory. Lee aims to explore what is useful for each person and to find small, manageable steps forward. He accepts international clients and works in English.

How Lee uses therapeutic approaches online