Alison French

Alison French is a counsellor registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and has seven years of professional experience. She works with stress, anxiety, relationship difficulties, trauma and abuse, and issues with self-esteem. Alison also supports people dealing with guilt and shame, questions about life purpose, self-love, and recovery after sexual assault and abuse.

Alison uses a person-centred approach that treats each person as the expert on their own life. Sessions focus on listening and helping people find the resources they already have. She describes breath work and Focusing-Orientated Therapy as practices she can bring into the work when useful.

In practical terms she helps people slow down and notice where tension sits in the body. Breath work is offered as a simple skill to use between sessions. Focusing-orientated work aims to help people notice repeated emotional patterns and shift how they respond to them.

Alison emphasises respect and sensitivity in sessions and adapts the way she talks and plans work to each person. That means conversations may look different depending on the issue and the person’s preferences. The approach is collaborative and grounded in everyday concerns rather than jargon.

For someone feeling stuck after a change or unsure what comes next, Alison helps explore values and small practical steps. She will talk through motivation, confidence and how life purpose concerns connect with day-to-day choices. To start, clients complete an initial matching questionnaire and then schedule a first session.

How Alison’s approaches translate to online work

Alison draws on Client-Centred Therapy by focusing on the client’s own experience and perspective. This approach is about attentive listening and supporting people to find their own answers, which helps with stress, relationship questions and doubts about direction. Trauma-Focused Therapy concentrates on the impacts of traumatic events and on practical ways to work through strong reactions and past harms.

Figuring out which approach fits best is part of the work. Alison treats that as a collaborative process and will discuss how person-centred conversations, breath work or Focusing exercises might suit your goals. She adapts methods to what feels manageable and relevant for each person.

The biography does not list specific session formats, so please confirm the available options before booking. In general, online sessions can make it easier to fit counselling into a busy week, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and remove travel time. Some methods Alison uses, such as guided breath work or focused noticing exercises, translate well to remote sessions and can be practised between meetings to build everyday skills.