Barbara Engels

Barbara Engels is a BACP counsellor in the United Kingdom with 18 years of professional experience. She works with people who are dealing with relationship and family tensions, life changes, low self-esteem, anxiety and stress, and concerns around intimacy and parenting.

Barbara spent many years with Relate and with an autism-specialist charity. That background means she has practical experience supporting people affected by grief, trauma and abuse, workplace difficulties, and the particular strains autism can bring to partnerships and parenting.

In sessions she draws on attachment-based and psychodynamic approaches. She uses conversation to help people notice patterns in relationships and in how they react to stress. That can include talking about early attachments, current relationship roles, and repeated emotional responses that cause distress.

Barbara offers counselling in English and German. She works with adults who want help sorting out communication problems, coping after separation, or finding direction in midlife and career decisions. Life purpose is listed among her focus areas and she will discuss what matters most to each person in their own terms.

Her practice includes work with self-esteem, guilt, shame, isolation and multicultural concerns. People can expect clear, straightforward sessions that look at feelings, behaviour and relationship patterns, and explore practical steps they can try between meetings.

How attachment and psychodynamic approaches work online

Attachment-based work looks at the ways early and current relationships shape how people feel and react. Online sessions using this approach focus on patterns in close relationships, communication habits, and how trust and closeness are experienced now. Psychodynamic work pays attention to recurring feelings and unconscious patterns that influence behaviour. In conversation this approach helps people notice long-standing responses and link them to present difficulties, including relationship strains and midlife questions.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapy process. The therapist will discuss aims, preferences and practical needs and then suggest which methods to try. This is a collaborative decision and can change as sessions progress.

Confirm the session formats offered before booking, as the biography does not list specific formats. Online work can make it easier to fit counselling around everyday life, for example by reducing travel time, allowing a shorter check-in on a busy day, or enabling sessions in the language you prefer. Registered or accredited professionals can adapt how they use these approaches to suit remote work, and practical arrangements are agreed at the start of contact.