Laura Bratley

Laura Bratley is a BACP counsellor in the United Kingdom with three years of professional experience. She focuses on stress, anxiety, relationship concerns, grief, self-esteem and coping with life changes, and she regularly addresses issues such as attachment, communication problems, guilt and shame, and questions about life purpose.

She uses Client-Centred Therapy to create a conversational style where the client leads the pace and topics. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is brought in to identify unhelpful thinking patterns and to practise different behaviours. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills are introduced when people need tools for emotion regulation and tolerating distress.

Sessions are straightforward and conversational. She listens to the practical effects of a problem, then works with the client to test ideas and small changes that might help day to day. That can include role-play for communication, exercises to reduce panic symptoms, or short behavioural experiments to tackle avoidance.

Laura often supports people grappling with life-purpose questions after a change in work, relationship, or family status. She also helps when shame, guilt or unresolved grief make it hard to move forward. Her approach mixes understanding a person’s story with practical steps to manage current difficulties.

Clients can expect clear, simple explanations of therapeutic methods and an emphasis on what to try between sessions. To begin, a short matching questionnaire is completed and a first session is scheduled, so initial practical concerns are addressed early on.

How her approaches translate to online sessions

Client-Centred Therapy focuses on the client’s perspective and creates space for them to set the agenda; online sessions allow that same conversational, client-led pacing through discussion and guided reflection. CBT looks at thoughts and behaviours, so online work often includes practical exercises and homework sheets that are reviewed together during sessions. DBT provides concrete skills for emotion regulation and distress tolerance, which can be taught and practised in session and then applied in daily life.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences and what feels most useful, and then propose a mix of methods to try. Decisions are made together and can be adjusted as progress and needs change.

The practical benefits of online work include fitting sessions into a busy week and reducing travel time, which can help maintain regular contact. If you want to check which session formats are offered, confirm the current options before booking so you know how sessions will be scheduled. Registered or accredited professionals, including therapists, commonly use online sessions to support day-to-day coping, manage panic symptoms, work on communication skills and explore life-purpose questions without having to rearrange major commitments.