Alistair Semmence
Hello, I’m Alistair (he/him).
I’m a UKCP trainee psychotherapist and counsellor based in Peckham, South London.
MY APPROACH
My approach to therapy is grounded in curiosity. I’m interested in how you experience your life and the world around you. Much of therapy is talking about what’s happening in your life.
I see many of the ways we struggle as understandable and reasonable responses to what we have lived through. Our environments and relationships shape us. Parts of our identity, like our race, gender, sexuality, class, neurodivergence and disability, are tied to how safe, visible and valued we feel in the world.
Therapy can be a place to explore how these experiences impact who we are and how we relate to others. I’m interested in people’s stories and how they have come to see themselves and their place in the world. We carry expectations about who we should be and how relationships are meant to work that come from our earlier relationships and life. I work in a relational and trauma-informed way, paying attention to patterns of connection, protection and disconnection and how they show up in our relationships with ourselves and others.
I offer therapy for individuals, couples and other relationships. This includes romantic partners as well as people in other important relationships, such as friends or family members. Whether working with one person or with two or more people together, the focus is on understanding experience and relationships in a thoughtful and collaborative way.
About ME
What drew me to this work was a long-standing curiosity about people, relationships and how we make sense of our lives.
I’m mixed heritage (British-Thai) and queer, and my experiences of difference and belonging are among the influences that have shaped how I practise and how I think about identity and connection.
Before training as a psychotherapist, I worked in the tech industry as a qualitative researcher. Much of that work involved trying to understand how people think and make decisions, and what might sit behind those choices. I worked with a dating app company on topics such as dating as a single parent, dating during the COVID-19 pandemic, sexting and consent, and the experiences of minoritised communities on dating apps. My curiosity about people and a growing sense that I wanted to work more closely with people’s emotional lives eventually led me towards psychotherapy. My own experience of being in therapy was an important and transformative part of that journey.
Alongside my private practice, I completed two years of clinical placements at CliniQ, a holistic wellbeing and sexual health clinic for trans, non-binary and gender diverse people, and at Transform, a low-cost counselling service in South-East London.
I’ve been working with clients since June 2023 and have a Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapeutic Counselling from the Metanoia Institute. I’m continuing my training and completing an MSc in Integrative Psychotherapy, which I expect to finish in 2027.
Sessions
Sessions are weekly and last 50 minutes. They can take place either in person in Peckham or online. We’ll meet at the same time each week.
Individual sessions are £70. Sessions for couples or relationships are £110.
Our first session is a chance for us to meet and get a sense of whether working together feels right. We’ll talk about what has brought you and what you might be hoping for from therapy. You’re not expected to share everything or go into detail about difficult experiences. The first session doesn’t commit you to ongoing work. We can decide together afterwards whether continuing feels like a good fit.
If you’d like to get in touch or book an initial session, you can contact me at: hello@alistairsemmence.com