Alistair Semmence
Hello, I’m Alistair (he/him).
I’m an integrative therapist (MNCPS Acc.) working with individuals, couples and relationships in Peckham, South London and online.
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 about taking time to slow down and explore what's going on for you together.
I see many of the ways we struggle as understandable responses to what we have lived through. We adapt in the best ways we can, although we might reach a point where those ways of coping no longer work for us. The ways we've been seen, cared for and responded to shape how we relate to ourselves and others. When I work with couples and relationships, I pay attention to what happens between you and what the relationship is like for each of you.
We each experience the world from a particular vantage point, impacted by our relationships and aspects of our identity, like gender, sexuality, race, class, neurodivergence and disability. Some suffering is an inevitable part of being human, while some comes from how we've been treated and the circumstances we've lived in. Therapy is a place for us to understand what you're going through without assuming the problem lies within you.
About ME
I'm mixed-heritage (British-Thai) and queer. Before training as a psychotherapist, I worked in the tech industry as a researcher, exploring how people think and make decisions. At Bumble, I researched topics including dating as a single parent, sexting and consent, and the experiences of minoritised communities on dating apps. My interest in people and their stories, alongside my own transformative experience of therapy, eventually led me to psychotherapy.
During my training, 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 London.
I've been working with clients since June 2023 and hold a Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapeutic Counselling from the Metanoia Institute. I'm an accredited member of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS) and registered with the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) as a psychotherapeutic counsellor. I'm currently completing an MSc in Integrative Psychotherapy.
Sessions
Sessions are 50 minutes and take place at the same time each week, in person in Peckham or online. I ask clients to commit to weekly sessions because this rhythm helps us build a connection and explore what's going on for you more deeply. For this reason, I don't offer fortnightly sessions.
Individual sessions are £80. Sessions for couples or relationships are £120.
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 further sessions, and afterwards we can both take time to consider whether we're a good fit and want to continue.
If you'd like to get in touch or book an initial session, you can contact me at hello@alistairsemmence.com.