Alan McNeill, BACP

Alan McNeill welcomes people who feel stuck by old patterns and painful memories. He is a counsellor with BACP accreditation and 24 years of experience. He aims to make starting therapy as straightforward as possible for someone under stress or feeling low.

Alan works with people left struggling after difficult childhoods. That can include growing up around addiction, domestic abuse, early bereavement, or feeling different as an LGBT person. He commonly helps with anxiety, grief, trauma, low self-esteem and problems in relationships that keep repeating.

In sessions he treats the person as the expert on their life. He helps clients find strengths they already have and use them in new ways. He also offers practical ways to manage overwhelming feelings so daily life feels easier.

Alan blends a child-and-adult model with mindfulness and trauma-focused approaches. This combination aims to reduce the hold of past events and improve how people cope now. He uses gentle questioning and pacing so people can work at a rate that feels safe.

His background includes NHS work, private practice and roles with organisations supporting LGBT health, hospice care and cancer support. That experience shapes a calm, steady way of working and an emphasis on practical steps toward feeling more able and connected.

People who choose Alan often want clear, straightforward help to manage anxiety, grief or trauma and to build more confidence in day-to-day life.

How therapeutic approaches work online

Alan uses client-centred therapy which focuses on listening and responding to each person's experience so they feel understood and respected; this approach helps with anxiety, low self-esteem and relationship patterns. Mindfulness therapy teaches simple attention and breathing practices to reduce reactivity and improve coping with stress and grief. Trauma-focused therapy aims to help people process and contain difficult memories so those memories have less impact on day-to-day life.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences and what feels comfortable, then try methods that make sense for the person. This is a collaborative process and adjustments are made as the work progresses so the approach fits the individual's needs.

Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to give practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face interaction and shared gestures, phone sessions suit lower bandwidth or listeners who prefer not to be on camera, and messaging can support brief check-ins or ongoing reflections between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, caregiving or travel while keeping the focus on steady progress.