Debra "Debs" Barritt, BACP

Debra "Debs" Barritt brings 15 years of counselling experience to her work. She holds BACP accreditation, and she combines warmth with a straightforward manner. Debs is based in the United Kingdom and draws on many years of practice supporting people through loss and life changes.

Debs began her journey after a difficult childhood and early experiences in youth work at Brunel University. Her early counselling work started in a hospice bereavement service where she sat with people near the end of life. Those days taught her the power of simple acts of care, like holding a hand or listening without hurry.

In sessions she uses person-centred ideas alongside practical tools from cognitive behavioural therapy and parts-based work from Internal Family Systems. That mix helps people understand painful thoughts, manage anxiety and make changes that fit their life. She keeps language plain and offers straightforward ways to cope with stress, grief, relationship difficulties and addictions.

People who come to Debs often want help with grief, low mood, anxiety, self-esteem and major life transitions. She also supports people facing chronic illness, caregiver stress, trauma or anger, as well as concerns linked to ADHD and bipolar mood changes.

Debs aims to build a steady, respectful relationship in which people feel heard and understood. She encourages small practical steps and works at a pace chosen by the client. To begin, clients use the Start Therapy button and complete a short matching questionnaire to schedule sessions.

How Debs' approaches work online

Debs uses person-centred counselling to create a listening, non-judgemental space where people can talk through what matters most to them. This approach helps when someone needs to be heard and understood before making changes.

She also works with cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT, which looks at how thoughts, feelings and actions connect. CBT offers practical steps and exercises to reduce anxiety, manage low mood and tackle unhelpful thinking patterns.

Debs draws on Internal Family Systems ideas to help people notice and name the different parts of themselves - for example the worried part, the critic or the caring part - and to learn kinder ways of responding to those parts.

Finding the right approach is part of the process. The therapist will talk with the client about their goals and preferences, and together they will decide which methods to try. That collaborative planning can change over time as needs evolve.

Online work offers practical benefits. Video calls allow fuller interaction and visual cues, phone sessions suit those with less bandwidth, live chat can be useful for shorter check-ins, and text-based messaging helps when people prefer not to be on camera. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, family and health needs while using approaches that suit each person.