Josephine Cleverly, BACP

Josephine Cleverly helps people dealing with stress, anxiety, depression and relationship strain. She supports those facing trauma and abuse, grief, parenting pressures, and problems with self-esteem or motivation. She also helps with addiction concerns, anger, career uncertainty, and the everyday strains of life change.

Josephine trained in psychology and counselling at BA level in Lancashire and completed a Masters in Integrative Counselling in Melbourne, Australia. She has six years of experience and has worked as a school counsellor in an international school in Singapore. That role exposed her to a wide range of presenting issues and to working with children and young people with additional needs.

Her working style is person-led and practical. She adapts her approach to each person, using conversations, creative activities, or problem-solving tools as they suit the client. She aims to make sessions feel straightforward and manageable rather than clinical or distant.

As an integrative counsellor she draws on different traditions such as attachment ideas, play therapy techniques, person-centred ways of working, cognitive behavioural tools, and solution-focused strategies. Josephine mixes these to match what a client needs at the time.

She aims to treat people with sensitivity, respect and compassion. The first meetings focus on understanding immediate concerns and agreeing simple, realistic steps to move forward. Ongoing work adapts to progress, goals and changing circumstances.

Therapeutic approaches and online sessions

Josephine draws on integrative techniques that suit different needs. Person-centred work focuses on listening closely and helping people find their own solutions; it is useful for building confidence and self-understanding. Cognitive behavioural techniques look at how thoughts and behaviours link together and offer practical steps to reduce anxiety and manage mood. Play therapy methods bring creative activities into sessions and can help with processing emotions, particularly for younger clients or when conversation alone feels hard.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. She will ask about your goals, preferences and what has or hasn't helped before, then suggest ways of working to try. Clients and therapist review progress and adjust methods so the plan stays relevant to changing needs.

Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video calls are similar to face-to-face meetings and suit longer sessions, phone work can fit into a short break or when bandwidth is limited, and chat or messaging can be helpful for brief check-ins or when typing feels easier than speaking. These options make it simpler to schedule therapy around work, family or travel commitments.