Sarah Leonard, BACP

Sarah Leonard is a counsellor with 18 years' experience who draws on person-centred and practical therapies to help people facing difficult changes. She works in the United Kingdom and offers appointments in English. Sarah is accredited with the BACP, which is recorded here as her professional credential.

She focuses on everyday struggles such as stress, anxiety and depression. She also supports people with ADHD, addictions, eating concerns, career worries and parenting strain. LGBT issues and gender dysphoria are listed areas she addresses, along with relationship problems and infidelity.

Her approach is relational and collaborative. Sessions begin by listening to what matters to the person and building a plan around their goals. She mixes client-centred conversations with cognitive behavioural tools and skills from dialectical behaviour therapy when those practical steps are helpful.

Sarah includes mindfulness practices and motivational interviewing to help people increase awareness and make changes that stick. She also brings psychodynamic ideas when understanding patterns from the past helps with present problems. Her style aims to be straightforward, steady and respectful.

Across her career she has worked with a wide range of concerns including mood disorders, obsessions and compulsions, dissociation and substance use. She explains interventions clearly and helps people try things between sessions, such as coping strategies or behavioural experiments.

Sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat and text messaging. People begin by completing a short matching questionnaire so appointments can be scheduled according to therapist availability.

Therapeutic approaches and what online therapy offers

Client-centred therapy places the person's experience at the heart of sessions. It involves open listening, reflecting what matters and letting the person set the pace and goals. This approach helps when someone needs a calm space to sort out feelings and choices.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them with practical exercises. It is useful for anxiety, low mood and many day-to-day problems where behaviour changes can make a quick difference.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, often shortened to DBT, emphasises skills for managing strong emotions and improving relationships. It offers concrete techniques for coping, tolerating distress and communicating more effectively.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will discuss options and tailor methods to what the person wants to achieve. This collaborative process means techniques can be adjusted as needs and goals change.

Online therapy via video calls, phone sessions, live chat or text messaging makes it easier to fit sessions around work, family and travel. Video lets people use face-to-face interaction, phone calls need less bandwidth and can be a good shorter check-in, and messaging gives flexibility for brief updates or ongoing support between sessions. Registered or accredited professionals use these formats to increase access and make therapy more practical for busy lives.