Dr Dane Duncan (Clinical Psychologist)

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS 

“Dane is by far the best therapist I've had the chance to work with. His multi-faceted approach at the intersection of the best practices in therapy is helping me make progress on topics I've hardly been able to address before. I feel confident about Dane's ability to help me navigate the challenging topics of my life and my ability to move to a better place with his assistance.  As a gay man, I often feel like therapy is somewhat aligned with my reality. Dane's affinity and experience working with the LGBT community has put him in a position to make me feel understood like never before. Although I could keep going on a while, the last thing I'll add is that Dane is very organised. Above and beyond his sessions' notes, he also provided me with a comprehensive document explaining his approach, practice and success stories, he sends me a detailed follow up email with any resources he's recommended I look into after the sessions and communicates very effectively when it comes to scheduling or confirming the upcoming session. I can't recommend him enough.”

"Dane’s constant curiosity, empathy, ability to listen carefully without judgement and acknowledge and encourage me have had a hugely positive impact in my life. He’s allowed every session to be guided by what I believe is important to discuss on the day - I feel like a participant rather than a patient. With the right support we can face challenges that otherwise seem overwhelming; my time with Dane has proved that. Dane’s helped me move from feeling scared and alone to empowered and able, recognising my own resilience and strength. The things I’ve learned through our conversations are helping me with my own challenges and to be a better support to others. I’m beyond thankful for the role Dane has played helping me reflect, learn and face difficult conversations with myself and others. Dane has my highest recommendation."

"Making contact with Dane was simple and straight forward, exactly what I needed and what drew me to enquire with him in the first place. He was every bit as approachable and responsive as I'd hoped, I felt very secure. Contact was the result of searching for someone with his areas of expertise. This doesn't guarantee the right relationship fit though, so it was truly reassuring and a relief to find that ours was easy to build; intuitive, responsive, inspiring - everything you want from the relationship, really. Dane was open about finding ways to focus our conversations; ways that would work for me, and with me. I was so grateful for the honesty, as I might otherwise have struggled to articulate what I was trying to achieve. From that moment on our sessions have been all the more brilliant, with lightbulb moments, back-and-forth and a really good flow. I was specific in my search for someone who would understand the queer experience and neurodivergence. It's been so valuable to find someone who works with both areas, as there's never any doubt in their understanding or empathy. Several sessions into our work together I was walking taller, with more resilience and the tools to practice self care, authentically. I've no doubt that Dane got me there, and no previous therapy has put me in that place. I'm truly grateful to Dane, and look forward to our next conversation already!"

"I began working with Dane to overcome issues I was having with my relationship to gender. Being something of an “overthinker”, I had found that I’d struggled to make progress with other therapists in that area. Dane’s approach worked very well for me, helping me out of a period of anxiety, depression and burn-out. He has helped me to begin a new chapter of self-determined exploration, guided by a deeper sense of self-awareness."

"At a time when I was struggling with isolation after my partner decided to move back to Spain after losing his job to Covid, and working through a process of reevaluating my life through a new lens of autism and ADHD, Dane’s approach was a real lifesaver in helping me reflect on my coping strategies, strengths and values. He was easy to reach out to, and online sessions suited me really well. His warmth and kindness helped me feel accepted and safe at a time when I’d had some horrific homophobic ableist online abuse that triggered old trauma. I feel that a good connection with a therapist such as Dane can be helpful not just in the moment, but at later times when we think back to those sessions and how helpful they were."

"Working with Dane provided a supportive space where my husband and I could have those 'difficult' conversations, and could discuss our fears and anxieties in a way that had proven near impossible outside of a therapeutic environment. Dane's support helped us model how to have these potentially conflict-inducing conversations (rather than perpetually avoiding them). We also learnt how many skills and strengths we already had." [LGBT Couple]

"Dane skilfully picked out the significant parts and helped build my story in a clearer way, summarising and reflecting back with clarity, the jumble of thoughts I had just landed on him. Dane made links between parts which I had never connected together but which helped to make sense of certain thoughts and beliefs. Every week Dane checked in about the process of the sessions: giving us the opportunity to think about whether the direction of the conversation was helpful or not (and why); and how I wanted him to facilitate our conversation. Dane offered a very safe, non-judgemental therapeutic space. Dane attended to difference in relation to my experiences, rather than influencing me in accordance with his own experience. I felt heard and understood by Dane who empowered me to make sense of my curiosities and armed me with tools to support me going forward. 4 months on I often refer back to our conversations and feel they have had a truly positive impact on my ability to cope."

"I initially reached out because I was at a bit of a crossroads in my life and had this "cloudiness" in my mind that I was unsure of how to process and unsure of how to move forward with my life. Dane immediately pin-pointed and helped navigate me through those issues and was able to help me understand why I was feeling the way I was and hone in on what I thought the issues were. The focus was very much on myself. Why was I feeling the way I was, how to deal with those feelings. The conversations were fluid, deep, introspective, Dane helped me look inward for the first time in my life and I cannot thank him enough for that.”

"I reached out to Dane via email to begin therapy sessions after realising my gender identity was not what I thought it had been for a long time in order to have some guidance in exploring more of my uncovered self. He was so approachable, made clear what the process would be up front, and speaking to him during the sessions feels very unforced and natural. He always brings the topic back to the focus that is set collaboratively at the beginning of the session to ensure that I gain what I need out of it, but doesn't hurry me along, which feels important when I need time to find my own words to express how I feel internally. Dane expresses active listening, is clearly interested in the words I choose for my experiences, and takes care to never make me feel othered rather than a whole, unique, interesting and worthwhile person deserving of respect, but also reflects back his unjudgemental observations clearly and in ways I can take them on board."