Marc Newton - Bristol

I am a BACP registered counsellor with a specialism in gender, sex and relationship diversity (advanced accredited through Pink Therapy).

I offer relational integrative therapy, which means that I work in a range of ways to meet the needs of my clients. My integrative practice incorporates person-centred and psychodynamic counselling. 

One of the fundamental ideas behind relational counselling is that we are shaped by our contexts and our relationships; our experience of being in relationship can lead to psychological distress but it can also be the thing that facilitates growth and healing. For LGBTQ+ people, our identity can cause difficulties in our relationship with others - including our families, communities and organisations. As part of my work, I help clients to deconstruct the negative impact of social norms and the resulting internalised oppression that can occur. I use the therapeutic relationship as a lens through which we can explore other relationships in life. 

Through my person-centred work, I aim to provide a safe space in which to explore feelings without judgement.

In my psychodynamic work, I help clients to explore how past experiences might influence feelings in the present, and how this then affects current relationships. I help to clients to explore unconscious processes, including psychological defences that have been built up in order to adapt and survive – acknowledging how these adaptations have been helpful and also how they might be having unintended consequences in the present, when perhaps the defences are no longer needed. Acceptance of these defences, patterns and emotions can then lead to greater insight, more self-compassion and, ultimately, more choice.