Mari Sutcliffe and Dan Okafor
Two of us, one quiet room.
We've shared this room above the bookbinder's since 2017. Between us we see adults on their own and couples, in the room and online. You'd see one of us, and this page is to help you feel which.
Mari Sutcliffe
Counsellor and psychotherapist · registered member of the BACP
I see adults on their own, and couples. A lot of the people who come to me have been carrying something for a long time: anxiety that hums under everything, a low patch that didn't lift, a grief that everyone else seems to think should be over by now. Some of them can name it. Many can't yet, and that's fine.
In a first session I don't ask you to tell me your whole life. We start with whatever brought you up the stairs this week, and I'll ask a few questions, and mostly I'll listen. If you go quiet, I won't rush to fill it.
What I hope is that you leave the room a little less alone with it than you came in. Not sorted, not fixed. Just less alone, and clearer about whether you want to come back.
- Works with adults on their own and with couples, in the room and online.
- Happy to work for a short while or for longer; see shorter or longer.
- In this room since the practice opened in 2017.
Dan Okafor
Counsellor and psychotherapist · registered member of the BACP
I work with adults and with couples, and I seem to end up with a lot of people who were fairly sure therapy wasn't for them. Men who've never said any of it out loud. Couples who've had the same argument so many times they can do both sides. People who are managing, by most measures, and are tired of managing.
I like to begin by asking what you'd want to be different, even roughly, and then by slowing down. Most of what matters comes out sideways, in the second half of a session, once nobody's performing.
What makes a room safe, I think, is knowing that nothing you say will be met with alarm, that there's no test to pass, and that the person opposite isn't watching the clock on your behalf. I try to be that person.
- Works with adults on their own and with couples, in the room and online.
- Often the first person someone has ever spoken to about it; see your first time.
- Here with Mari since 2017.
How the two of us share the room.
One room, one week
There's one room and two of us, so we take turns in it. Between us we cover Monday to Friday in the day, and Tuesday and Thursday until 20:00 for people who can't get away earlier. Which of us is in on a given afternoon shifts with the week, so it's easier to ask than to guess.
You see one of us, not both. We don't sit in together, and we don't pass you between us. Once you've started with Mari, you're Mari's; once you've started with Dan, you're Dan's. We do talk to each other about how the practice runs, but not about what you've said.
Choosing, or not choosing
If one of us feels like the right person after reading this, ask for us by name on the free 20-minute call. If you've no preference, say so. Whoever picks up will talk with you, and if the other of us has the hours that suit you better, or simply more room that month, we'll say.
Nobody has to choose before the call, and nothing is settled by it. It's twenty minutes to hear a voice, ask what you want to ask, and see how it sits. The fee and the length are the same whichever of us you see: 50 minutes, £65, or £85 for couples.
Talk to one of us first, on a free 20-minute call.
Ask for Mari, ask for Dan, or ask for neither and let us sort it out. Twenty minutes, no cost, and nothing to decide at the end of it.
If we're in a session when you ring, leave a message and whichever of us is free will call you back.