My Approach

I've spent over two decades helping people understand why they keep ending up in the same place - and what becomes possible when they finally don't.
Most of the difficulties that bring people to therapy - the same relationship dynamics, the anxiety that won't shift, the sense of disconnection despite outward success - have roots in early relational experiences. My work is grounded in attachment theory, which explores how those earliest experiences shape the way we see ourselves, relate to others, and manage difficult emotions throughout life.

In therapy, we explore those roots with curiosity rather than judgment. Not to pathologise, but to understand - and to find what becomes possible when you do.
I draw on attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapy as my primary modality, integrated with CBT, Ericsonian hypnotherapy, and relational approaches depending on what is most useful for you. The work is collaborative, confidential, and shaped around your specific situation.
I have particular experience working with people navigating faith transitions, questions of sexuality and identity, and the experience of being high-functioning while quietly struggling. I have published in the Attachment journal, contributed to a forthcoming book on attachment and trauma, and appeared on BBC Radio discussing the psychology of leaving religious communities.

For the past seventeen years I have worked exclusively with adults in private practice, offering psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Before that, I worked in services for teenagers and young adults in New York and London - managing drug rehabilitation programmes, job readiness services, and counselling work with young people from Orthodox Jewish communities in both cities, and Black and Hispanic youth in New York's inner city. Across very different cultures and circumstances, what these young people shared was a sense of disenfranchisement and disconnection - from family, from opportunity, from themselves. That work shaped how I practise: I meet people where they are, without assumption.

In private practice I work with a wide range of adults, including artists, creative and tech professionals, and those navigating the particular pressures of London life - overwhelm, isolation, anxiety, self-doubt, and the sense of being stuck in patterns that keep returning. I also have particular experience working with people who are leaving faith-based or coercive religious groups, supporting them through the disorientation of rebuilding identity and life outside structures they had long relied upon. This is often frightening and hopeful in equal measure, and therapy can hold both.

I hold a Diploma in Attachment-Based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, a BA in Psychology, an Associate's Training Certificate from The Arbors Therapeutic Community, and a Certificate in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy. I am a registered member of the UKCP and a full member of the BACP (MBACP).
I work online across the UK and in person in Hertfordshire.

Sessions are 50 minutes, held weekly. I offer a free 15-minute introductory call before any commitment - a chance to meet, ask questions, and see whether working together feels right. My fee is £150 per session. A limited number of reduced-fee spaces are available.
I would be glad to hear from you.

About Me

You're capable, often high-functioning, and you understand yourself well. And yet something keeps getting in the way - the same relationship dynamics returning, anxiety that won't fully lift, or a quiet sense of disconnection between how life looks and how it actually feels.
If that resonates, I'd love to hear from you.

I'm Jacqueline Samuel, a UKCP-registered psychotherapist with over two decades of clinical experience. I work with adults who feel stuck - often capable, self-aware, and high-functioning on the outside, but quietly struggling with patterns that keep returning no matter how hard they try to change them.
I came to this work through my own experience of feeling stuck - in patterns I could see clearly but couldn't shift alone. That history informs how I sit with people. I understand what it takes to begin. I also know what's waiting on the other side of it.

Before establishing my private practice I worked in the United States as an addictions counsellor, supporting teenagers and adults — many of whom had found themselves far outside mainstream support systems. That work gave me something I've carried ever since: a deep conviction that the most important thing in any therapeutic relationship is the sense that the other person is genuinely, unconditionally on your side.

I've published in the Attachment journal, contributed to a forthcoming book on attachment and trauma, and appeared on BBC Radio discussing the psychology of leaving religious communities.

But what matters most to me is what happens between us in the room.

I work with

• Individuals

Special Interests

Like all UKCP registered psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors I can work with a wide range of issues, but here are some areas in which I have a special interest or additional experience.

Types of Therapies Offered

• Attachment-based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist

What I can help with

• Abuse
• Addiction
• Age-related Issues
• Cultural Issues
• Depression
• Identity Problems
• Online Counselling
• Relationships
• Separation
• Sexuality
• Spirituality
• Stress
• Trauma