Paula Caffrey, BACP

Paula Caffrey is a BACP counsellor based in the United Kingdom. She has around 20 years of experience and helps people who are struggling with stress, anxiety, addictions, trauma and abuse, grief and depression. Paula aims to offer a calm, non-judgemental space where clients can begin to work through difficult feelings and life changes.

Paula tailors her work to each person. She draws on person-centred ways of working alongside cognitive behavioural ideas and psychodynamic thinking. She also uses Internal Family Systems to look at inner parts, especially when addiction or self-sabotage are present. Sessions are shaped around the client's priorities rather than a fixed programme.

Her background includes volunteering and paid roles in addiction services and sexual abuse support, and more recent work as a staff counsellor for an NHS trust. She has run a private practice since 2010 and has experience with a range of difficulties from mild to severe. Her earlier career included five years in the Royal Navy before she retrained as a counsellor.

In practical terms Paula listens for the things that matter most to each person. She works with themes such as attachment and abandonment, codependency, communication and commitment issues, dissociation and emptiness. The aim is to help people notice patterns, try new ways of coping and build steadier emotional ground.

Paula describes her style as warm, compassionate and authentic. She offers flexible session lengths according to what each client needs and focuses on supporting change at a pace that feels manageable.

How these approaches translate to online counselling

Client-Centred Therapy focuses on listening, acceptance and helping people find their own answers. Online work with this approach tends to centre on being heard and reflecting on what matters most in day-to-day life. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) looks at links between thoughts, feelings and actions and uses practical tools and experiments to change patterns. In an online setting CBT can still use worksheets, behavioural tasks and brief check-ins to try new strategies.

Choosing the right approach is part of the process. Paula will work collaboratively to test what helps, adjusting methods to match your goals and what feels comfortable. That means trying a practical CBT technique one week and a gentler, explorative client-centred or psychodynamic conversation the next, depending on progress and preference.

The original biography does not list which online formats are provided, so please confirm the available session types before booking. Online sessions can make it easier to fit therapy around daily life, reduce travel and allow shorter check-ins when needed. They also support keeping continuity of care during life changes and can help people maintain work or study commitments while attending therapy.