MARCUS HOWARD
COUNSELLING & PSYCHOTHERAPY
Client Testimonials
"Speaking to Marcus over the last few years has been such a huge help. We began at a time where I was really struggling with my mental health. I just felt lost. With his continued help & support, I can now look back and see how far I've come. I feel like I've really grown, I understand myself so much better & and feel more prepared to handle whatever comes my way"
- Anonymous client 2024
‘I am incredibly grateful to have worked with Marcus over the past 4 years. Over this time, we have worked through some very difficult topics for me which he has guided me through, and understood, with objectivity, compassion and kindness.
As a young women now embarking into her 30s, I see myself anew, with hope, pride and compassion for the person that I am. Whilst no doubt there will be challenges ahead, I know that I can now deal with them in a healthy and constructive way using the tools and reflections gained during our sessions. What a wonderful privilege.
My life has changed immeasurably for the better and I have Marcus to thank for that.’
- Anonymous client 2024
"The work that I have done with Marcus has been nothing short of transformative. I started working with Marcus at a critical juncture in my life, when I was dealing with a lot of unanswered questions: I had just finished my degree, I didn't know where I was headed in life, and I was struggling with agoraphobia which I had been trying for several years to manage on my own, amongst other things. When I reflect on who I was when I started therapy with Marcus, I can see clearly the things that I was reluctant to acknowledge about myself or that I was refusing to engage with, but in the moment, your perspective is often far less clear. Marcus helped me through bringing into the light the hidden and neglected parts of myself, and - in his analogy! - worked with me to put the jigsaw pieces of my life together, to work out connections between past events and current feelings, and to consider ways to make these feelings, behaviours, and reactions more manageable. I have always wanted therapy which felt more conversational than clinical, as I never responded well to the "blank page" approach of silence and staring which I had in my mind as an inevitability of therapy. Marcus satisfied this wish of mine completely, chiming in when appropriate, answering questions that I had, helping me to articulate thoughts which otherwise I would have found impossible to express, and providing the compassion and warmth that comes from realising that, even in a therapeutic relationship, on either side, there are human beings. It turned out that, while seeing Marcus, my dad became very unwell, and what would have been a completely intolerable situation for me was made that much easier to weather because I knew that, even for just fifty minutes in a week, I had a space which was just for me, where I got listened to and supported, and where I was able to bring out thoughts and feelings about myself and about my family that I felt like I could not say to anyone else. It feels slightly ironic to think about therapy as something that you "enjoy", and while it is always tough to go into difficult emotional territory, I have always looked forward to coming to see Marcus and knowing that, for as long as I needed it, and in whatever form that took, I had a space which took all of my neuroses, panicked thoughts, and emotional "baggage", made them feel lighter (and not as "unspeakable"), and which gave me the strength to pick them apart. "Thank you Marcus" is an understatement. I am unimaginably glad that I took the plunge to go to therapy, and I am so grateful that I have had such an excellent therapist."
- Anonymous client 2024
Marcus was recommended to me as I was having a particularly challenging time but was nervous about therapy following a bad experience. Marcus immediately took the fear out of therapy and made me feel comfortable and ease with his non-judgemental and very human approach. He listens carefully and provides the tools to support with gentle guidance and insightful observations. Whether I need to talk, l am seeking particular guidance, or want to sense check, Marcus has been exceptional. I haven’t looked back, and feel much better equipped to cope with life’s ups and downs.
- Anonymous client 2024
"I avoided going to therapy for ages, I mean why would I pay all that money to sit with someone who just sits and nods and at best regurgitates my words back to me?! Anyhow my avoidant self turned up and pressed the buzzer and this guy who appeared most fitting with the shabby chic nature of the neighbourhood came down to greet me. I stated that I just wanted to check how this worked for a few weeks, the non committed open relationship kind of thing....hmm fear of intimacy the therapist wonders. Besides I heard he was doing that person-centred stuff, gentle tickling feathers of core conditions. I wanted to go into like a Turkish massage parlour where I get undressed and some dude comes in without any pleasantries and stamps all over me - I would then come out a new man. It turned out that Marcus wasn't the Turkish masseur, but maybe my desire for such a pounding wasn't actually a desire but a measure of what I've known, not what I need. So much for the avoidant in me, months passed with this stranger who week after week knows more about me than anyone else. My lord don't tell me I have formed a secure attachment!! How twisted is that! The people I've known the longest and say are the 'closest' are the real strangers that trigger the dull ache of aloneness within me. Avoidance of coming to therapy wasn't about the money issue, it wasn't about wanting psychoanalytical exterminator, it was the fear of not being enough, not even my problems are worth talking about, it's not like I was from some war-torn country, had major trauma or blazing alcohol problem. I was just a kid who wanted to tell his story. If the ripples go unseen, they will eventually turn into tsunamis. This guy called Marcus got in that boat with me, beside me, we didn't row, the ripples took us. Each one connected to the one before and the one after. There was one point when he praised me for the work I did and how far I had come. If there was ever a point in our time that I shed a tear, it was then. It wasn't so much because finally I loved myself and realised I was capable but it was because it wasn't about me alone, whatever we did we did it together. Without him this would not have been possible. Now I know why I always cry when I watch DIY SOS. Interdependence takes us further than independence. How can we see who we are without others?
Some therapists may look down on me in their prescriptive ways making me think me think I have more problems and end up addicted to the therapist. Other therapists sit there with pens and papers and flow charts to scribble down to squeeze into these boxes and then come out with all these solutions that I can do myself. Then there is Marcus who makes me realise I don't want to come out a new man, I want to live as me, accept me, not fight me, but like me, love me and be loved by others by being me.
I spoke about myself in this testimonial, but without Marcus I would have had nothing to write."
- Anonymous client 2018