I'm Nick, and I specialise in trauma-informed care, often working with survivors of narcissistic, parental and partner mistreatment and/or abuse. If you need help with overwhelming or inexplicable anger, sadness, low self-worth, forgetfulness, burnout, sleep disturbances, addictive or obsessive behaviour, you might be experiencing symptoms associated with single or repeated traumas. These are sometimes related to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder/PTSD, or Complex-PTSD/C-PTSD. I am trained to help with these challenges.
My rates are £70 per session, after a free initial phone or Zoom call. I currently have limited availability, which you can access on the "Book Now" section. I practise in person and online, Monday to Friday, from 9am to 5pm. My office is in Eltham, South-East London, with free parking and walking distance from Mottingham and Eltham stations. I look forward to welcoming you.
Book an Appointment
Available 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday
If you are a new client, please book a free initial phone or Zoom call by clicking the "Book Now" button, by going to the "Book Online" tab at the top of this page. You may choose from any of my available time slots. You can also message me using the "Contact" tab at the top of this page, and we can find a time that works for you.
If you are a returning client, please select the "ongoing" option, where you will be able to reserve a recurring weekly time slot. Your session and time will be reserved as soon as payment for the first session has been received, and the booking system will thus ask for your card details.
Please note that, in order to ensure the highest standard of care, I follow the BACP guidelines of limiting myself to 20 clients per week. I close my booking system without notice whenever I reach this number. I update this page when that happens.
Nick Morwood, BA, MA, PhD, Dip.
I'm Nick, and my core values are kindness, authenticity, ethics and integrity. I qualified with Distinction from Inter Psyche, the only counselling and psychotherapy training centre within the NHS. I am a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP - 410218). In my previous life I worked as a lecturer, holding a PhD in literature from the University of Toronto. I transitioned to Psychotherapy in 2019, but my past experience is still an important part of my work. Therapy has existed in its modern form for more than 140 years, and there is a vast quantity of sometimes-conflicting knowledge and skills in this field. I use my training to augment my practise with the expertise of others, while filtering out less helpful data and perspectives. I have been diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), and often find I can offer some unique perspectives on confluences between neurodivergence, c-PTSD, and mental health challenges. And as a man in a female-dominated profession, I am sometimes able to offer additional or alternative perspectives on therapy, for female and male clients alike, which some clients find reassuring.
Before opening my trauma therapy practice I worked for the charities Greenwich Mind and North Kent Mind, which offer long-term therapy at low- or no-cost. The experience I gained was priceless, because I treated many clients so different from each other that I learned a truth I carry with me in all my work. Despite our individuality, we are all connected by the way in which we can get through the hardest of times, even if they feel unbearable, if we are supported by others. As you read this, I want you to know that you are worthy of support and care, even if you feel otherwise. I and my colleagues in the profession are trained to provide that support and care no matter how challenging and hopeless your circumstances may seem, or how small your concerns might appear.
I work in this profession because I know from repeated experience that therapy can be one of the greatest investments that a person can make in themselves and their well-being. I take pride in being the kind of therapist that brings real improvement to people's health, their relationships with themselves and others, and their lives in general. This is not easy, because being there fully for someone else requires me to make sure I am meeting my own needs properly elsewhere in my life. Too many clients have in the past experienced unsatisfied caregivers, or those in power, trying to decide their lives for them. I want instead to enable my clients to decide on their lives for themselves, according to their own desires and needs. I consider your criteria to matter the most for the success of therapy.
As a result I follow BACP guidelines and limit myself to 20 clients a week, which also ensures time and energy to improve my practise through research, personal and professional development, and consistent supervision by an experienced trauma-informed colleague. I take regular holidays to reset and recharge, as well as enshrining weekly time for my hobbies, friends and family. And I have had my own personal therapy for several years, with multiple practitioners. I wouldn't ask you to do something this life-changing without having done it myself!
Specializing in Treating Symptoms of Trauma
I treat all adult clients, and I welcome you to my practise whatever your presenting issues may be. You are worthy of trauma-informed support and care whether or not you are traumatised. The most important aspect of therapy is the strength of the relationship between therapist and client. If something speaks to you about my practice, even if you can’t put it into words, then we might be able to work together.
I will work with you by prioritising the conditions for neuroplasticity and post-traumatic growth: a sense of safety, trust, non-judgment, and real connection. Doing this means that anyone can change themselves and their lives for the better, no matter how impossible that might seem in the present moment.
In the service of this process, I like to help clients experience safer, more fulfilling social relationships, and to attract better people into their lives. I thus work extensively with healing unsafe and insecure relationship attachment, as well as how to recognise and react to harmful games people play. I also take care to have the knowledge and skills necessary to support my clients through major life changes, which, if they are not happening already, are almost inevitable as a result of therapy. More broadly, I advocate for supporting clients on their existential journey. Who are we at our core, and how do we find out?
I hope that when you read this list, you will see how you are not alone. The way you are feeling is almost certainly a natural, human response to events and conditions you did not choose, or did not deserve. We cannot always choose what's best for us. That means these are learned behaviours which can be unlearned. There is nothing wrong with you, and I am glad you are here. Some of the challenges I have helped clients with, and which are quite normal in survivors of trauma, include:
Difficulty Remembering
Sleep Disturbances
Stubborn Medical Complaints
This can be all or parts of childhood, or parts of adult life. Lack of detail or emotion in memories about certain periods, times, places, people. If people often observe that you are "forgetful," or this is how you describe yourself, this is not necessarily just a quirk of your personality, but instead a dissociative response to major events that you deserve support for.
Emotional Overwhelm or Numbing
Often presents as being emotionally sensitive/ “highly strung,” finding certain emotions overwhelmingly powerful compared to others, or frequently just finding emotions difficult and wishing to avoid them.
Harder to notice is that some may experience a life low on emotion and filled with logic, rationality and intellect. This can correlate with professional success and is thus not identified as numbing. Eventually, especially in times of distress, the subject can find strong emotions manifesting out of nowhere, particularly anger and sadness, which can affect key relationships and professional/social roles.
Including insomnia, fear of the dark, and fear of someone breaking in at night. Nightmares in particular are important. Incidence rates vary, but frequent nightmares (1+ per week) in adults often indicate acute or chronic distress that is impacting your life. Nightmares that are less frequent (1+ per month), but intense enough to disturb the subject noticeably in their waking hours afterward, can also indicate that your organism is trying to process unacknowledged material.
Cycles of Self-Harm
This can include disordered eating such as binge-eating and fasting, or avoidant or restrictive attitudes to food. Efforts to self-medicate other symptoms with stimulants such as caffeine or codeine/cocaine, or depressants such as alcohol, cannabis or benzos, can become self-harming by negatively affecting someone’s desired relationships and goals. Risk-taking behaviour or frequent accidental/ occupational injury. Patterns of initiating or maintaining relationships that produce unhappiness or negative personal outcomes.
Often difficult to explain or treat utilising the conventional medical system, such as stomach issues, chronic exhaustion, migraines, teeth grinding or jaw clenching, ulcers, gynaecological challenges. If symptom(s) do not respond to treatment, this may be your body manifesting untreated or repressed pain from elsewhere. Given we often don't treat our mental pain and injuries as seriously as we do our physical ones, it shouldn't be a surprise that this transposition of mental to physical symptoms occurs.
Ethical Asymmetry: Values that Exclude the Value of the Self
Defined by someone treating themselves by different standards than they do other close people in their life. This is nuanced and takes many, shifting forms. Two trauma-adjacent examples are perfectionism and the harsh inner critic.
Perfectionism demands that the individual hold themselves to a gruelling, remorseless campaign of effort and performance that they rarely ask of others. The harsh inner critic speaks to how we can judge ourselves for perceived errors or shortcomings in ways we would never dream of doing to other people we are close to.
Negative/Intrusive Thoughts
Such as poor body image, general or social anxiety, low self-esteem, frequent or obsessive rumination on relationship events and past behaviour, obsessive ordering behaviour around tidying or cleaning, or fantasies of self-harm.
Nervous System Hyperactivation
Can present as being easily startled; highly attuned to the moods and intentions of others; or becoming exhausted, socially or otherwise, despite no apparent cause. If you find yourself able to read people unusually well, this can be a symptom of having had to develop that skill in the past to stay safe.
Nervous System Hypoactivation
Can manifest as a lack of awareness of people or surroundings; disinterest in personal or bodily safety, such as risk-taking behaviour or frequent accidental injuries such as burns, bruises and cuts; or low mood and energy that can look like depression.
Your First Session
I use an initial free phone or Zoom call with prospective clients in order for you to get a sense of me as a person and as a therapist. This is normally 10-20 minutes in length, and everything you say, as with everything else in therapy, will be kept confidential according to BACP guidelines. I believe strongly in the value of every client's felt sense and in the power of the client's right to choose. Indeed, if we work together, we will explore how far these innate human qualities can enrich and empower our lives! So I trust and respect you to make the best choice for you after we have talked. You are under no obligation whatsoever to work with me, and I encourage you to contact at least one or two other therapists before choosing me.
Our first paid session will be a 50-minute assessment to allow us to explore what brings you to therapy. I will discuss with you what you hope to gain from therapy, some of your history, and what working with me might be like for you. I also like for you to find out how you feel in your body and brain as we work together, and I may chat with you about this, because this can give me crucial information about the kind of relationship dynamic you need to feel secure and safe. The work of attuning more deeply to our whole organism, and becoming able to trust the signals that our nervous system gives us about our lives, can be one of the most valuable journeys we can take together in therapy. Because of this, I like to validate the importance of your felt sense of the therapeutic process, and of me, as soon as possible, even if (especially if) the client's initial response to their felt sense is that they don't have one. There is no right or wrong way to be a client in therapy.
I have personal therapy too, so I know how difficult it can be to step into your first therapy session with a new therapist. I work collaboratively and at a pace that is sustainable for you. I will use my knowledge to guide you, but you are the expert in your life and in what feels right for you. It is a myth that you must always be talking about difficult or upsetting subjects in order to be “doing therapy.” In fact, rushing into this kind of work can be unsafe and harmful. Your safety and well-being are my first priority, and I will always treat you with warmth and compassion. I enjoy meeting new clients, and I look forward to talking with you.
My Practice
Underpinning all my work is a commitment to trauma-informed practice. This means that I take care to approach my clients with the knowledge that over 70% of people will experience a traumatic event in their lifetime.
While each of us is an individual, with unique experiences, beliefs and identities, we are united by a common nervous system, neurochemistry and neurobiology. I know, therefore, that unprocessed trauma may have happened in the past, but traumatic memories and behaviours still exist in the present, which might be making it hard for you to live the life you want to live.
Trauma can persist in forms like sensory or emotional flashbacks; relational challenges such as insecure attachments styles; cognitive distortions such as negative self-image; dissociation and disembodiment such as lack of connection to emotions and a secure, inner identity; and other unconscious behaviours that were once crucial to survival, but may now not be serving you. Indeed, many clients do not even consciously realise that they have been traumatised, and live their lives full of self-recrimination for why they are unable to live in the way they would like.
Trauma-informed care acknowledges that people react to trauma in such largely predictable ways, and have specific needs in order to heal. Early on, I often find it important to work together on reestablishing a client’s sense of safety and security, through attuning to, and learning to regulate, the nervous system, emotions, and the whole body, in times of distress. The goal is that the client gains greater understanding of why they might be struggling, deeper compassion for their present and past selves, and the sense of being an empowered individual, rather than a passenger or a prisoner of fate.
Such work can be transformative, enabling deeply powerful exploration and mourning of the past experiences that may still haunt the client in the present. This can lead to leaving those memories in the past, along with the emotions, reactions and behaviours that accompany them, integrating them into a life that is not defined by the past. And offering new and different futures for the client: futures of their choosing.
Being able to choose our future, and to leave our past in the past, is the gift of post-traumatic growth, which can be one of the most profound processes of the human condition. My ultimate goal is to equip my clients with what they need to achieve this, and to sustain their own healing process without therapy. Watching people go out into the world with a greater sense of safety, peace, empowerment and happiness is what I do this job for. It is a testament to the resilience and power within all of us.