Kat Richardson

Working with me …

Starting therapy can feel daunting. I know that from personal experience. Sitting down with someone you don't yet know and wondering where on earth to begin — or whether you can really say the things you've perhaps never said out loud before — can take enormous courage.

My hope is that when you sit down with me, you can bring yourself exactly as you are.

I'm a warm, caring and compassionate counsellor, and I believe there is nothing you need to make more acceptable before you bring it into therapy. Nothing is too big, nothing is too small, and no emotion is off-limits. Some of the things we carry the longest are precisely the things we've been most afraid to tell another person, and being trusted with those tender and vulnerable parts of someone's story is something I treat with enormous care.

I won't sit opposite you as a blank page. I'm a real person in the room with you: warm, conversational, curious and deeply engaged in our work together. You might see me smile, laugh with you, be moved by something you've said or gently challenge you when I notice something that feels important. I don't see myself as the expert on your life. Instead, I bring my training, experience and curiosity alongside your knowledge of what it is to be you, and together we can try to make sense of what is happening.

I'm particularly interested in why we become the people we are. I believe there are reasons behind the ways we think, feel and behave. Our experiences and relationships shape us, and along the way we develop ways of adapting to the world around us. Sometimes those adaptations continue long after the circumstances that first made them necessary have changed.

I will often be curious about your whole story, not only what is happening in your life today. We might look backwards for clues, notice patterns or pay attention to what your body seems to be communicating when words don't quite capture it.

I often think of this process as being a little like unravelling tangled balls of wool. We can arrive in therapy with thoughts, feelings, experiences and behaviours that have become tangled together. Therapy isn't about getting rid of them — they are part of your story. Instead, together we can begin to follow the threads, understand how they became tangled and perhaps find a different way of carrying them.

For me, that understanding matters because awareness can create choice. When we begin to understand why we respond in certain ways, we can become curious about whether those responses still work for us. You might decide you want to do something differently — or discover that different responses feel right in different situations. There is no prescribed version of you that we're working towards.

Central to all of this is the relationship we build together. I believe something powerful can happen when we meet as two human beings and you are able to let another person witness your deepest truths and vulnerabilities, knowing they will be received with care and compassion. My training informs how I listen, what I notice and what I might gently bring into our work, but your truth remains your truth.

I know the relief that can come from finally saying something out loud and working through it with somebody who has your best interests at heart. I also know what a difference it can make to find the right therapist; my own experience of therapy was ultimately what inspired me to retrain as a counsellor and offer to others something of what had once been offered to me.

So if you're wondering whether therapy can really help with what you're struggling with, whether you'll know what to say, or whether some parts of you might be too difficult to share: you don't need to have any of that figured out before you arrive.

Just bring yourself, exactly as you are.

You'll be very welcome in my therapy room.

Location …

My practice room is based in the centre of Chippenham.  Please note that access is via two flights of stairs and that unfortunately there is no lift.

Availability …

I currently have availability on a Wednesday afternoon.

Diploma in Humanistic and Integrative Counselling from Bath Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling (current) - I am a trainee in my final dissertation year

Foundation Certificate in Counselling (2023)

Individual: 50 minutes £30 to £35