About Hilary Lester
I have trained as a counsellor, therapist and Jungian analyst.
I am a Professional Member of the Society of Analytical Psychology (Jungian Analysts), and I am also a trustee of the Society.
In addition, I have a cognitive type training which allows me to offer coaching work if required
I am registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC), and with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, (UKCP). These are umbrella organisations working with the Government towards regulation of the counselling and psychotherapy profession.
I support free access to therapy in the NHS by belonging to the Association for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the NHS (APP)
Experience
I have experience in the following areas:
- Initial exploratory sessions to discover what is happening for someone and what might be helpful
- Working with mental illness
- Working with adolescents, young adults, couples and families
- Working as a psychotherapist in the NHS
- Offering counselling and psychotherapy to students in a University Counselling Service
- Supervising counselling trainees and therapists and counsellors who are in private practice
- Teaching on a Counselling Diploma training and teaching trainee analysts
- Working in a therapeutic community started by the Philadelphia Association and inspired by R.D. Laing
- Writing and publishing in professional journals
Treatments
I have long experience of working with a wide variety of psychological problems, especially:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Sexual abuse
- Bereavement
- Infertility
- Coping with physical illness and disability
- Eating disorders
- Marriage and partnership problems for heterosexual couples, lesbians and gay men
- Exploring sexual orientation
- Spiritual issues
- Releasing creativity
- Life change
- Facing terminal illness
- Life coaching
I have many years’ experience in working with all age groups, cultures and sexual orientations, including transsexuals.
Contact
To find out how I can help you with specific problems or for general enquiries about my psychotherapy practice, please email or call me at the details below, or use my contact form above.
Memberships
I have the following professional memberships:
- Professional Member of the Society of Analytical Psychology (SAP)
- Member of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, (UKCP)
- Member of the International Association of Analytical Psychology (IAAP)
- Member of the Confederation of Analytical Psychologists
- Member of the Association for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (APP)
My Location
My therapy sessions take place in my consulting room in Dulwich, South East London
By car I am reachable easily from New Cross, Deptford, Greenwich, Lewisham, Catford, Penge, Beckenham, Brixton, Streatham, Camberwell and of course East and North Dulwich. (West Dulwich is 5 minutes by car).
My nearest main line stations are North Dulwich (15 minutes pleasant walk), Forest Hill (10 minute bus ride on busy route) and East Dulwich (ditto).
Buses 12, 176 and 185 will bring you to within a couple of minutes of my consulting room.
Session times & fees
My first appointments are at 8.00 a.m. and my last appointments, on some days, are at 8.00 p.m.
The cost will be discussed and an effort made to relate cost to your circumstances. Sessions with a therapist in South London normally cost around £50. There is a reduction for the frequent sessions each week involved in analytic work.
Why seek therapy?
Often someone will think of approaching a therapist when they feel the need to talk with someone outside their family and friendship circle. They want to be able to trust that the person whose help they are seeking is properly qualified and will be working in an ethical way. Sometimes, people also want to know that their therapist is connected with an established and reputable organisation. If it is important to them, they will be interested in whether the therapist is used to working with people of different age groups, cultures, and sexual orientations.
All the above reasons can make it preferable to seek skilled help rather than solely relying on the support of family and friends. There are times when family and/or friends are felt to be the problem, and not part of the solution, or at least not at the present. Bereavement and the loss experienced at the end or approaching end of a relationship might be the prompter. Depression, especially when it feels to someone as if they have no reason to be depressed, can be a sign that professional help might be beneficial. There are also times in life when someone feels they want to make a change, seek a new path, develop their creativity and skill, explore blocks to writing or performing, or just find a path into some satisfying work.
There will be times when someone feels they are not able to go on without help for a disabling anxiety or depression and it is then that the security of knowing that the therapist is fully trained and experienced in working with these states of mind is so important.
How can therapy help?
Talking to a therapist once a week or more frequently, and making a commitment (at a time when you feel ready to do so) to the regularity of the sessions, creates a space in which the issues underlying the problem, as well as the problem itself, can be explored and understood. This exploration can happen in relation to the past and in relation to the here and now.
Sometimes people can enter therapy, then decide it is not for them or not the right time, leave and sometimes return later. But times of difficulty in therapy can be times when the most change is about to happen, and so patience and waiting to see become useful. It can be helpful to know that the therapist is trained as an analyst so that if more intensive work is wanted, then it is available.
Beginning therapy
The best way of going forward is to meet with me for an initial consultation when we can explore the problem and what you are seeking from therapy.
I am happy for you to ring me, either to ask some initial questions or to make an appointment. If you meet with a recorded message, please do leave a message and I will return your call quickly. The answer service is completely confidential. You can also send me a message with initial queries using my contact form above, and I will then get back to you.
Links
I have connections with the following organisations