Max West

Max works to provide an accepting and non-judgemental space for clients, where worries and concerns are met with empathy and understanding. While clients often bring specific issues and worries to the room, Max also believes that therapy can improve clients overall sense of wellbeing, in its aims to increase a sense of self-understanding and compassion. He works with clients to allow them to live a fuller, more authentic way of living that aligns with their internal value systems, which sometimes feel ignored in the face of others expectations or needs. As a pluralistic therapist, Max feels that clients should have a say in the way that they work in therapy. For clients who want to experience an open ended and non-prescriptive form of therapy, Max may offer clients person-centred counselling which is a form of therapy that involves the therapist working to create a unique space where clients can realise their own internal drive towards self-growth and personal development. Max may also offer cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for those who feel they would benefit from something more focused and structured helping clients to identify patterns in thoughts and behaviours through, and working to address these using specific tools and interventions as well as homework outside of the therapy room. His approach is well tailored to individual clients.

Max has experience in working with people from all works of life, dealing with issues from grief to substance misuse, that said regardless of the specific focus of the work, above all Max feels himself to work with the whole person. He views people as inherently social beings, and that it is primarily through a sense of connection and understanding from others that we come to know ourselves. As such, whether someone is struggling with stress, addiction, grief, relationships or low self-esteem, Max attempts to understand and work with the person experiencing the issue that brought them to therapy, rather than the issue itself, something that has proven to be rewarding and powerful.

Max is currently working towards a professional doctorate in Counselling Psychology. Max West is a pluralistic counsellor and is registered with the BPS. He works within the Awareness Centre’s NHS Counselling Service in Wandsworth.