I'm Sam De Gruchy, a BACP-registered Integrative Therapist practising in Brighton and online
I provide a space that truly promotes your healing and growth as a person - cultivating trust and confidence in yourself, your relationships and the environment around you. Whatever difficulties you might currently be facing or have experienced in the past, therapy is a sacred space where you are fully welcome to arrive just as you are, in a relationship in which you can be truly seen and heard. My commitment to you is to support you growing in your capacity to navigate a life that is meaningful to you, nurturing an authentic and self-compassionate understanding of yourself.
Understanding, appreciating and becoming our authentic selves is one of our principle underlying drives - one I believe to be fully worthy of our attention and dedication.
welcome
'“The Truth will set you free” - this is a timeless and profound statement. The difficulty, however, is that our own subjective truths can often be obscure, even to ourselves. Expressing our true selves requires a degree of exploration and vulnerability - and our capacity for this may have been impacted negatively by challenging, traumatic or hurtful experiences in our lives. Fear and pain can very naturally lead us to hide, criticise or shut off parts of ourselves. I offer a nurturing space to explore your authenticity with courage and compassion - working through such difficult emotions or patterns that may currently be working overtime to protect you.
My intention is to be caring, patient and compassionate towards how things are for you right now, and at the same time set a compass together towards your authentic potential.
I’m Integrative therapist, with a relational and person-centred focus.
Integrative: adaptable and dynamic approach, integrating several therapeutic modalities. It is rooted in our collective humanness, tailored to your personal experience. I support clients with a wide range of difficulties including anxiety, anger, depression, self-esteem, relationships, life direction, identity, existential and spiritual difficulties.
Relational: embracing that therapy takes place in relationship between two real people. A genuine relationship creates the space for the real you to continue to emerge and be seen, and the therapeutic alliance between therapist and client is the safely held container for you to enrich your relationship to yourself and others.
Person-centred: we trust your individual process and respect your autonomy. I believe each person has the right to self-determine their own process and life choices, and my practice is rooted in this principle. We recognise that although engaging with therapeutic support, you remain the expert of your own experience. This makes the work more integratable into your life outside and beyond therapy.
Together we balance support for what’s arising in your life at the moment, with a compassionate exploration of deeper material either current or past - paying careful and respectful attention to both.
Way of working
Advanced Diploma in Counselling - Heartwood Counselling and Psychotherapy (accredited by National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society)
MSc Psychological Studies (with Merit) -University of Glasgow (accredited by British Psychological Society)
Foundation Certificate in Psychotherapy & Counselling - Regent's University
BA History (with Hons) - University of Exeter
Registered member of the BACP - British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists
Affiliate member of IPT - Institute of Psychedelic Therapy