Dorcas Upshall, BACP

Dorcas Upshall places each client’s goals at the centre of her work, collaborating to help people become more authentically themselves, to clarify difficulties, or simply to deepen self-understanding. When pressures from life, work, family, money, anxiety, or stress begin to feel overwhelming, she offers a therapeutic space to explore and process those experiences.

She and her clients work together to map patterns of thought that may be holding someone back, to identify behaviours they want to change, and to examine past experiences that continue to cause distress. Central to this approach is the therapeutic relationship - a trusting space where clients can build practical tools and develop greater emotional confidence and capability.

Dorcas’s professional background includes work in domestic abuse services, women’s centres, pastoral care within schools, LGBTQ+ charities, and addiction and recovery settings. She is kink-aware and comfortable supporting people in a range of relationship structures. Her experience also extends to adult and young person special needs provisions, and she has worked as a teacher for over 10 years. In each setting she has learned from the resilience and diversity of the people she supports.

Dorcas draws on client-centred approaches alongside cognitive behavioural techniques, existential ideas, and Internal Family Systems perspectives to tailor work to each person’s needs. She is a member of BACP, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, which is the main UK professional body for counsellors and psychotherapists.