Life has brought you somewhere unfamiliar. You don't have to find your way out alone.
Psychotherapeutic counselling for adults navigating anxiety, depression, loss, burnout, relationship issues, life changes, or questions of identity and purpose.
Face to face in Morpeth, Northumberland, and online across the uk.
Therapy for when something no longer feels right
Something has shifted.
Perhaps anxiety will not settle. Perhaps burnout has taken hold. Or perhaps the life you are living no longer feels fully your own anymore.
From the outside, things may still appear functional. Work continues. Responsibilities are met. Other people may have little idea how much effort it takes simply to keep going.
But underneath, something feels strained, disconnected, exhausted, or quietly lost.
You may not have the right words for it yet. That is fine.
Therapy does not begin with certainty. It begins with honesty — even if all you can honestly say is: something is not right.
A place to slow down and listen more carefully
I offer a calm, grounded space where you can begin to make sense of what is happening in your life without pressure to perform, explain yourself perfectly, or have everything figured out.
Together, we pay attention to the patterns, tensions, losses, and questions that may have been building quietly for a long time.
Often, the difficulties that bring people to therapy are not simply problems to eliminate as quickly as possible. Anxiety, exhaustion, recurring relationship patterns, or periods of disorientation can sometimes be signs that something deeper in us is asking for attention.
Therapy offers a space where this can be explored carefully, honestly, and at a pace that feels manageable.
Over time, this work can help you:
understand recurring patterns more clearly
feel less trapped by anxiety, pressure, or expectation
reconnect with parts of yourself that have been neglected
develop relationships that feel more genuine and sustaining
find a way of living that feels more honest and more your own
Pete Askew MATM DPC MBACP Psychotherapeutic Counsellor
How I work
My approach integrates therapeutic models, grounded in Transactional Analysis psychotherapy, while also drawing from Gestalt and Existential therapies.
These different therapeutic models illuminate different aspects of human experience. What matters to me is not rigid allegiance to a single model, but finding ways of working that genuinely help people encounter themselves more truthfully and live with greater freedom and depth.
Alongside this, a Jungian sensibility quietly informs my work — an interest in the deeper patterns that shape our lives, the parts of ourselves we push aside in order to cope, and the possibility that periods of crisis may also contain the beginnings of change.
Every person is unique, and I will tailor my approach to suit your needs.
At the centre of everything is the therapeutic relationship itself.
I believe people change most deeply through relationships in which they feel safe enough to become more fully themselves.
Who I work with
I work with adults from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.
Many of the people I work with are thoughtful, capable, and used to carrying things on their own. Some arrive in clear distress, others come with a quieter but persistent sense that something in life no longer fits.
I often work with:
anxiety and overwhelm
burnout and exhaustion
relationship difficulties
identity and life transitions
loss, grief, and disconnection
questions of meaning and purpose
recurring emotional or relational patterns
You do not need to be in crisis to begin therapy.
Often, people come simply because they can no longer ignore the sense that something needs attention.
Therapy offers a confidential space to explore this experience and begin to find a way through, at your own pace, and in your own words.
ABOUT me
There are times in life when the familiar structures no longer hold.
What once seemed certain becomes uncertain. The ways we have learned to cope no longer work as they once did. Something in us begins asking for attention — sometimes quietly, sometimes through anxiety, exhaustion, grief, restlessness, or a growing sense that we have lost contact with ourselves.
My own path into this work began thirty years ago, during a period of profound personal difficulty. I found myself in a place I had not chosen and could not simply think my way out of. For the first time, I experienced what it meant to need help — not just advice or solutions, but the steady presence of another person willing to remain alongside me while something deeper unfolded.
That experience changed the direction of my life.
Since then, I have spent twenty-five years in the helping professions, accompanying people through experiences of challenge, loss, transition, searching, and change.
Trained at the northern Guild of psychotherapy and counselling, Newcastle
Enhanced DBS Checked
Practical details
50-minute sessions
In-person sessions in Morpeth and online across the UK
£60 per session
Free introductory consultation available
Taking the first step
If something here has felt familiar, it may be that a part of you already knows it is time to pay attention.
You do not need to have everything worked out before reaching out.
You do not need the right words.
And you do not need to commit to anything immediately.
We can simply begin with a conversation.
I offer a free introductory consultation so you can ask questions, get a sense of how I work, and decide whether this feels like the right place to begin.
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