I am a psychotherapeutic counsellor registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP, Reg. No. 406312), trained at the Northern Guild for Psychotherapy and Counselling in Newcastle. My core training is in Transactional Analysis, practised within a relational, psychodynamic framework and enriched by additional training in Gestalt and Existential therapy.
My approach draws on Transactional Analysis as its foundation, alongside Gestalt, Existential therapy, and a Jungian philosophical orientation. I work with people of all backgrounds and beliefs — including those for whom questions of meaning and the inner life are central, and those for whom they are not.
ABOUT PETE ASKEW
Therapy for when life feels uncertain
Many of the people I work with are outwardly thoughtful and capable, yet inwardly exhausted, disconnected, or carrying more than others realise.
A significant part of my work is with men who have spent years trying to manage alone before reaching a point where something in life no longer feels sustainable.
Read below to find out why I’m a therapist and what my guiding principles are.
Enhanced DBS checked
My Story
Thirty years ago, I found myself in a wilderness I hadn't chosen. Life had brought me somewhere I didn't recognise, and for the first time, I needed the kind of help I had never had to ask for before. I found it, eventually — in the form of a therapist who offered something remarkably simple: a steady, honest, unhurried presence, and the belief that I had within me the resources to find my own way through.
That experience changed the course of my life.
Having spent many years in pastoral, chaplaincy, and retreat work, accompanying people through their deepest experiences of loss, grief, and searching. I sat with people at some of the most significant thresholds of their lives. I found that my own experience of having walked through a wilderness gave me a particular fluency with those who found themselves in a similar place. I knew something about what it felt like to walk off the map.
But I also knew the limits of what pastoral support and personal experience alone could offer. I wanted to go deeper — to bring the rigour of clinical training alongside the pastoral sensibility I had developed over many years. And so I entered formal training in psychotherapeutic counselling at the Northern Guild, grounding myself in Transactional Analysis, Gestalt, and Existential therapy.
Alongside this clinical training, my philosophy of therapy has been profoundly shaped by many years of personal Jungian analysis — an experience that gave me, from the inside, a deep understanding of what it means to attend to the unconscious, to take dreams and inner images seriously, and to trust that beneath the symptoms and the suffering, there is in each of us an innate capacity for integration and growth. What Jung called wholeness. My role as a therapist is not to fix you — it is to create the conditions in which you can find your own way home.
Central to my training — and to my understanding of how people change — is a relational conviction: that healing happens not primarily through technique or insight, but through the quality of honest, attuned human contact between therapist and client. I also bring a trauma-informed awareness to all of my work, understanding how overwhelming experiences shape the nervous system and the self, and working always at a pace that feels safe.
I bring to this work a background that is, I think, genuinely unusual: leadership in business and the voluntary sector; the contemplative practices of retreat and spiritual accompaniment; clinical experience in the NHS and the charitable sector; and a Master's degree alongside my Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling. These threads are not separate. They have woven themselves into a way of being with people that I hope is as much a presence as a practice.
I work with people of all backgrounds, beliefs, and none. If you are in a wilderness of your own — whether it arrived suddenly or has been with you for as long as you can remember — I would consider it a privilege to walk alongside you for a while.
What therapy with me is like
Therapy with me is not about being judged, analysed from a distance, or pressured into becoming someone different.
People often describe our work as calm, thoughtful, grounded, and emotionally honest.
I aim to offer a space where you can speak freely without needing to perform, explain yourself perfectly, or hold everything together.
At times the work may involve exploring painful experiences, recurring patterns, or parts of yourself that have long been pushed aside. But it also involves curiosity, reflection, humour, relationship, and the gradual discovery of new ways of relating to yourself and others.
We move at a pace that feels manageable.
You do not need to arrive with certainty, insight, or the right words already prepared.
My guiding principles
I believe that beneath anxiety, overwhelm, shame, burnout, or emotional confusion, there is often something in us trying to be heard rather than simply silenced.
Many people come to therapy after years of trying to manage alone. From the outside, life may appear functional, yet inwardly they feel disconnected from themselves, trapped in repeating patterns, emotionally exhausted, or unsure who they are beneath the roles they have learned to perform.
Therapy offers a space to slow down and listen more carefully to these experiences.
My approach is grounded in the belief that people already carry within them the capacity for growth, insight, and change, even when life has made this difficult to access or trust.
Part of therapy involves helping people reconnect with their own thoughts, emotions, needs, values, and sense of direction — not by imposing answers from outside, but by creating the conditions in which something more honest and more fully alive can gradually emerge.
I do not believe therapy is about becoming a perfect version of yourself.
I believe it is about becoming more fully yourself.
The relationship between therapist and client is central to this process. I aim to offer a calm, thoughtful, and emotionally honest space where you can speak openly, explore your experience safely, and begin to understand yourself more deeply without fear of judgement.
Am I The Right Therapist For You?
My approach to healing is holistic - mind, body, and soul, and is integrative. I integrate a variety of techniques drawn from Transactional Analysis, Gestalt, and Existential therapies, including talking therapy, guided imagery, empty-chair work, dream work, and creative exercises, to tailor a therapy for each individual client to help you develop your connection with your inner wisdom for living.
A therapeutic relationship built on openness and trust is key to a successful therapeutic experience. I will hold a safe space for you to be curious about your life and its problems, and listen to your story in a non-judgemental way, with care and respect. I will help you explore your problems by asking questions and being honest with you in what I perceive. I try not to use unnecessary jargon, and if I don’t know the answer to a question, I will tell you.
It's important to the therapeutic process that both of us can be ourselves in the therapy room. Clients have described me as a calm, safe, and steady presence, with insight and care, and I feel privileged to have treated people from a wide range of backgrounds and life experiences, from whom I have learned and been inspired.
my journey into psychotherapeutic counselling
Leadership and management experience in business, spiritual, and charity sectors
Experience of supporting leaders with local, national, and parliamentary roles.
Pastoral and Chaplaincy experience in parish, education, and in leadership settings
Experience of running an independent retreat house, leading individual and group retreats, and providing spiritual accompaniment.
Experience of providing therapy in the NHS and the charitable sector.
Master of Arts in Theology and Ministry
Diploma in Psychotheraputic Counselling
Over 150 hours of personal therapy as part of my training.
Registered member of British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy