About Carlie
Carlie Machell-Kay helps people cope with stress, anxiety, relationship strain, trauma and abuse, parenting pressure, grief, and problems with self-esteem. She also supports those dealing with addiction, anger, intimacy concerns, ADHD, and major life changes. Carlie is named up front so people know who they will read about.
She trained as a psychodynamic counsellor and uses that approach to look at how past relationships shape current feelings and actions. Carlie also draws on client-centred work to focus on each person's needs, and trauma-focused methods when past harm affects day-to-day life.
How Carlie works
Narrative ideas are used to help people reframe their stories and make sense of painful experiences. Carlie has seven years' experience as a qualified therapist and many more years working in related services before qualifying. Her background includes work in women's mental wellbeing and in settings that support people affected by domestic abuse.
She also has personal experience of neurodiversity and brain injury, which informs how she listens and responds. Sessions are adapted to what each person finds most useful. Carlie aims to be approachable and practical, helping people notice patterns, try different ways of coping, and set manageable goals.
She balances talking about feelings with looking at how thoughts and relationships affect everyday life. Her wider focus includes issues such as adoption and foster care, attachment difficulties, caregiver stress, chronic illness, body image, and commitment challenges. People wanting to explore how past events link to current problems may find her style helpful.
Carlie lists 4 ways of working on the entry:
What Carlie works with
The areas below are the ones Carlie selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | NCPS |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 7 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | United Kingdom |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches and online options
Client-centred therapy puts the person's experience at the heart of the work. The therapist listens without judgement, reflects what matters to the client, and helps them choose the pace and focus of sessions. This approach is useful for people who want a supportive space to talk through feelings and make decisions. Psychodynamic therapy looks at how past relationships and early experiences shape current patterns. It helps people notice repeated ways of thinking or behaving and understand where they come from, which can be useful for long-standing issues or recurring relationship struggles. Finding the right approach is part of therapy. Carlie will work with each person to decide which methods fit their needs, goals and preferences. That choice is collaborative and can change as therapy progresses. Online sessions offer practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when meeting in person is hard. Phone sessions can be shorter check-ins or suit people with limited bandwidth. Live chat and text messaging support ongoing contact between calls and can be useful for quick reflections or when typing feels easier. These formats make it easier to schedule therapy around work, caregiving and other commitments. Many people find online work helps them maintain consistency and adapt therapy to everyday life.Start online instead of waiting
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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