About Dorcas
Dorcas Upshall is a counsellor with three years of practice who helps people untangle stress, anxiety and life changes. She works with clients on issues such as grief, low self-esteem, addictions and relationship or intimacy concerns. Dorcas is registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, listed as BACP.
Her approach is collaborative and straightforward. She focuses on the goals a person brings and on small, practical steps that make daily life easier.
How Dorcas works
Sessions often include looking at thought patterns, behaviours that cause problems, and past experiences that still affect the present. Dorcas has worked in domestic abuse services, women’s centres, pastoral care in schools and LGBTQ+ charities. She also has experience in addiction and recovery services and with special needs provisions, and previously taught for over ten years.
Those roles shaped her practical style and her openness to different relationship and sexual cultures. She is kink-aware and comfortable discussing BDSM, alternative sex culture and varied relationship structures without judgement. That also informs her work with body image, codependency, communication problems and issues around control.
In sessions Dorcas aims to help people build emotional confidence and practical tools for coping. Conversations are paced to suit each person, with an emphasis on understanding what’s happening now and making changes that feel manageable.
Dorcas lists 4 ways of working on the entry:
What Dorcas works with
The areas below are the ones Dorcas selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Body image
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
Training and background
| Register | BACP |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 3 |
| 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
How Dorcas' approaches inform online therapy
Client-Centred Therapy places the person’s own goals and experiences at the heart of sessions. The counsellor listens closely and helps the client make sense of feelings and choices, which can be useful for anxiety, low self-esteem and relationship worries.Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, looks at thought patterns and behaviours that keep problems going. It offers simple exercises and practical steps to reduce anxiety, manage mood and change unhelpful habits.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. Dorcas will talk with each person about their needs, goals and preferences and decide together which methods fit best. This collaborative planning helps shape session focus and homework tasks.
Online therapy offers choice and flexibility. Video calls let conversations feel more like face-to-face meetings, while phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is low or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging suit people who prefer typing or need a quieter option and allow for regular brief check-ins between longer sessions. Registered and accredited professionals use these formats to make therapy accessible around work, family and travel commitments.
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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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