About Michael
Michael Purvis is a counsellor who aims to help people make sense of difficult experiences and rebuild a sense of self. He uses straightforward conversation and practical steps to support people facing anxiety, stress and low mood. Michael holds BACP accreditation and has three years of practice in the United Kingdom.
He spends much of his work helping people with anxiety-related difficulties. That includes panic, phobias, obsessive-compulsive patterns, and stress or burnout from work.
How Michael works
He also supports those who struggle to form or maintain close relationships and who find social situations challenging. Michael helps people who are coping with life transitions too. This can include loss of purpose after retirement, redundancy, or long-term illness.
He also offers coaching around goals for business, health, career and work-life balance. His approach blends talking therapies and practical techniques. He draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and client-centred ways of working to help people notice their thoughts, try new behaviours and identify what matters to them.
Sessions aim to be collaborative and down-to-earth. People can expect clear steps they can try between sessions. Michael pays attention to attachment patterns and how past experiences like abandonment or adoption can affect relationships now.
He also has experience with addiction, eating-related concerns, ageing issues and neurodiversity such as autism and Asperger syndrome.
Michael lists 9 ways of working on the entry:
What Michael works with
The areas below are the ones Michael selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Blended family issues
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- 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
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Workplace 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
Therapeutic approaches used online and how they help
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and decide what matters to them. It uses simple exercises to build willingness to try different actions even when feelings are uncomfortable, which can be useful for anxiety and low mood.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on the link between thoughts, feelings and behaviours. It offers practical techniques to test unhelpful beliefs, reduce panic and manage phobias or obsessive patterns through step-by-step changes.
Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships shape current ways of relating. It can help people understand patterns in close relationships and work on more supported ways of connecting with others.
Choosing the right approach is part of the process. Michael will discuss goals, preferences and what feels helpful, and then work together to try methods that suit the person. The plan can change as therapy progresses and new needs emerge.
Online sessions are offered by registered or accredited professionals and include video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging. Video allows face-to-face conversation and visual cues, phone calls can fit into a busy schedule or use less bandwidth, live chat is useful for brief check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options aim to make counselling more flexible and easier to fit around daily life.
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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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